Fruits of Summer

It's peach time, so yesterday I bought a basket full of locally-grown beauties. In my opinion, there's nothing better than a beautiful and luscious peach at its prime. It's best when it's juice runs down your chin as you bite into it.

This basket of 18 peaches was $12. I have no idea if that's comparable to what peaches sell for in your area.

These are not quite ready to eat, as they are still firm. They are perfect to the eye; not a blemish or mark to be seen (but I do wonder what chemicals were used to achieve this result!). The man selling the peaches told me they could more quickly be ripened by placing them in the sun for a couple of hours. I will try that today for the ones to be eaten today; I'll place a few in a brown bag on the counter for tomorrow's eating and store the rest in the refrigerator, where they'll slowly ripen over the next few days.

Another summer favorite is cantaloupe. They also were available as a whole fruit but I decided to buy it pre-cut, as I don't need much. I'm the only one in the house who's a cantaloupe fan.

Mangos are one of my new-found favorites. They are usually reasonably priced at about $1 each. We used to never see mangos for sale in our stores, but due to the increasing Hispanic population in our area, they are everywhere now. Mangos are quite popular on the Hispanic menu, I think.

It's a bit tricky removing the large pit from mangos. I believe there's a gadget that does the job, but I just cut off as much as I can and gnaw off the remainder! Makes me feel like a kid again!

Speaking of the fruits of summer, I am happy to report that for the first time my four blueberry bushes are yielding more than just a sporadic berry or two.

No, there won't be tons of berries, but quite enough to flavor my morning yogurt, eat out-of-hand during the day, and perhaps make a pie. No blueberry jam making for me, however.

And the grapes! The vine had simply sat and done nothing for a few years, but this year it's full of fruit. They are still several weeks away from ripening.

These are some of my favorite fruits. I try to eat fruit each day, as we all know it's so good for us. I recently read that people who suffer from joint pain/arthritis should eat pineapple, which can "cure" the problem. Sounds too good to be true, actually. I need to further research that because if it's helpful, I'm going to add pineapple to my daily fruit eating ritual.

What are your favorites?