🍇🍈🍉🍊🍌🍍🍐🥭🍎🍏🍑🍒🍓🥝🍅🥥 May 30, 2019 1:14 PM Subscribe
Nearing the end of another week, let's talk about something else that is not related to politics. Let's talk about fruit. What is your favorite fruit to eat? Do you cut it a certain way? Do you grill it? Do you chill it? Do you add anything to your fruit to make it taste better? Are there certain fruits you avoid or dislike? Let's get fruity. As always, be kind to yourself and to others.
In this house we add salt & pepper & lemon to most fruits. It adds an extra bit of taste and zing to the fruit, brings out more of it's natural flavour. I love all fruits for the most part, and am sadly slightly allergic to kiwis. Not to the point of getting sick, but my tongue swells up a bit and my jaw tightens and hurts due to this swelling.
posted by Fizz at 1:22 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 1:22 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
Also growing up in southern Florida I developed a love for "starfruit", but those are rare in my current location.
posted by soundguy99 at 1:22 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by soundguy99 at 1:22 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
Lime, key limes are best, sliced thin, macerated with sugar (peel on) cold for at least half an hour. Then made up with approximately the same amount of water as sugar to make a lime-aid simple syrup. The syrup can then be used a a number of ways, perhaps mixed 1:6/1:8 with a good pilsner, or maybe 1:3 with a decent rye whiskey and a dash of bitters and absinthe.
Lemons work well too, but you have to watch contact time carefully as too much pith makes everything too bitter.
posted by bonehead at 1:24 PM on May 30, 2019 [8 favorites]
Lemons work well too, but you have to watch contact time carefully as too much pith makes everything too bitter.
posted by bonehead at 1:24 PM on May 30, 2019 [8 favorites]
Don't throw the limes away either, they make great candied peel.
posted by bonehead at 1:25 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by bonehead at 1:25 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
Blackberries. Eaten from the vine. Til your face is stained.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 1:25 PM on May 30, 2019 [17 favorites]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 1:25 PM on May 30, 2019 [17 favorites]
Macoun apples right off the tree. Core and all.
posted by that's candlepin at 1:27 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by that's candlepin at 1:27 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I like fruits raw, and often chilled, like grapes and apples. The only cooked fruit I really want to eat is grilled pineapple. Please leave raisins out of everything you make for me, although I will happily eat them plain.
All I ever want lately is a good mango, though. Mango mango mango, just ripe enough and not too mushy. Mmmmmmmmango.
posted by wellred at 1:28 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
All I ever want lately is a good mango, though. Mango mango mango, just ripe enough and not too mushy. Mmmmmmmmango.
posted by wellred at 1:28 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
This reminded me that Suffer Fest is coming up, wonderful.
What is Suffer Fest? Well, my wife really likes getting pick-your-own fruit during the summer so that she can turn it into jams and baked goods. There's a particular farm we tend to go to up on the North Shore; we can pick fruit in the morning and then grab a cider donut and go get fried clams.
Suffer Fest happens during the week or two when the blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are all ripe at roughly the same time. They also have some more unusual fields of things like gooseberries and currants that are also producing during that time. This is all well and good, except we can't just pick a pint or two of each - jam takes waaay more fruit than that. We usually end up with four flats of fruit, depending on how picked over things are.
It has become known as Suffer Fest not because of all the hard work picking berries all morning, but of all of the side effects. Every year I end up either horribly sunburned if it's clear out, drenched if it's raining, completely bug bitten, or injured in some way and covered in fruit stains. One year I had a random allergic reaction to something - never figured out what - and my whole face swelled up. My wife comes out of this ordeal completely unscathed every year.
Every other PYO fruit trip is fine. Nothing ever happens to me when we get strawberries or apples. It's just this one particular week in the middle of the summer where I end up coming out of it looking like a wet lobster suffering from measles. Suffer Fest.
posted by backseatpilot at 1:29 PM on May 30, 2019 [36 favorites]
What is Suffer Fest? Well, my wife really likes getting pick-your-own fruit during the summer so that she can turn it into jams and baked goods. There's a particular farm we tend to go to up on the North Shore; we can pick fruit in the morning and then grab a cider donut and go get fried clams.
Suffer Fest happens during the week or two when the blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are all ripe at roughly the same time. They also have some more unusual fields of things like gooseberries and currants that are also producing during that time. This is all well and good, except we can't just pick a pint or two of each - jam takes waaay more fruit than that. We usually end up with four flats of fruit, depending on how picked over things are.
It has become known as Suffer Fest not because of all the hard work picking berries all morning, but of all of the side effects. Every year I end up either horribly sunburned if it's clear out, drenched if it's raining, completely bug bitten, or injured in some way and covered in fruit stains. One year I had a random allergic reaction to something - never figured out what - and my whole face swelled up. My wife comes out of this ordeal completely unscathed every year.
Every other PYO fruit trip is fine. Nothing ever happens to me when we get strawberries or apples. It's just this one particular week in the middle of the summer where I end up coming out of it looking like a wet lobster suffering from measles. Suffer Fest.
posted by backseatpilot at 1:29 PM on May 30, 2019 [36 favorites]
I make grapefruit ice cream. Just enough of the tang to be grapefuity, just enough of the sweet to be ice creamy. Kind of like an orange julius?
posted by cocoagirl at 1:33 PM on May 30, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by cocoagirl at 1:33 PM on May 30, 2019 [10 favorites]
I like them apples very much.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:38 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:38 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I just discovered (for myself, that is) the joys of chaat masala on fruit. I've been making myself little fruit salads with what's on hand, which currently is oranges and bananas. With some mint and some chaat masala, it's just awesome. It's exactly what I need in this awful heat wave. I can't wait to try it with a bigger variety of fruits.
I saw a recipe for a chickpea-tamarind dish that is apparently often eaten with these kinds of fruit salads, so that's my next goal.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 1:39 PM on May 30, 2019
I saw a recipe for a chickpea-tamarind dish that is apparently often eaten with these kinds of fruit salads, so that's my next goal.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 1:39 PM on May 30, 2019
I'm a pineapple enthusiast; the kind who puts pineapple on pizza (but NOT the classic "Hawaiian Style" with ham; I like it with pepperoni, onion and not-hot peppers, but sometimes my mood allows jalapenos), and my 2nd favorite salsa is Pineapple Salsa (first is Salsa Verde). I was so enthusiastic when Carls Jr introduced its Hawaiian Burger with Pineapple and Teriyaki sauce... and so disappointed to realize it had lettuce and mayo on the opposite side of the patty.
I keep containers of lemon juice and lime juice on hand, the prior to supplement the flavor of seafood, the latter for improving otherwise cheap Mexican food. And hey, aren't Avocados also fruits?
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:45 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I keep containers of lemon juice and lime juice on hand, the prior to supplement the flavor of seafood, the latter for improving otherwise cheap Mexican food. And hey, aren't Avocados also fruits?
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:45 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I love a lot of fruits, but apples are what changed my life. I worked for an orchard with 20+ varieties of apples and started writing about those apples. (I wrote about other fruits, but apples were the thing for which I got the most attention.) This tumbled forward and turned into my writing about food for a living.
So, apples. I love mangoes and mangosteens and black raspberries and passionfruit. But apples have a special place in my heart and mind.
posted by veggieboy at 1:46 PM on May 30, 2019 [9 favorites]
So, apples. I love mangoes and mangosteens and black raspberries and passionfruit. But apples have a special place in my heart and mind.
posted by veggieboy at 1:46 PM on May 30, 2019 [9 favorites]
Blackberries. Cold out of the fridge. The snap when they burst and the little crunch of the seeds is the best.
Watermelon, ripe and dripping and messy and sticky. I've tried it grilled and that's a fun occasional treat, but it's got nothing on just plain fresh watermelon.
posted by hanov3r at 1:47 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
Watermelon, ripe and dripping and messy and sticky. I've tried it grilled and that's a fun occasional treat, but it's got nothing on just plain fresh watermelon.
posted by hanov3r at 1:47 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
When it comes to apples, I prefer sour over sweet, which is why I will always opt for a nice Granny Smith over all other options. From an informal polling of my friends, this is apparently an extremely minority opinion.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:06 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:06 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
Tomato is a fruit.
posted by bq at 2:07 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by bq at 2:07 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
If someone were to look at the fruit I eat, they might assume my favorite must be apples (fuji, please), based on relative quantity consumed. They would be wrong. I *like* apples, and they are readily available at a reasonable price, but my favorite would have to be a freestone, tart, juicy, just on the soft side of firm, nectarine. I am not an expert on picking them out of the produce bin, so it's hit or miss as to whether it will have that intense flavor kick I crave. Slice in to halves, drop/pluck out the pit, and enjoy.
Mangoes are great too (and I can more predictably pick out a good one), but they are botanically related to poison ivy, so I have to take precautions when peeling them.
posted by coppertop at 2:08 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Mangoes are great too (and I can more predictably pick out a good one), but they are botanically related to poison ivy, so I have to take precautions when peeling them.
posted by coppertop at 2:08 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Plain Greek yogurt with raspberries, strawberries, or bananas! Cottage cheese with peaches, especially fresh! Cherries straight out of the bag! Mango and sticky rice! A grapefruit cut in half and dismembered with a special tool that only ever gets used for grapefruit! Blueberry PIE
posted by eirias at 2:11 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by eirias at 2:11 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Tomato is a fruit.
Little eirias was thus informed by her science teacher, and now she yells at me any time I try to tell her it is a vegetable. It’s bound to be Baby’s First Lesson In “Things Can Be Both,” but it hasn’t stuck yet.
posted by eirias at 2:14 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
Little eirias was thus informed by her science teacher, and now she yells at me any time I try to tell her it is a vegetable. It’s bound to be Baby’s First Lesson In “Things Can Be Both,” but it hasn’t stuck yet.
posted by eirias at 2:14 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
This time of year a nice sweet peach is heaven. And mangos. Bananas all year. Apples in the fall and winter.
Oh hell, who am I kidding. Just give me all the fruit.
posted by COD at 2:20 PM on May 30, 2019 [7 favorites]
Oh hell, who am I kidding. Just give me all the fruit.
posted by COD at 2:20 PM on May 30, 2019 [7 favorites]
Memorable fruit:
- The mangos we picked from the side of the road in the Caribbean on the last vacation I ever took with my grandparents. The driver of our minivan stopped, and we filled a couple bags and ate them back on the cruise ship. They were small, just a little bigger than a ping pong ball each, and we all agreed that they were the silkiest, smoothest, sweetest mangoes any of us had ever eaten. I don't even know if they were a named variety.
- The first lychee I ever ate, on a trip with my parents to Canada when I was in elementary school. Our annual vacation was a trip with my dad to the proceedings of the American Chemical Society, and one year, it was in either Montreal or Toronto. I remember sitting on the brown motel carpeting and eating them straight out of the hotel mini-fridge, and how my dad explained that you couldn't get them in the United States, and also how the lychees from particularly valued trees was taken by Imperial courier to the emperor's court.
It was the same vacation where I ended up arguing with my father about a politics for the first time -- it was about abortion, and my father is the only vehemently non-religious, vehemently pro-life person I know.
- The first time I bought raspberries in a grocery store, because my immigrant mother never would've paid that much. My sister and I stuck them on our fingers and ate them.
- The first time I bought tiny, heirloom strawberries from a fancy fancy produce farmer's market. I remember the way they smelled in the bag, how sweet and utterly unlike the big bland grocery store monstrosities I'd tasted before, and how they were incomprehensibly expensive to me. And for the first time in my life, it didn't matter. Because of my job, I could buy a flat a week all season long, and my bank account wouldn't even notice.
posted by joyceanmachine at 2:24 PM on May 30, 2019 [9 favorites]
- The mangos we picked from the side of the road in the Caribbean on the last vacation I ever took with my grandparents. The driver of our minivan stopped, and we filled a couple bags and ate them back on the cruise ship. They were small, just a little bigger than a ping pong ball each, and we all agreed that they were the silkiest, smoothest, sweetest mangoes any of us had ever eaten. I don't even know if they were a named variety.
- The first lychee I ever ate, on a trip with my parents to Canada when I was in elementary school. Our annual vacation was a trip with my dad to the proceedings of the American Chemical Society, and one year, it was in either Montreal or Toronto. I remember sitting on the brown motel carpeting and eating them straight out of the hotel mini-fridge, and how my dad explained that you couldn't get them in the United States, and also how the lychees from particularly valued trees was taken by Imperial courier to the emperor's court.
It was the same vacation where I ended up arguing with my father about a politics for the first time -- it was about abortion, and my father is the only vehemently non-religious, vehemently pro-life person I know.
- The first time I bought raspberries in a grocery store, because my immigrant mother never would've paid that much. My sister and I stuck them on our fingers and ate them.
- The first time I bought tiny, heirloom strawberries from a fancy fancy produce farmer's market. I remember the way they smelled in the bag, how sweet and utterly unlike the big bland grocery store monstrosities I'd tasted before, and how they were incomprehensibly expensive to me. And for the first time in my life, it didn't matter. Because of my job, I could buy a flat a week all season long, and my bank account wouldn't even notice.
posted by joyceanmachine at 2:24 PM on May 30, 2019 [9 favorites]
Dried Zante currants plumped up in a living pickle juice and then added to a small bowl of full fat kefir and eaten with a spoon like breakfast cereal.
Dried unsweetened pineapple is an amazing struggle between contrasting flavors and textures; candied papaya is also extremely addictive because of a complex interplay of flavors and texture.
Certain preparations of dried pears in which the pears are not brown and leathery, but have a texture kind of like pepperoni sticks.
Ashmead Kernel apples, even though they're usually smaller than baseballs and aspire to similar hardness. And to me the distinctive flavor of Granny Smiths is an acidified version of the flavor I experience when I eat the seeds of other apples.
posted by jamjam at 2:38 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Dried unsweetened pineapple is an amazing struggle between contrasting flavors and textures; candied papaya is also extremely addictive because of a complex interplay of flavors and texture.
Certain preparations of dried pears in which the pears are not brown and leathery, but have a texture kind of like pepperoni sticks.
Ashmead Kernel apples, even though they're usually smaller than baseballs and aspire to similar hardness. And to me the distinctive flavor of Granny Smiths is an acidified version of the flavor I experience when I eat the seeds of other apples.
posted by jamjam at 2:38 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Plums. Santa Rosa plums, with a sour peel and sweet red inside. It breaks my heart that I can't get them (at least in Michigan) any more. The pluots and plumcots seem to have taken over.
Great post title.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:41 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
Great post title.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:41 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I spent a whole lot of time as a kid blueberry picking in the bush up around Sudbury with my grandmother. She made blueberry pie, blueberry jam, blueberry juice, and a mixture of strawberries and blueberries to be dumped over Finnish pancakes, and then there were the baskets of blueberries she'd send us home to southern Ontario with. We'd freeze a whole bunch and portion them out on ice cream, in pancakes, etc.
If I spot a likely blueberry patch any time I'm up north, I'll be right in there with any container at hand - a water bottle, plastic bag, or an upturned hat - which is a very temporary measure, because I'll eat them by the handful right then and there. So good.
They are my Proustian madeleine.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:44 PM on May 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
If I spot a likely blueberry patch any time I'm up north, I'll be right in there with any container at hand - a water bottle, plastic bag, or an upturned hat - which is a very temporary measure, because I'll eat them by the handful right then and there. So good.
They are my Proustian madeleine.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:44 PM on May 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
Lychee season has rolled around here, but the first ones I tried had both large pits and cost $3.99/lb, and then the next ones I saw were $4.99/lb and I didn't want to commit to the prebagged amount.
Also blueberries straight off the plants are soooo good.
posted by tangaroo at 3:00 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Also blueberries straight off the plants are soooo good.
posted by tangaroo at 3:00 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Do you add anything to your fruit to make it taste better?
Tajin, chamoy, or just chile, lime and salt.
I was introduces to mexican style fruit cups last summer (cucumber is a fruit) and have been putting chile on my pineapple, watermelon, melon, jicama (not a fruit), mango, and more ever since
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:02 PM on May 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
Tajin, chamoy, or just chile, lime and salt.
I was introduces to mexican style fruit cups last summer (cucumber is a fruit) and have been putting chile on my pineapple, watermelon, melon, jicama (not a fruit), mango, and more ever since
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:02 PM on May 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
My supremely smug answer to the lead question is: fruit that's growing in my yard. So far this year the standouts were the loquats (tart-sweet, plummy), the mulberries (super-sweet perfection), and the black raspberries. Looking forward to red grapefruit and Fuyu persimmons next, and another year of beautyberry jam (or syrup if the pectin doesn't set).
posted by saladin at 3:03 PM on May 30, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by saladin at 3:03 PM on May 30, 2019 [7 favorites]
I've probably told this story here before, but one time somebody left a basket of Asian pears in my office break room.
I took one of the pears, started eating it, and noticed a weird metallic taste in my mouth. I felt something with my tongue and spat it out: it was a small centipede, still alive.
Well, I thought, fuck unprovenanced Asian pears forever.
Three years go by. Another basket of Asian pears shows up in the break room.
It had been long enough, and it was time to reconcile myself to Asian pears. Besides, what are the odds of getting a centipede again, right? Plus, I knew I would be more careful about biting into the core this time.
Anyway a few bites into it I felt something mushy, looked down at the pear, and saw half a worm sticking out of it. Asian pears, ladies and gentlemen! That was my Asian pear story.
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:05 PM on May 30, 2019 [25 favorites]
I took one of the pears, started eating it, and noticed a weird metallic taste in my mouth. I felt something with my tongue and spat it out: it was a small centipede, still alive.
Well, I thought, fuck unprovenanced Asian pears forever.
Three years go by. Another basket of Asian pears shows up in the break room.
It had been long enough, and it was time to reconcile myself to Asian pears. Besides, what are the odds of getting a centipede again, right? Plus, I knew I would be more careful about biting into the core this time.
Anyway a few bites into it I felt something mushy, looked down at the pear, and saw half a worm sticking out of it. Asian pears, ladies and gentlemen! That was my Asian pear story.
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:05 PM on May 30, 2019 [25 favorites]
Mangos! Sliced, with a healthy squeeze of lime over to, sprinkled with salt and, if you like a kick, ground chilies. This treatment is excellent for other fruits, too, especially watermelon.
posted by spindrifter at 3:07 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by spindrifter at 3:07 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
My favorite fruit is berries, especially raspberries. My favorite way to eat them is out of the carton, standing up, and they rarely get any farther than that.
posted by Miko at 3:08 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Miko at 3:08 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
Rainier cherries. And it's almost Rainier cherry season!!
posted by cooker girl at 3:13 PM on May 30, 2019 [13 favorites]
posted by cooker girl at 3:13 PM on May 30, 2019 [13 favorites]
I grew up in South Jersey, where there are (or at least were) many blueberry farms. We ate quite a lot of berries growing up, including picking them off the bush when I was at Girl Scout camp, and it's continued into adulthood for me. I was upstate a few years ago, bought two quarts at a roadside stand and ate about one quart myself driving home, still warm from the sun. As it happens, today is the first day of blueberry season, as I just inhaled a pint as part of my lunch at work.
Mango with sticky rice is a most excellent dessert in Thailand, the best when it's made in front of you at a street cart.
When I was a kid, we were visiting family in Iowa and they made peach ice cream. I have never forgotten how amazing that tasted.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 3:43 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
Mango with sticky rice is a most excellent dessert in Thailand, the best when it's made in front of you at a street cart.
When I was a kid, we were visiting family in Iowa and they made peach ice cream. I have never forgotten how amazing that tasted.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 3:43 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
Pineapple sprinkled with brown sugar and grilled. YUM!
posted by Splunge at 4:12 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Splunge at 4:12 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
A good orange -- a good orange, mind you, not the sad bastards that already taste like Donald Duck orange juice -- is the easiest fruit to get that I like best. But you don't know if the orange is good till you're invested. Still, I can usually rely on Trader Joe's when they have them.
I will make myself sick on cherries if not prevented. In our family, my mother is still teased for asking me not to eat cherries alone when I was a teenager, in case I choked on a pit. (She was a doctor; she saw these things.) I developed a personal way of eating them off the stone that probably looks like a gross seduction technique, but I won't choke, anyway.
The rose scent of starfruit always draws me to them, although the flavor is lacking. They just seem so magical. I had never heard of beautyberries, Saladin, and they also seem magical, like something that Saturday morning cartoon characters for a short-lived girls' toy line would live on.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:18 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I will make myself sick on cherries if not prevented. In our family, my mother is still teased for asking me not to eat cherries alone when I was a teenager, in case I choked on a pit. (She was a doctor; she saw these things.) I developed a personal way of eating them off the stone that probably looks like a gross seduction technique, but I won't choke, anyway.
The rose scent of starfruit always draws me to them, although the flavor is lacking. They just seem so magical. I had never heard of beautyberries, Saladin, and they also seem magical, like something that Saturday morning cartoon characters for a short-lived girls' toy line would live on.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:18 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm growing strawberries, oranges, pineapple, grapefruit, tangerines, and figs in my yard. My fig trees are doing well because they don't need much help, and the Parson Brown orange is established and doing okay. Everybody else is sortof plodding along under my decidedly subpar care, but they'll get going at some point. Pineapple is really fun because you eat one and grow another one from the green top. They're super easy, though they take years to do anything. When it finally grows a fruit and you harvest it, if you have more than you can eat right away, freeze it, and later you can grind up the frozen chunks with cream and Goslings in the blender. Add simple syrup if it's not sweet enough. Slurp this through a big fat straw, like a boba tea straw, and pretty soon you get to feeling like Obama is still president and all is well. I'm also growing fingerlimes. I don't know what they'll do, if anything. They're supposed to be like citrus caviar. Fancy bars use them for fancy drinks. Cannot wait! Wish I could grow cherimoya and jackfruit and of course the noble catboxsmelling durian, but it's too cold, even could they survive my efforts at husbandry.
posted by Don Pepino at 4:35 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Don Pepino at 4:35 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
Imperial mandarins - they don't have a long season, but they remind me indelibly of Queensland winters, running around, breath puffing in the yard, plucking a fruit off the tree for a quick snack, dog swirling around my knees like a remora. Everything about them is perfect.
posted by smoke at 4:39 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by smoke at 4:39 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
I miss feijoas and tamarillos, both of which we always had in gardens of houses I lived in growing up in NZ. And in the supermarkets there when they are in season you can buy big bags for a few dollars. Here in Australia, you rarely see them in the shops and when you do, it's like $2 per fruit.
I keep meaning to plant some feijoas at home. I have occasionally seen the plants at nurseries. Maybe this year will be that year.
posted by lollusc at 4:42 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I keep meaning to plant some feijoas at home. I have occasionally seen the plants at nurseries. Maybe this year will be that year.
posted by lollusc at 4:42 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
A few years ago I was in Morelia, Mexico and in the big park there was this stand selling cups of fresh-cut fruit salad, so we got some. The guy called it Gaspacho and it was the most awesome thing I've ever eaten. It was like pineapple and mango and melon and Jicama and onion and Jalapeno washed over with lime juice and orange juice and topped with crumbly little cheese and hot sprinkles. He served it in a cup that was lined with a paper cone to contain the overflowing deliciousness of it all.
posted by gyusan at 4:42 PM on May 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by gyusan at 4:42 PM on May 30, 2019 [5 favorites]
Grapefruit sections sprinkled with Maldon salt (I eat them straight off the cutting board, can’t even wait to get them on a plate)
ALL CHERRIES
And I put lemon in almost everything I cook. Potatoes roasted with lots of lemon juice mmmm.
posted by sallybrown at 4:44 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
ALL CHERRIES
And I put lemon in almost everything I cook. Potatoes roasted with lots of lemon juice mmmm.
posted by sallybrown at 4:44 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I mostly eat apples, usually gala; sometimes honeycrisp if they're on sale. I don't know if being in Michigan apple country makes a price difference when they're in season, but I think all the apples at the store right now are coming from Chile. Generally I eat a piece of fruit with my lunch, and apples just get the nod because they can handle it and can last for a bit.
I think my favorite is pears though. Unfortunately, pears at the store are usually rock hard so I have to wait for them to ripen and get to the one day or so when they're actually really good before they turn into mush, and when I go to the store, I need fruit for lunch like, tomorrow. Sometimes I get to plan ahead, sometimes not. My office got a gift box of Harry & David pears one year and restraining myself was difficult.
I think the best fruit I've ever had was some cherries I got at a roadside stand in Utah on the west side of the Wasatch while heading back to Salt Lake from river rafting in Canyonlands. They were black and tasted like candy and I don't know how I didn't turn into a fountain after eating that many.
posted by LionIndex at 5:08 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
I think my favorite is pears though. Unfortunately, pears at the store are usually rock hard so I have to wait for them to ripen and get to the one day or so when they're actually really good before they turn into mush, and when I go to the store, I need fruit for lunch like, tomorrow. Sometimes I get to plan ahead, sometimes not. My office got a gift box of Harry & David pears one year and restraining myself was difficult.
I think the best fruit I've ever had was some cherries I got at a roadside stand in Utah on the west side of the Wasatch while heading back to Salt Lake from river rafting in Canyonlands. They were black and tasted like candy and I don't know how I didn't turn into a fountain after eating that many.
posted by LionIndex at 5:08 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
Chinese bayberries are the best fruit.
Long, long ago now, when I was a young person, I lived in Shanghai and gorged upon the many, delicious fruits virtually constantly available, watching the market stalls for whatever marvelous thing would come into season next. Bayberries, tiny oranges, lychees, a variety of Asian pear that is better than anything you get here, pomelos that I eventually realized really were better when peeled by the pomelo lady for an extra yuan - everything was good. Those were happy times. I was, truth be told, a fool to ever come home.
Once a few years ago I got some incredible pluots at the coop - big and stippled and freckled and gold. I've only ever had sad squishy little pluots since. New beautiful things come and the old ones go, not one lasts, I guess.
posted by Frowner at 5:14 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
Long, long ago now, when I was a young person, I lived in Shanghai and gorged upon the many, delicious fruits virtually constantly available, watching the market stalls for whatever marvelous thing would come into season next. Bayberries, tiny oranges, lychees, a variety of Asian pear that is better than anything you get here, pomelos that I eventually realized really were better when peeled by the pomelo lady for an extra yuan - everything was good. Those were happy times. I was, truth be told, a fool to ever come home.
Once a few years ago I got some incredible pluots at the coop - big and stippled and freckled and gold. I've only ever had sad squishy little pluots since. New beautiful things come and the old ones go, not one lasts, I guess.
posted by Frowner at 5:14 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
Mango is my favoritest, esp. when you get one that is perfectly ripe, sweet with a little sour, smooth. There's a subtle smoky flavor to mangos, and a pile of mango slices is sexy AF. i peel them like an apple, too. Grapefruit is so good, maybe in a salad with avocado. Watermelon, all by itself. I love strawberries, even the huge ones that are not ripe enough and not tender that are at the grocery store. But local strawberries ripen in time for the 4th of July and they are so tender, juicy and delicious.
I have a sour cherry tree because I love cherry pie. Every year the birds get the cherries and this year I am netting the tree. Handling deer netting is crazy-making. But pie with home-grown cherries, c'mon. Also, the pollinators love the flowers, and a pair of orioles hung out in the tree for several days; they were so flashy. Sweet cherries are also delicious; I should plant another tree. I definitely want an apple tree.
Peach pie or crisp is easy and delicious. Everyone who said peaches or nectarines is not wrong.
Life without lemons and limes is unthinkable, and oranges in season. I won't choose and you can't make me!
posted by theora55 at 5:39 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
I have a sour cherry tree because I love cherry pie. Every year the birds get the cherries and this year I am netting the tree. Handling deer netting is crazy-making. But pie with home-grown cherries, c'mon. Also, the pollinators love the flowers, and a pair of orioles hung out in the tree for several days; they were so flashy. Sweet cherries are also delicious; I should plant another tree. I definitely want an apple tree.
Peach pie or crisp is easy and delicious. Everyone who said peaches or nectarines is not wrong.
Life without lemons and limes is unthinkable, and oranges in season. I won't choose and you can't make me!
posted by theora55 at 5:39 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm an apple lover lucky enough to live in apple country. I love those few months out of the year when every meal contains fresh local apples. I usually cut raw whole apples with one of these. I've never met a way to prepare or eat apples I didn't like.
We had our own small orchard for a few years when I was a kid, and some of my fondest memories are of picking time and taking all the drops to the cider mill. My mother's homemade applesauce was so good the stuff from a jar still tastes weak and pale to me. She'd leave the skins on until the big strain at the end, so the final product was pink and sweet and amazing. At Christmas she'd make applesauce cakes to give away like fruitcake. (We also had our own black walnut tree.) The chest freezer in the basement would be half full of gallons of cider and gallon Ziploc bags of applesauce. My Dad's colleagues used to angle for dinner invitations after smelling the apple dumplings she put in his lunchbox. (They're way too rich for my blood nowadays, but I still make baked apples on a regular basis.)
I fell in love with kumquats on a trip to California, but by the time they get here to the East Coast there's hardly any flavor left.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:55 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
We had our own small orchard for a few years when I was a kid, and some of my fondest memories are of picking time and taking all the drops to the cider mill. My mother's homemade applesauce was so good the stuff from a jar still tastes weak and pale to me. She'd leave the skins on until the big strain at the end, so the final product was pink and sweet and amazing. At Christmas she'd make applesauce cakes to give away like fruitcake. (We also had our own black walnut tree.) The chest freezer in the basement would be half full of gallons of cider and gallon Ziploc bags of applesauce. My Dad's colleagues used to angle for dinner invitations after smelling the apple dumplings she put in his lunchbox. (They're way too rich for my blood nowadays, but I still make baked apples on a regular basis.)
I fell in love with kumquats on a trip to California, but by the time they get here to the East Coast there's hardly any flavor left.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:55 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
A really good peach (or nectarine) may be the best of all fruits. When I was a kid we had a peach tree in our yard. Since then peaches I have bought have disappointed me as often as not, but you do sometimes get a really good one.
Or wineberries may be the best fruit. They're a type of raspberry that isn't native to the US but has become established in many areas. They are definitely the best of all raspberries. And unlike peaches, you never get a bad one. On average, they have peaches beat by a mile. But if you compared perfect peaches to perfect wineberries it would be a close contest. Fortunately, I can eat both.
Other top contenders for best of all fruits are strawberry, blueberry and black raspberry. (But not the grocery store versions.)
posted by Redstart at 6:00 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
Or wineberries may be the best fruit. They're a type of raspberry that isn't native to the US but has become established in many areas. They are definitely the best of all raspberries. And unlike peaches, you never get a bad one. On average, they have peaches beat by a mile. But if you compared perfect peaches to perfect wineberries it would be a close contest. Fortunately, I can eat both.
Other top contenders for best of all fruits are strawberry, blueberry and black raspberry. (But not the grocery store versions.)
posted by Redstart at 6:00 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
And OMG the wild blackberries and blueberries from the woods behind Grandma's house. The jam! The jelly! The berries that didn't make it into the pail!
And other grandma always gave us a big basket of yellow plums from her trees. The plum jam was exquisite, but even better was the foam that gathered at the top of the kettle. Plumjamfoam was ambrosia.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:01 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
And other grandma always gave us a big basket of yellow plums from her trees. The plum jam was exquisite, but even better was the foam that gathered at the top of the kettle. Plumjamfoam was ambrosia.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:01 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
So, I have become obsessed with the idea of finding white grapefruit, and i cannot find them anywhere? Do they exist any more ? I live in CAnada, but I am not even sure I can get them from one of the Flordia fancy joints?
posted by PinkMoose at 6:13 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by PinkMoose at 6:13 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I’ve gotten white grapefruit in the winter at Whole Foods, imported from Mexico I think?
posted by sallybrown at 6:18 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by sallybrown at 6:18 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm a sucker for apples so crisp they crack apart when you take a bite. Currently, that means I wait around for Fuji apples to become less than crazy expensive in Japan. In China, I have no idea what the variety was but I could find giant apples that were incredibly crispy and tasted of honey. Pretty much the perfect apple.
As far as pineapple, though... We can do recipes, right?
Skin, and quarter a whole pineapple, slicing off the hard inner core. Maybe split the quarters, too. Melt butter, add brown sugar, a smidge of powdered sugar, and a splash of dark rum. Soak the pineapple pieces in the butter mix. Throw on the grill at the end of a long barbecue. Let them char a bit, let them start to look a little wilted. Remove from the grill, hack into bite sized pieces, and serve.
Grilled pineapple is one of the good things in life.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:32 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
As far as pineapple, though... We can do recipes, right?
Skin, and quarter a whole pineapple, slicing off the hard inner core. Maybe split the quarters, too. Melt butter, add brown sugar, a smidge of powdered sugar, and a splash of dark rum. Soak the pineapple pieces in the butter mix. Throw on the grill at the end of a long barbecue. Let them char a bit, let them start to look a little wilted. Remove from the grill, hack into bite sized pieces, and serve.
Grilled pineapple is one of the good things in life.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:32 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
Fruit is so good. Watermelon sprinkled with Taijin seasoning is incredible. A banana smeared with a little peanut butter makes a nice afternoon snack that is both sweet and satisfying. An apple half filled with a blob of peanut butter is similarly satisfying and also takes me back to my elementary school cafeteria.
In the summer I like to make a big mixing bowl full of fresh salsa with tomatoes, mango, onions, jalepenos, cilantro, lime juice and salt. I will eat the entire bowl with a bag of tortilla chips in one sitting, until my mouth is burning and my nose runs. It hurts so good.
I adore cold cereal but it isn't really compatible with my eating plan, so I devised what I call "berry cereal" instead. I take a big bowl and fill it with fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries, top with sliced bananas and unsweetened chocolate almond milk, and eat with a spoon. It makes a nice breakfast, dessert or evening snack. It makes a fairly huge serving which takes a while to eat while still being light enough that I'm not stuffed. It's also zero points on WW.
We buy a TON of fruit, partly because of the zero points thing but also because my husband just loves it. He's six feet tall, 300 pounds and snarfs pounds and pounds of fruit through his face every day. Have you ever read a list of what a zoo gorilla eats in a day and it's something like 4 pounds of apples, 6 pounds of oranges, a crate of grapes, etc.? I think about this every time I shop the produce section.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:35 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
In the summer I like to make a big mixing bowl full of fresh salsa with tomatoes, mango, onions, jalepenos, cilantro, lime juice and salt. I will eat the entire bowl with a bag of tortilla chips in one sitting, until my mouth is burning and my nose runs. It hurts so good.
I adore cold cereal but it isn't really compatible with my eating plan, so I devised what I call "berry cereal" instead. I take a big bowl and fill it with fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries, top with sliced bananas and unsweetened chocolate almond milk, and eat with a spoon. It makes a nice breakfast, dessert or evening snack. It makes a fairly huge serving which takes a while to eat while still being light enough that I'm not stuffed. It's also zero points on WW.
We buy a TON of fruit, partly because of the zero points thing but also because my husband just loves it. He's six feet tall, 300 pounds and snarfs pounds and pounds of fruit through his face every day. Have you ever read a list of what a zoo gorilla eats in a day and it's something like 4 pounds of apples, 6 pounds of oranges, a crate of grapes, etc.? I think about this every time I shop the produce section.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:35 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
So... I'm curious how people handle mango
I used to use the grid technique, but now I use the mango glass trick
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 6:41 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I used to use the grid technique, but now I use the mango glass trick
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 6:41 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
Mango is my favourite, but rambutans run a close second. There's something so addictive about peeling off the spiney alien outside to get to that crispy-soft, sweet, almost perfumed, pale pink fruit inside. If you've never tried one, they're sort of a cousin to lychee but more fun!
posted by ninazer0 at 6:54 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by ninazer0 at 6:54 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Whole watermelon from the dirt roads of northwestern Tennessee, on a midsummer day so hot the air hums, sold iced down from the back of an old truck. Nothing better.
posted by mochapickle at 8:03 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 8:03 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
I love pineapple but am now allergic to it...same thing with grapefruit (and most citrus.) I eat fruit maybe ten times a year. Strawberries mostly but also have watermelon once or twice a summer.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:07 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:07 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
Blood oranges from Trader Joe's get me through the long winters here in the Atlantic Northeast. And I didn't even know they were A Thing until my senior year of college. (The grocery stores in the small New England town where I grew up do not have a wide variety of fruit.)
Occasionally I sprinkle a little TJ's Chile Lime Seasoning Blend on them. But usually the only thing I do before chowing down is wrap a hand towel around my neck as a makeshift bib, so I don't dye my apparel with blood-orange juice.
posted by virago at 8:12 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
Occasionally I sprinkle a little TJ's Chile Lime Seasoning Blend on them. But usually the only thing I do before chowing down is wrap a hand towel around my neck as a makeshift bib, so I don't dye my apparel with blood-orange juice.
posted by virago at 8:12 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
Loquats are on around here, very good. I love sliced fuji apples with fresh ground Winco honey roasted peanut butter. Sometimes this is late dinner. My daughter has a white grapefruit tree. I eat at least one a day. I peel it, section it, cut the sections in half, then I often sprinkle it with feta cheese. That is breakfast. This morning I had the grapefruit with chunks of cold barbecued chicken. I keep blueberries around, they go into salads often. I can't wait for the Armenian cucumbers to come to market. I found a source for lemoranges, or orange meyer lemons. I have some preserved lemons making, I made meyer lemon butter, that stuff is like eating Lemonheads on toast. Then I ran across something called Moroccan Lemon Paste and I am going to make that next. I have to find some cassia bark. Hooray for fruit!
posted by Oyéah at 8:12 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 8:12 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I am so excited for July when I can go out into my backyard and pick fresh raspberries off the very healthy patch I started from bare roots about 3 years ago. I get a month's worth of FREE, organic berries every morning and I basically do nothing now that the plants are all established.
posted by brookeb at 8:44 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by brookeb at 8:44 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
Washington navel oranges from my dad’s tree when I was growing up. Super easy to peel, seedless and incredibly juicy. Just the right balance of sweetness and tang. Man, I miss those oranges. And my dad.
posted by gryphonlover at 9:16 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by gryphonlover at 9:16 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
A lot of my most vivid early memories revolve around fruit.
One of the first things I remember about life in the United States after my family's immigration was eating a kiwi. I must have been four years old.
A little bit later, we bought a coconut from the grocery store (my parents must have been pretty enthused by all the strange things you could buy in a grocery store here). I vividly remember my father trying to open the damned thing. Eventually he brought out what to my childish imagination was an utterly enormous manual drill and started drilling holes to drain the milk. Then he smashed it with a hammer.
My father eats an extraordinary quantity of apples. I remember going to the grocery store with my mother a few times, putting multiple ten-pound bags of apples on the conveyor belt, and the cashier's puzzled question about what we were going to do with all those apples.
My father and I used to have watermelon eating contests. I still have strong opinions about watermelon. There are few things as disappointing as cutting open a watermelon only to find that it is mealy and overripe.
posted by a certain Sysoi Pafnut'evich at 9:27 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
One of the first things I remember about life in the United States after my family's immigration was eating a kiwi. I must have been four years old.
A little bit later, we bought a coconut from the grocery store (my parents must have been pretty enthused by all the strange things you could buy in a grocery store here). I vividly remember my father trying to open the damned thing. Eventually he brought out what to my childish imagination was an utterly enormous manual drill and started drilling holes to drain the milk. Then he smashed it with a hammer.
My father eats an extraordinary quantity of apples. I remember going to the grocery store with my mother a few times, putting multiple ten-pound bags of apples on the conveyor belt, and the cashier's puzzled question about what we were going to do with all those apples.
My father and I used to have watermelon eating contests. I still have strong opinions about watermelon. There are few things as disappointing as cutting open a watermelon only to find that it is mealy and overripe.
posted by a certain Sysoi Pafnut'evich at 9:27 PM on May 30, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm pregnant right now and I could absolutely live on fruit. In my first trimester for a week or two I really was getting most of my calories from mangoes. But what I really want right now is some passionfruit. I keep buying Ellenos passionfruit yogurt but it's not the same as just eating it plain.
But REALLY I think peaches are the best fruit, if you can get them ripe. If you can't, cherries will do. Honestly though...I chatted my friend "god i just ate an obscene pile of grapes and now i'm like...not sure if i regret it...? was it too many grapes" on Tuesday. I don't even LIKE grapes that much.
I basically will eat any fruit to excess if it's in front of me, it's how I've always been, all my relatives can tell a story of "gosh remember when potrzebie was 4 years old and weighed like 30 lbs and and we put 5 lbs of strawberries in front of her and she somehow ate them all while our backs were turned?" and when I'm pregnant that goes triple.
posted by potrzebie at 10:07 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
But REALLY I think peaches are the best fruit, if you can get them ripe. If you can't, cherries will do. Honestly though...I chatted my friend "god i just ate an obscene pile of grapes and now i'm like...not sure if i regret it...? was it too many grapes" on Tuesday. I don't even LIKE grapes that much.
I basically will eat any fruit to excess if it's in front of me, it's how I've always been, all my relatives can tell a story of "gosh remember when potrzebie was 4 years old and weighed like 30 lbs and and we put 5 lbs of strawberries in front of her and she somehow ate them all while our backs were turned?" and when I'm pregnant that goes triple.
posted by potrzebie at 10:07 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]
A can of crushed pineapple, slushy after a spell in the freezer, maybe with vanilla ice cream.
Mangoes, straight from my father-in-law's tree, still warm from the sun with an almost overpowering resin aroma.
Otai - a drink made with coconut cream, crushed pineapple, smashed up watermelon and maybe a little simple syrup.
Icy cold watermelon sprinkled with lime juice, salt and chipotle powder.
Plump medjool dates with ripe blue cheese and a glass of something boozy, brown and Belgian.
Custard apple or black sapote ice cream.
Pears softened in a pan with butter, brown sugar, brandy and fresh thyme.
Warm cherry compote dolloped over Danish rice pudding.
My wife's pflaumenkuchen, when the plums are just on the side of too sharp, served with a large mug of too strong, too hot percolator coffee and too much cream.
My mother's peach kuchen made with plain old packet buttercake mix and canned peaches in syrup.
Fish and chip shop pineapple fritters that scorch the roof of your mouth.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 10:19 PM on May 30, 2019 [8 favorites]
Mangoes, straight from my father-in-law's tree, still warm from the sun with an almost overpowering resin aroma.
Otai - a drink made with coconut cream, crushed pineapple, smashed up watermelon and maybe a little simple syrup.
Icy cold watermelon sprinkled with lime juice, salt and chipotle powder.
Plump medjool dates with ripe blue cheese and a glass of something boozy, brown and Belgian.
Custard apple or black sapote ice cream.
Pears softened in a pan with butter, brown sugar, brandy and fresh thyme.
Warm cherry compote dolloped over Danish rice pudding.
My wife's pflaumenkuchen, when the plums are just on the side of too sharp, served with a large mug of too strong, too hot percolator coffee and too much cream.
My mother's peach kuchen made with plain old packet buttercake mix and canned peaches in syrup.
Fish and chip shop pineapple fritters that scorch the roof of your mouth.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 10:19 PM on May 30, 2019 [8 favorites]
This year I fell in love with dekopon also known as sumo tangerines. They're bigger than tangerines, easy to peel, and just a bit tart. I tried to ration myself to one a day, but wasn't always successful.
In fall, I eat a ton of Fuyu persimmons, which are crunchy and delicious. I had a bad experience with a Hachiya persimmon at an impressionable age (they have to be super-ripe before eating, otherwise they taste awful); I tried a sample at the farmer's market one year and fell in love with the taste. One of my co-workers has a persimmon tree in his backyard and sometimes will remember to bring in a bag when they're ripe.
One of the vendors at the downtown Wednesday farmer's market has an amazing variety of pluots, plumcots, and apriums throughout the summer ($3.50/pound, all varieties), and I buy giant bags every couple of weeks. So good.
The Thursday farmer's market by my house has a vendor with some of the best Fuji apples I've ever tasted. They're not huge like you see in the stores, and they don't look "perfect", but they sure taste good. The guy who works the stand makes adorable apple sculptures and gives them to the kids at the market.
posted by mogget at 10:20 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
In fall, I eat a ton of Fuyu persimmons, which are crunchy and delicious. I had a bad experience with a Hachiya persimmon at an impressionable age (they have to be super-ripe before eating, otherwise they taste awful); I tried a sample at the farmer's market one year and fell in love with the taste. One of my co-workers has a persimmon tree in his backyard and sometimes will remember to bring in a bag when they're ripe.
One of the vendors at the downtown Wednesday farmer's market has an amazing variety of pluots, plumcots, and apriums throughout the summer ($3.50/pound, all varieties), and I buy giant bags every couple of weeks. So good.
The Thursday farmer's market by my house has a vendor with some of the best Fuji apples I've ever tasted. They're not huge like you see in the stores, and they don't look "perfect", but they sure taste good. The guy who works the stand makes adorable apple sculptures and gives them to the kids at the market.
posted by mogget at 10:20 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
The perfect fruit from my point of view: perfectly ripe, warm, juicy, fragrant nectarine, eaten outside in the sun, preferably followed by kissing someone who has been eating a nectarine just like it. I developed a sad mango allergy in my mid-20s and use them in everything I used to put mango in, also.
I’m generally partial to Pacific Northwest summer goodness with pits. Rainier cherries, all other cherries, pluots, plums, apricots, peaches... I make an amazing fruit salsa with as many of these as I can find at once, homegrown garlic and spicy jalapeños, and other normal salsa ingredients and like to pile it on top of seared tuna. This thread is making me look forward to summer.
posted by centrifugal at 10:23 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
I’m generally partial to Pacific Northwest summer goodness with pits. Rainier cherries, all other cherries, pluots, plums, apricots, peaches... I make an amazing fruit salsa with as many of these as I can find at once, homegrown garlic and spicy jalapeños, and other normal salsa ingredients and like to pile it on top of seared tuna. This thread is making me look forward to summer.
posted by centrifugal at 10:23 PM on May 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
My father and I used to have watermelon eating contests
A college choir I sang with had an end-of-semester picnic at which an impromptu sopranos vs. basses watermelon eating contest broke out. (Sopranos won.)
My mother's peach kuchen made with plain old packet buttercake mix and canned peaches in syrup.
I make a cake that consists of one can of chunk pineapple and one box of yellow cake mix. For lack of a better name, I call it Pineapple Inside-Out Cake.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:58 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
A college choir I sang with had an end-of-semester picnic at which an impromptu sopranos vs. basses watermelon eating contest broke out. (Sopranos won.)
My mother's peach kuchen made with plain old packet buttercake mix and canned peaches in syrup.
I make a cake that consists of one can of chunk pineapple and one box of yellow cake mix. For lack of a better name, I call it Pineapple Inside-Out Cake.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:58 PM on May 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
Pears grown in the Pacific NW are fantastic. Also apples and cherries and strawberries are to die for.
posted by Cranberry at 1:30 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Cranberry at 1:30 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
This Is Just To Say
I can't believe
we're 70 comments
into a post on
fruit
and no one's
taken time
to make
this joke yet
Forgive me
it was obvious
like a peach
or cold summer cherries
posted by chavenet at 2:08 AM on May 31, 2019 [28 favorites]
I can't believe
we're 70 comments
into a post on
fruit
and no one's
taken time
to make
this joke yet
Forgive me
it was obvious
like a peach
or cold summer cherries
posted by chavenet at 2:08 AM on May 31, 2019 [28 favorites]
Had my first alphonso mango in season a week ago and goddamn, I was just shouting through mouthfuls about how good it was.
I basically ran into another room to tell Designated Partner Unit Paws about the blinding possibility of having pineapple with pepperoni instead of ham, and they were horrified, so that's a crushing blow.
posted by ominous_paws at 3:14 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
I basically ran into another room to tell Designated Partner Unit Paws about the blinding possibility of having pineapple with pepperoni instead of ham, and they were horrified, so that's a crushing blow.
posted by ominous_paws at 3:14 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
My CSA starts in two weeks, and that means that most likely I will be getting rhubarb and strawberry as the fruit share and that means I can make this.
I am bound by family obligation and taste to speak up on behalf of the cranberry. Not anything you can eat raw, really, but that just means you have an excuse to bake with them.
I picked up a book on making your own juice and mead and fruit syrups and such while at New York's botanic garden, and very well might spend a good part of the summer in an orgy of juice-making.
Also, I can confirm that you can mix just about any combination of fruit into a pie if you need to use a lot of fruit up for some reason.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:52 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
I am bound by family obligation and taste to speak up on behalf of the cranberry. Not anything you can eat raw, really, but that just means you have an excuse to bake with them.
I picked up a book on making your own juice and mead and fruit syrups and such while at New York's botanic garden, and very well might spend a good part of the summer in an orgy of juice-making.
Also, I can confirm that you can mix just about any combination of fruit into a pie if you need to use a lot of fruit up for some reason.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:52 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
Metafilter: an orgy of juice-making.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:15 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:15 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
Generally love all the fruits (will eat a Tomato like an apple... Pineapple is great on pizza and I will fight you about that) - however, have been sad that as an adult I developed mild allergies to; peaches, nectarines and cherries.
Nothing that requires an epi-pen, just itchy eyes, nasal drip and a scratchy throat - the symptoms are still worth the fruit, it is the rest of the family catching me guiltily eating the forbidden fruit and chastising me that is really the bad part of the experience. (Related allergens in this group also include Almonds and Hazlenuts... and... I eat those too with similar effect)
posted by jkaczor at 5:16 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Nothing that requires an epi-pen, just itchy eyes, nasal drip and a scratchy throat - the symptoms are still worth the fruit, it is the rest of the family catching me guiltily eating the forbidden fruit and chastising me that is really the bad part of the experience. (Related allergens in this group also include Almonds and Hazlenuts... and... I eat those too with similar effect)
posted by jkaczor at 5:16 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
We had a big raspberry patch when I was a child, and our job was to go pick them for Mom, so she could make pies. If we ran into a bad one, we'd yell, "bird peck!" and whip them at each other and laugh hysterically.
Mom made a perfect raspberry pie once, and as she was pulling it out of the oven, it slipped out of her hands and fell, upside down, onto the oven door. She was not happy.
I remember her giving me bowls of fresh raspberries, with a little sugar sprinkled on top, and cream poured over all. It was delicious.
I love making apple galettes, using all butter pastry, and painting a little apricot preserves mixed with rum or brandy, on top, after pulling it out of the oven.
I also love pears, especially red Anjou pears, sliced up and eaten with brie cheese.
Love cherries, especially for sauces, and also cranberries for the same. I make cranberry sauce with orange zest and a little orange juice, a few days before Thanksgiving. I should make it more than once a year.
Strawberry season will be delayed here, due to the cool temps, farmers are waiting for ideal night time temps to plant their strawberries. Last year, I made a ton of strawberry freezer jam, which was fantastic as an ice cream topping, but I made way too much for two people, and it was super sweet, then I got diagnosed with diabetes, and while nothing is off the menu, sugar has 5 grams of carbs per teaspoon, so I have to limit how much I can have in one sitting (whereas a pear is fine, and it also has fiber, so a better choice for me than jam).
I also love peaches, grapes and plums (loves me a claufoutis, but I have to watch how many plums I eat in one sitting, as then I remember that prunes come from plums, and well... tiny slices are better for me, or cherries instead of plums).
Right now, the orioles and catbirds and now chipmunks are enjoying cara cara oranges, which have been on sale lately. The chipmunks really clean out the orange halves, and one was eyeing me from the stone retaining wall this morning, when I went down to replenish the oranges. I am still thrilled every time I see a Baltimore oriole fly in and peck at an orange. So colorful!
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:45 AM on May 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
Mom made a perfect raspberry pie once, and as she was pulling it out of the oven, it slipped out of her hands and fell, upside down, onto the oven door. She was not happy.
I remember her giving me bowls of fresh raspberries, with a little sugar sprinkled on top, and cream poured over all. It was delicious.
I love making apple galettes, using all butter pastry, and painting a little apricot preserves mixed with rum or brandy, on top, after pulling it out of the oven.
I also love pears, especially red Anjou pears, sliced up and eaten with brie cheese.
Love cherries, especially for sauces, and also cranberries for the same. I make cranberry sauce with orange zest and a little orange juice, a few days before Thanksgiving. I should make it more than once a year.
Strawberry season will be delayed here, due to the cool temps, farmers are waiting for ideal night time temps to plant their strawberries. Last year, I made a ton of strawberry freezer jam, which was fantastic as an ice cream topping, but I made way too much for two people, and it was super sweet, then I got diagnosed with diabetes, and while nothing is off the menu, sugar has 5 grams of carbs per teaspoon, so I have to limit how much I can have in one sitting (whereas a pear is fine, and it also has fiber, so a better choice for me than jam).
I also love peaches, grapes and plums (loves me a claufoutis, but I have to watch how many plums I eat in one sitting, as then I remember that prunes come from plums, and well... tiny slices are better for me, or cherries instead of plums).
Right now, the orioles and catbirds and now chipmunks are enjoying cara cara oranges, which have been on sale lately. The chipmunks really clean out the orange halves, and one was eyeing me from the stone retaining wall this morning, when I went down to replenish the oranges. I am still thrilled every time I see a Baltimore oriole fly in and peck at an orange. So colorful!
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:45 AM on May 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
Grapefruit sections sprinkled with Maldon salt (I eat them straight off the cutting board, can’t even wait to get them on a plate)
Try adding some watermelon. A friend turned me on to that.
We always picked sour cherries when I was a kid. Now I buy them. We always made jams and pies and juice but I really like to eat them chilled, with yogurt. They are in the farmers markets only briefly and they symbolize summer to me.
posted by BibiRose at 6:00 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
Someone asked how we eat a mango. I wash it, then grab a knife and slice hunks off from around the pit, score, gnaw. I know this is not an accepted method but I like it, sort of a hybrid.
posted by wellred at 6:15 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by wellred at 6:15 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
When I was twelve I was invite to dinner at the French ambassador's residence in Vienna, his daughter was a classmate and friend of mine. They lived in a huge luxurious palace with lots of formal rooms for entertainment, think gigantic rooms, chandeliers, gilded furniture, etc. Long dinner in formal dining room, several courses, several adult guests. We kids were seen and not heard.
So, the fruit course comes out and I choose an apple. I start to lift it to my mouth and realize everyone else at the table is delicately cutting their fruit into bite-sized pieces, something I'd never learned to do. I tried to imitate and the apple went flying across the table knocking over water and wine glasses. Uncouth American barbarian me confirmed their anti-American sentiments.
I like pretty much any fruit, as long as I don't have to cut it up at a formal dinner in a palace.
posted by mareli at 6:31 AM on May 31, 2019 [9 favorites]
So, the fruit course comes out and I choose an apple. I start to lift it to my mouth and realize everyone else at the table is delicately cutting their fruit into bite-sized pieces, something I'd never learned to do. I tried to imitate and the apple went flying across the table knocking over water and wine glasses. Uncouth American barbarian me confirmed their anti-American sentiments.
I like pretty much any fruit, as long as I don't have to cut it up at a formal dinner in a palace.
posted by mareli at 6:31 AM on May 31, 2019 [9 favorites]
I was introduced to loquats while visiting family in Italy over a decade ago. I thought they were the best fruit ever, and my relatives were pleasantly bemused by my excitement over what was just another thing that grew in the yard. You can't get them here in New England without paying way more than I can afford to have them shipped directly since I guess they don't travel well.
I have kidney disease and have to be careful about my potassium intake, so my old standby of bananas (as far from green as possible without entering Time for Banana Bread territory) are a no most of the time. Likewise blood and cara cara oranges, which are my favorite citrus. Berries are generally safe, so I eat a lot of those.
posted by camyram at 6:36 AM on May 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
I have kidney disease and have to be careful about my potassium intake, so my old standby of bananas (as far from green as possible without entering Time for Banana Bread territory) are a no most of the time. Likewise blood and cara cara oranges, which are my favorite citrus. Berries are generally safe, so I eat a lot of those.
posted by camyram at 6:36 AM on May 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
Not enough peaches in here!
Also, Brown Turkey figs, but only fresh off the tree. I have animals in my yard that take one bite out of the fig and then leave it on the tree. I’m often conflicted as to what to do with the affected fig. Eat it and risk catching opossum dropsy? I’ve been tempted!
This year, the fig tree doesn’t have fruit yet, not even tiny ones. I’m a bit worried. I’ve harvested figs around Thanksgiving, though, so there’s a while to go...
posted by The Toad at 6:44 AM on May 31, 2019
Also, Brown Turkey figs, but only fresh off the tree. I have animals in my yard that take one bite out of the fig and then leave it on the tree. I’m often conflicted as to what to do with the affected fig. Eat it and risk catching opossum dropsy? I’ve been tempted!
This year, the fig tree doesn’t have fruit yet, not even tiny ones. I’m a bit worried. I’ve harvested figs around Thanksgiving, though, so there’s a while to go...
posted by The Toad at 6:44 AM on May 31, 2019
We were just in Hawaii for vacation last week, and I ate ALL THE FRUIT. I would do that anyway on vacation, because I love fruit so much but try not to have much normally because of the sugar, but it was exciting to have different things. Apple bananas! Local pineapple with li hing sprinkled on top! POG JUICE, Y'ALL. Every morning started with pastries and POG juice and at least one fruit I couldn't get at home. And yes, we visited the ridiculous Dole Plantation and got a Dole Whip in a souvenir cup.
...maybe I should go to the Asian grocery this weekend and see what I CAN get locally that I didn't know about.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 6:56 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
...maybe I should go to the Asian grocery this weekend and see what I CAN get locally that I didn't know about.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 6:56 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm from the Midwest, so buying and eating the fresh fruit I like best (peaches, plums, and mangoes), is a fraught exercise. But I kind of enjoy the agony and ecstasy of it all. It's so disappointing when the fruit is bad, but so transcendent when it's good. Eating apples isn't nearly as exciting.
posted by merriment at 7:01 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by merriment at 7:01 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
the main thing is that fruit should be perfectly ripe
perfect figs, jammy and split from their own weight
wild blueberries
wild strawberries you find yourself
cara cara oranges
peaches in season and never, ever otherwise
rhubarb crisp with an oat crumble topping in which you have grated your own nutmeg
pawpaws from your neighbor's tree
the Berkeley Bowl selection of stone fruits: all the plums, pluots, and nectarines you could ever wish for
as a summer birthday person who did not like cake, I always got a watermelon instead, my mom used to cut little holes in the top for candles and we would spit seeds in the yard
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:02 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
perfect figs, jammy and split from their own weight
wild blueberries
wild strawberries you find yourself
cara cara oranges
peaches in season and never, ever otherwise
rhubarb crisp with an oat crumble topping in which you have grated your own nutmeg
pawpaws from your neighbor's tree
the Berkeley Bowl selection of stone fruits: all the plums, pluots, and nectarines you could ever wish for
as a summer birthday person who did not like cake, I always got a watermelon instead, my mom used to cut little holes in the top for candles and we would spit seeds in the yard
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:02 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
We did a comprehensive ranking of fruits at work about a year ago. I got some grief because I ranked figs third. I stand by that.
1. Cherries.
2. Bananas.
3. Figs.
...
2382948287549. Mangoes.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:07 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
1. Cherries.
2. Bananas.
3. Figs.
...
2382948287549. Mangoes.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:07 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
Ripe fruit season takes a loooong time to come to the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan, but oh, when it does...
We have a great local farmer's market that brings over cherries and peaches from Michigan, and either one of those, at its peak season, is heaven. We used to grow strawberries in our garden, and I miss that, but there are plenty of farms offering u-pick or prepicked strawberries. But there's nothing for the lazy summer person like being able to go out when the mood strikes and get fresh berries. Last year, we had a bumper crop of raspberries on the vines that came with the house. This happened right around the time we were to go pick our older kid up from music camp, and I knew we'd be going back to the hotel in a town with not-great food options after his finale concert. So, I used those raspberries and made a pie for a surprise dessert. That was the pie that convinced my younger son that yes, actually, he DOES like pie and not just the whipped cream/ice cream accouterments.
In non-local fruit, I do love a ripe mango or pineapple. I saw some suggestions of things to put on your fruit--I'll add Penzey's Pico Fruta. Delightful!
posted by TheFantasticNumberFour at 7:25 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
We have a great local farmer's market that brings over cherries and peaches from Michigan, and either one of those, at its peak season, is heaven. We used to grow strawberries in our garden, and I miss that, but there are plenty of farms offering u-pick or prepicked strawberries. But there's nothing for the lazy summer person like being able to go out when the mood strikes and get fresh berries. Last year, we had a bumper crop of raspberries on the vines that came with the house. This happened right around the time we were to go pick our older kid up from music camp, and I knew we'd be going back to the hotel in a town with not-great food options after his finale concert. So, I used those raspberries and made a pie for a surprise dessert. That was the pie that convinced my younger son that yes, actually, he DOES like pie and not just the whipped cream/ice cream accouterments.
In non-local fruit, I do love a ripe mango or pineapple. I saw some suggestions of things to put on your fruit--I'll add Penzey's Pico Fruta. Delightful!
posted by TheFantasticNumberFour at 7:25 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
Serviceberries are in their brief season here in the DC area, and there is a tree just a few steps from the front door of my office. Ducking out a few times a day for a handful really helps make my workday more bearable.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:27 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by ryanshepard at 7:27 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Speaking of peaches, if the Peach Truck comes anywhere close to y'all who can't get decent peaches on the regular, GO GET SOME.
posted by cooker girl at 7:31 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by cooker girl at 7:31 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
3rd place isn't bad.
I love peaches and cherries, and other stone fruits. I have a little strawberry patch at my house, and one of the best parts of divorce is that I don't have to share those amazingly delicious little strawberries with anyone else, hahaha. Blackberries are good too.
posted by Fig at 7:33 AM on May 31, 2019 [5 favorites]
I love peaches and cherries, and other stone fruits. I have a little strawberry patch at my house, and one of the best parts of divorce is that I don't have to share those amazingly delicious little strawberries with anyone else, hahaha. Blackberries are good too.
posted by Fig at 7:33 AM on May 31, 2019 [5 favorites]
Mangoes, straight from my father-in-law's tree, still warm from the sun This is a gorgeous phrase.
I remember the 1st time I had fresh pineapple straight from Hawaii, dramatically better than fresh from my grocery, and canned, while a tasty food, does not compare.
I was in the hospital multiple times having my son, and the food was overcooked and pretty wretched. Someone brought me a big tub of fresh, ripe cantaloupe; it tasted amazing.
posted by theora55 at 7:56 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
I remember the 1st time I had fresh pineapple straight from Hawaii, dramatically better than fresh from my grocery, and canned, while a tasty food, does not compare.
I was in the hospital multiple times having my son, and the food was overcooked and pretty wretched. Someone brought me a big tub of fresh, ripe cantaloupe; it tasted amazing.
posted by theora55 at 7:56 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
For a significant part of my life, bananas made up at least 1/3 of my nutrition. But, I haven't had a really good banana in several years. I don't know whether it's because I'm living in a city with shit bananas (despite being the same distance from banana growing areas as most other places I've lived), or because bananas have changed due to monoculture diseases and new farming practices, or because I've grown old and ruined my taste buds with booze and spicy food. But, I long for the bananas I used to know.
But, I'll nth Rainier cherries. Add the huge, round, light-colored variety of Asian pears. And fresh heirloom tomatoes.
When people talk to me about moving from California to the industrial Midwest, they always talk about the weather. I don't care about the weather. Winter is neat. Summer is tolerable. Fall is great. The culture is indistinguishable, except that everyone carries on about the weather all the time. My only complaint is that I wish I could get decent produce without traveling 1.5 hours into the suburbs.
posted by eotvos at 7:59 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
But, I'll nth Rainier cherries. Add the huge, round, light-colored variety of Asian pears. And fresh heirloom tomatoes.
When people talk to me about moving from California to the industrial Midwest, they always talk about the weather. I don't care about the weather. Winter is neat. Summer is tolerable. Fall is great. The culture is indistinguishable, except that everyone carries on about the weather all the time. My only complaint is that I wish I could get decent produce without traveling 1.5 hours into the suburbs.
posted by eotvos at 7:59 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Very rough count and list of fruits.
apples 20
apricots 1
Bananas 4
beautyberry 1
blackberries 4
blueberries 11
cantaloupe 1
cherimoya 1
Cherries 13
Chinese bayberries 1
currants 2
coconut 1
cranberries 2
durian 1
feijoas 1
Figs 4
gooseberries 1
grapes 2
grapefruit 10
jackfruit 1
kiwi 2
kumquat 1
lemon 6
lime 4
loquats 3
lychees 3
mangoes 15
mangsteen 1
melon 1
mulberries 1
nectarines 4
oranges 8
passionfruit 1
pawpaws 1
peaches 13
pears 6
persimmon 2
pineapple 17
plums 5
pluots 2
pomelos 1
rambutans 1
raspberry 10
rhubarb 1
Serviceberries 1
starfruit 2
strawberries 15
feijoas 1
tangerine 3
watermelon 10
wineberries 1
posted by theora55 at 8:00 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
apples 20
apricots 1
Bananas 4
beautyberry 1
blackberries 4
blueberries 11
cantaloupe 1
cherimoya 1
Cherries 13
Chinese bayberries 1
currants 2
coconut 1
cranberries 2
durian 1
feijoas 1
Figs 4
gooseberries 1
grapes 2
grapefruit 10
jackfruit 1
kiwi 2
kumquat 1
lemon 6
lime 4
loquats 3
lychees 3
mangoes 15
mangsteen 1
melon 1
mulberries 1
nectarines 4
oranges 8
passionfruit 1
pawpaws 1
peaches 13
pears 6
persimmon 2
pineapple 17
plums 5
pluots 2
pomelos 1
rambutans 1
raspberry 10
rhubarb 1
Serviceberries 1
starfruit 2
strawberries 15
feijoas 1
tangerine 3
watermelon 10
wineberries 1
posted by theora55 at 8:00 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
So... I'm curious how people handle mango.Circumferential cut on the longest axes down to the pit, split in two by hand and remove the pit, then dice the flesh of both halves into one centimeter squares and flip them inside out before grabbing them with your teeth is what I've always done. I don't actually know where I learned it. (My mom almost certainly never bought a fresh Mango. Must have been from school friends.) I'm intrigued to learn that there are other options.
posted by eotvos at 8:07 AM on May 31, 2019
My favourite fruit flavour is lime, but they're a pain to handle as actual fruit. So I most commonly get my lime on by eating lime curd straight from the jar with a spoon, adding lime juice to water, or drinking costco's margarita mix slightly diluted with water until my mouth is pretty much one giant canker sore! As well, whenever we get Thai food, no one else in my family uses the lime wedges served with the food/soup, so I geto eat those.
Apples are the fruit that I seem to eat the most of. They're just too convenient. They don't require a window of a few days of perfect ripeness, there's a large variety of taste/tectures so I don't have to worry about flavour exhaustion. I average about 4 lbs of apples a week most of the time.
posted by nobeagle at 8:11 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Apples are the fruit that I seem to eat the most of. They're just too convenient. They don't require a window of a few days of perfect ripeness, there's a large variety of taste/tectures so I don't have to worry about flavour exhaustion. I average about 4 lbs of apples a week most of the time.
posted by nobeagle at 8:11 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Plant City strawberries, in March, so sweet your teeth ache when you bite into them. Somebody told me the strawberries were better in June, and in Florida, this just isn't true. Blueberries, sure, peaches, absolutely, but strawberries? Give me Florida strawberries in March, and only then.
posted by PearlRose at 8:12 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by PearlRose at 8:12 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh yeah, fresh figs! I’ll spend all my grocery budget on fresh figs when they’re in season, if I’m not careful.
I miss loquats! My childhood house had a loquat tree and I would eat tons of them. That tree died and I haven’t had a loquat in the decades since.
Do peas count? I can easily buy 2 or 3 lbs of fresh peas in pods at the farmers market and eat them all within a few days.
posted by moonmilk at 8:17 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
I miss loquats! My childhood house had a loquat tree and I would eat tons of them. That tree died and I haven’t had a loquat in the decades since.
Do peas count? I can easily buy 2 or 3 lbs of fresh peas in pods at the farmers market and eat them all within a few days.
posted by moonmilk at 8:17 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
I think I’m at least 10% banana, love them. I love clementines too but hate my hands smelling of orange.
posted by ellieBOA at 8:24 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by ellieBOA at 8:24 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
this year, the fig tree doesn’t have fruit yet, not even tiny ones
So - did you (or neighbors) get rid of any nearby wasps nests in the last 6 months or so?
posted by jkaczor at 8:34 AM on May 31, 2019
So - did you (or neighbors) get rid of any nearby wasps nests in the last 6 months or so?
posted by jkaczor at 8:34 AM on May 31, 2019
I love clementines too but hate my hands smelling of orange.
Citrus hands is one of my favorite smells!
There's an excellent Dorie Greenspan recipe that produces pretty much the only sweet baked good I make that my mother likes, and a key step is zesting a citrus fruit (usually orange in our house, but canonically a lemon), and then rubbing sugar into the zest until it basically feels like wet sand. It leads to a delightfully fragrant loaf cake, and delightfully fragrant (to me) hands. I've been known to make the cake sometimes just because I love the smell of sugar zest so much.
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:43 AM on May 31, 2019 [6 favorites]
Citrus hands is one of my favorite smells!
There's an excellent Dorie Greenspan recipe that produces pretty much the only sweet baked good I make that my mother likes, and a key step is zesting a citrus fruit (usually orange in our house, but canonically a lemon), and then rubbing sugar into the zest until it basically feels like wet sand. It leads to a delightfully fragrant loaf cake, and delightfully fragrant (to me) hands. I've been known to make the cake sometimes just because I love the smell of sugar zest so much.
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:43 AM on May 31, 2019 [6 favorites]
Citrus hands
If you are lurking and you need a MetaFilter name, welp, here you go. :)
posted by Fizz at 9:13 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
If you are lurking and you need a MetaFilter name, welp, here you go. :)
posted by Fizz at 9:13 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
Lucuma! Indigenous to Chile, has a huge seed so impractical technically to transition to other areas. Mostly in ice cream or a pastry, it's a subtle musky flavor, think along the lines of fresh raw truffle, totally different - it's a fruit but just unique amazing delicious.
Unfortunately it pretty much requires airfare, it does not travel well as a raw fruit and the baking pastes or concentrates seem to loose the best part of the flavor. If you know someone coming back from chile as for a fresh pastry delivery.
posted by sammyo at 9:17 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately it pretty much requires airfare, it does not travel well as a raw fruit and the baking pastes or concentrates seem to loose the best part of the flavor. If you know someone coming back from chile as for a fresh pastry delivery.
posted by sammyo at 9:17 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Plums are my favorite raw fruit--the initial bite through the skin--how it gives and gives and then tears, releasing that burst of sweet/sour all at once, how you can put almost a whole one in your mouth and delicately spit out a small pit.
The crunch and spicy taste of a golden delicious apple.
Spiced peaches, whose cloying sweetness instantly sends me back to my grandmother's house and the ridiculous groaning table full of food and all my aunts and uncles--young, laughing, joking, at ease with each other and happy amongst themselves in my hazy twilight memory of childhood...
One of my favorite desserts: peel and freeze several bananas. When they are frozen, put them in a food processor and blend til they have the consistency of custardy ice cream. No need to add anything else. Eat while cold.
posted by Chrischris at 9:17 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
The crunch and spicy taste of a golden delicious apple.
Spiced peaches, whose cloying sweetness instantly sends me back to my grandmother's house and the ridiculous groaning table full of food and all my aunts and uncles--young, laughing, joking, at ease with each other and happy amongst themselves in my hazy twilight memory of childhood...
One of my favorite desserts: peel and freeze several bananas. When they are frozen, put them in a food processor and blend til they have the consistency of custardy ice cream. No need to add anything else. Eat while cold.
posted by Chrischris at 9:17 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
Well, that's gonna be a list.
Let's see: when I wasn't living in New England, the fruit I missed most was apples. I want my apple to basically bite back, so I have no use for insipid sweet varieties. I buy gigantic bags of Ashmead's Kernel every fall from my usual supplier at the Cambridge Farmer's Market and will just plow through them like it's my job.
I adore rhubarb and will buy it even when it's being brought in from across the atlantic. Which might be why rhubarb crumble was breakfast this morning.
Plums, pluots, apricots: yes, absolutely. I'm always looking for really good apricots, which are harder to come by here in MA than they were in CA. In graduate school, when Berkeley Bowl would reliably have huge piles of them for cheap in-season, I'd buy five pounds at a shot, halve them, roast them in a medium oven, and eat roasted apricots over greek yogurt.
Berries: Dr Bored for Science and I usually do PYO a few times a season at Nourse Farm for raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and red currants (the last one being a matter of getting the timing exactly right). That's usually a mix of eat a bunch in the field, and pick a flat or so of whatever's picking that week. Last summer, I made a ton of various berry ice creams, which were spectacular. I like strawberries, but pretty much refuse to pick them, because it enrages my back.
I'm also a screaming citrus junkie, which was fun in CA. Harder here, although I'm really glad that Meyer lemons have become far more broadly available than they were a decade ago. I miss good white grapefruit (they're findable, but rare, compared to the obnoxiously sweet ruby varieties).
I'll enjoy a good peach or nectarine if I come across one, but they always feel like more of a crapshoot, and even two years of living in the south in the late 2000s didn't teach me to reliably find them. I still buy them, though.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 9:50 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
Let's see: when I wasn't living in New England, the fruit I missed most was apples. I want my apple to basically bite back, so I have no use for insipid sweet varieties. I buy gigantic bags of Ashmead's Kernel every fall from my usual supplier at the Cambridge Farmer's Market and will just plow through them like it's my job.
I adore rhubarb and will buy it even when it's being brought in from across the atlantic. Which might be why rhubarb crumble was breakfast this morning.
Plums, pluots, apricots: yes, absolutely. I'm always looking for really good apricots, which are harder to come by here in MA than they were in CA. In graduate school, when Berkeley Bowl would reliably have huge piles of them for cheap in-season, I'd buy five pounds at a shot, halve them, roast them in a medium oven, and eat roasted apricots over greek yogurt.
Berries: Dr Bored for Science and I usually do PYO a few times a season at Nourse Farm for raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and red currants (the last one being a matter of getting the timing exactly right). That's usually a mix of eat a bunch in the field, and pick a flat or so of whatever's picking that week. Last summer, I made a ton of various berry ice creams, which were spectacular. I like strawberries, but pretty much refuse to pick them, because it enrages my back.
I'm also a screaming citrus junkie, which was fun in CA. Harder here, although I'm really glad that Meyer lemons have become far more broadly available than they were a decade ago. I miss good white grapefruit (they're findable, but rare, compared to the obnoxiously sweet ruby varieties).
I'll enjoy a good peach or nectarine if I come across one, but they always feel like more of a crapshoot, and even two years of living in the south in the late 2000s didn't teach me to reliably find them. I still buy them, though.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 9:50 AM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
A perfect peach is better than any other perfect fruit, but peaches aren't my favorite (if that makes sense).
I mostly eat Gala apples (sliced and heavily sprinkled with cinnamon) or blueberries/strawberries topped with homemade whipped cream.
posted by Twicketface at 9:54 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
I mostly eat Gala apples (sliced and heavily sprinkled with cinnamon) or blueberries/strawberries topped with homemade whipped cream.
posted by Twicketface at 9:54 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm back in the Willamette Valley and working on a farm where I can get free berries! Strawberries are coming in a little already. There will be blue- and rasp- and black- berries as well.
I'm still planning to head to a u-pick and get a flat of Tulameen raspberries and make jam. I've missed it. I'm also hoping my apartment will be cool enough for pie-making at some points during berry season, we'll see.
posted by momus_window at 10:02 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm still planning to head to a u-pick and get a flat of Tulameen raspberries and make jam. I've missed it. I'm also hoping my apartment will be cool enough for pie-making at some points during berry season, we'll see.
posted by momus_window at 10:02 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
Oh wow, this is hard. I love fruit. I love explaining that I eat a lot of fruit in order to remain adequately fruity, but picking a favorite? Uh.
White peaches. These just came into season and my local co-op got them, organic white peaches from Twin Girls Farm. Eat them over the sink, just out of the fridge.
Blackberries, perfect sweet to tart balance.
Honeycrisps, ginger golds, and honeygolds. A standard snack whenever I can get them. Honeygolds and ginger golds don't transport well, so they're harder to get.
Mango. Fresh or as part of mango rice pilaf.
I can only have very small amounts of citrus because I'm sensitive to acidic foods. I miss lemon more than I can tell you about, that hint of brightness in whatever it's added to. I can have some lime and that's utter perfection. The best, though, is blood oranges, sweet and sharp and delicate.
Lychees and rambutans, which I will peel and eat like candy.
Yesterday I went to my dad's for lunch and he made deep-dish gluten-free blueberry pie, oatmeal crust, utter perfection. Blueberries don't really need help, but my dad makes the best pie.
Pears, when you can get them in the few minutes while they're ripe and neither woody nor mushy.
I'm hungry now.
posted by bile and syntax at 10:30 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
White peaches. These just came into season and my local co-op got them, organic white peaches from Twin Girls Farm. Eat them over the sink, just out of the fridge.
Blackberries, perfect sweet to tart balance.
Honeycrisps, ginger golds, and honeygolds. A standard snack whenever I can get them. Honeygolds and ginger golds don't transport well, so they're harder to get.
Mango. Fresh or as part of mango rice pilaf.
I can only have very small amounts of citrus because I'm sensitive to acidic foods. I miss lemon more than I can tell you about, that hint of brightness in whatever it's added to. I can have some lime and that's utter perfection. The best, though, is blood oranges, sweet and sharp and delicate.
Lychees and rambutans, which I will peel and eat like candy.
Yesterday I went to my dad's for lunch and he made deep-dish gluten-free blueberry pie, oatmeal crust, utter perfection. Blueberries don't really need help, but my dad makes the best pie.
Pears, when you can get them in the few minutes while they're ripe and neither woody nor mushy.
I'm hungry now.
posted by bile and syntax at 10:30 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Been recently turned on to the Mineola Tangelo, which is half grapefruit and half mandarin orange. Super bright and juicy, easy to peel, with a flavor that is both sweet and with that hit of acid that a tangerine provides.
Seems to have a relatively brief season so I stock up.
(oh also watermelon with lime squeeze and salt)
(am i the only one who likes underripe watermelon and also is very injto the white part of the rind?)
posted by softlord at 10:34 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Seems to have a relatively brief season so I stock up.
(oh also watermelon with lime squeeze and salt)
(am i the only one who likes underripe watermelon and also is very injto the white part of the rind?)
posted by softlord at 10:34 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
peaches, because they are delicious and because it amuses me that Momo is another name for a corgi's butt
posted by Hermione Granger at 10:38 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Hermione Granger at 10:38 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Mango Mike says he'll be in Joaquin Phoenix (Tom Petty) tomorrow! Waldo Rd. down from the Kangaroo somewhere. Scan the left side of the road, assuming you're headed toward Waldo. Tons of varieties, free samples. (Supposedly starting 9 a.m., but he's often late.)
posted by Don Pepino at 11:03 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Don Pepino at 11:03 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Apples are my go-to. I have always preferred the tart varieties that are traditional in New England (Cortland, McIntosh, Macoun, Empire), though I have come to accept the inevitability of the modern engineered sweet apples which dominate the supermarkets now.
I know summer is a-comin' in when cherries and nectarines start to show up in our supermarket. I have to bide my time and wait for the per-pound price of the cherries to go down. I saw some at Russo's in Watertown the other day for $7.98/pound, but I know if I hold out a couple more weeks, they will be half that price. I can eat a whole bag in a sitting if I don't watch it. I also make a nice kirschkuchen when the sherries are in season; it's great as a breakfast item or as dessert. With nectarines, you puts your money down and you takes your chances. I figure I get one good nectarine for every four I buy, but nothing is better than a perfect nectarine.
We eat a lot of clementines in our house, but I hate the little wooden crates they insist on packaging them in. I am very glad to see them more often in mesh bags now. I like regular navel oranges, too, but clementines are just the perfect size for a quick bite and much easier to peel and eat.
In the fall, I *adore* Concord grapes and will eat box after box of them. I don't much care for other grapes though. They don't taste like grapes to me. I am also quite put out at the arrival of the "Thomcord" hybrid (part Thompson and part Concord) that threatens to drive away real Concord grapes much the way the sweet apples have driven out the tart ones.
posted by briank at 11:30 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
I know summer is a-comin' in when cherries and nectarines start to show up in our supermarket. I have to bide my time and wait for the per-pound price of the cherries to go down. I saw some at Russo's in Watertown the other day for $7.98/pound, but I know if I hold out a couple more weeks, they will be half that price. I can eat a whole bag in a sitting if I don't watch it. I also make a nice kirschkuchen when the sherries are in season; it's great as a breakfast item or as dessert. With nectarines, you puts your money down and you takes your chances. I figure I get one good nectarine for every four I buy, but nothing is better than a perfect nectarine.
We eat a lot of clementines in our house, but I hate the little wooden crates they insist on packaging them in. I am very glad to see them more often in mesh bags now. I like regular navel oranges, too, but clementines are just the perfect size for a quick bite and much easier to peel and eat.
In the fall, I *adore* Concord grapes and will eat box after box of them. I don't much care for other grapes though. They don't taste like grapes to me. I am also quite put out at the arrival of the "Thomcord" hybrid (part Thompson and part Concord) that threatens to drive away real Concord grapes much the way the sweet apples have driven out the tart ones.
posted by briank at 11:30 AM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
I used to live in Phoenix, and my first winter there my ex took me to a median in a nice older neighborhood in Mesa, AZ that had a bunch of grapefruit trees — you can find grapefruit trees all over the area, but the trick is knowing where the good ones are that are fertilized and well-established — where we picked bags and bags of the beautiful golden grapefruits that are common in the valley. The smell of sun-warmed grapefruit, or just the smell of citrus blossoms in late winter in Arizona, is the scent I hope fills my head before I die.
My ex's mom had a lemon tree in her backyard, I can't remember the variety but they were incredible. Huge lemons, thin skin, full of seeds but otherwise perfect for making preserved lemons and my preferred method of enjoying them: fondling in the middle of the kitchen, swooning over the scent, with my eyes closed and hoping no one walks in and catches me.
We made grapefruit sorbet and ice cream often and I had 3-5 grapefruits a day during citrus season when I lived there, and when I visit a friend who works for a CSA there I always leave room in my suitcase for at least 10 pounds of good citrus. Honestly I think the introduction to fresh citrus is why my otherwise toxic relationship lasted so long, and it's why I was so reluctant to commit to my current ladyfriend who isn't such a big fan of citrus. It was hard not to mix up love of the fruit with loving the person. Turns out that's not a good method for choosing a mate.
I agree that a perfectly ripe and full-flavored peach may be the best fruit. I buy flats of peaches from the farmer's market here in Portland in hopes of getting at least one or two good ones, and even when they're not all transcendent but merely juicy and flavorful I could eat my weight in peaches in a single day without being sick of them if I could afford to (n.b. I weigh a lot).
As a Michigander I should probably be more into cherries (near to my hometown is the cherry capital of the world, y'all! And also I think the world's largest cherry pie was baked in my hometown, whoop-de-do), and since I lived for almost a decade in Seattle (where people think their sweet cherries are somehow better than a good Michigan tart cherry, phaw!) — but eh, they're almost always disappointing no matter if you got them for $8 or more a pound at a produce stand or from Safeway. That being said...cherry pie, made with tart cherries, is my favorite kind of pie.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 11:41 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
My ex's mom had a lemon tree in her backyard, I can't remember the variety but they were incredible. Huge lemons, thin skin, full of seeds but otherwise perfect for making preserved lemons and my preferred method of enjoying them: fondling in the middle of the kitchen, swooning over the scent, with my eyes closed and hoping no one walks in and catches me.
We made grapefruit sorbet and ice cream often and I had 3-5 grapefruits a day during citrus season when I lived there, and when I visit a friend who works for a CSA there I always leave room in my suitcase for at least 10 pounds of good citrus. Honestly I think the introduction to fresh citrus is why my otherwise toxic relationship lasted so long, and it's why I was so reluctant to commit to my current ladyfriend who isn't such a big fan of citrus. It was hard not to mix up love of the fruit with loving the person. Turns out that's not a good method for choosing a mate.
I agree that a perfectly ripe and full-flavored peach may be the best fruit. I buy flats of peaches from the farmer's market here in Portland in hopes of getting at least one or two good ones, and even when they're not all transcendent but merely juicy and flavorful I could eat my weight in peaches in a single day without being sick of them if I could afford to (n.b. I weigh a lot).
As a Michigander I should probably be more into cherries (near to my hometown is the cherry capital of the world, y'all! And also I think the world's largest cherry pie was baked in my hometown, whoop-de-do), and since I lived for almost a decade in Seattle (where people think their sweet cherries are somehow better than a good Michigan tart cherry, phaw!) — but eh, they're almost always disappointing no matter if you got them for $8 or more a pound at a produce stand or from Safeway. That being said...cherry pie, made with tart cherries, is my favorite kind of pie.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 11:41 AM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
posted by nantucket at 1:02 PM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
posted by nantucket at 1:02 PM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
I am a gleaner and as a kid would wander the neighborhood making squirrel maps in my head of all the best neglected front-yard fruit trees. I was careful to ask permission, and usually had a friend with me, and got very good at cadging pomegranates and kumquats in reasonable quantities. I have a distinct memory of sharing a pomegranate the size of my head with my friend - we were given permission to each take one, but since they were so huge we shared one and saved the other. It took us an hour to make our way to the end of it.
When my dad moved to Hawaii, I took my habits with me and could easily get macadamias, mangos, fallen coconut, and ONCE, only once, got permission to take an entire bunch of bananas that were conveniently growing out of a ravine so I could reach the top of the tree without climbing. That was such a coup.
Later one summer we went to camp in a remote spot on Maui, where a giant guava tree grew in the middle of a clearing. The last day of camp we were given permission to pick the guava that had been ripening and wasting the entire week (it smelled so amazing even at a distance we BEGGED to be allowed to eat them but weren't given permission until the last day). I still have never tasted anything as good as those fruits, warm from the sun.
As an adult going to art school, my apartment was surrounded by mandarin orange trees and pomegranates. Once again, we were firmly told by the owner that we were not to pick the fruit - but I struck up a friendship with one of the people who worked there and would wake up in the morning to find a row of mandarin oranges capped with a pomegranate resting on my windowsill. A lovely memory. I budgeted my food carefully and fruit gifts saved me a lot of money.
This year I have planted twelve fruit trees and ten berry bushes. I don't know how many will survive but I'm hoping my kids will continue the gleaning tradition and make a habit of spending their days outside, snacking on whatever's ripe as they run by it. In their infancy, I planted a large strawberry bed and had two old apple trees, and they learned from the time they rode in a baby bjorn on my chest that they could reach out and pick and apple to gnaw on. I would set them down on a blanket and watch them crawl at high speed over to the red berries in the strawberry patch. There is literally nothing more satisfying in life than the face of a baby happily munching their way through a year's supply of strawberries and discovering that FOOD grows on the GROUND.
posted by annathea at 1:19 PM on May 31, 2019 [9 favorites]
When my dad moved to Hawaii, I took my habits with me and could easily get macadamias, mangos, fallen coconut, and ONCE, only once, got permission to take an entire bunch of bananas that were conveniently growing out of a ravine so I could reach the top of the tree without climbing. That was such a coup.
Later one summer we went to camp in a remote spot on Maui, where a giant guava tree grew in the middle of a clearing. The last day of camp we were given permission to pick the guava that had been ripening and wasting the entire week (it smelled so amazing even at a distance we BEGGED to be allowed to eat them but weren't given permission until the last day). I still have never tasted anything as good as those fruits, warm from the sun.
As an adult going to art school, my apartment was surrounded by mandarin orange trees and pomegranates. Once again, we were firmly told by the owner that we were not to pick the fruit - but I struck up a friendship with one of the people who worked there and would wake up in the morning to find a row of mandarin oranges capped with a pomegranate resting on my windowsill. A lovely memory. I budgeted my food carefully and fruit gifts saved me a lot of money.
This year I have planted twelve fruit trees and ten berry bushes. I don't know how many will survive but I'm hoping my kids will continue the gleaning tradition and make a habit of spending their days outside, snacking on whatever's ripe as they run by it. In their infancy, I planted a large strawberry bed and had two old apple trees, and they learned from the time they rode in a baby bjorn on my chest that they could reach out and pick and apple to gnaw on. I would set them down on a blanket and watch them crawl at high speed over to the red berries in the strawberry patch. There is literally nothing more satisfying in life than the face of a baby happily munching their way through a year's supply of strawberries and discovering that FOOD grows on the GROUND.
posted by annathea at 1:19 PM on May 31, 2019 [9 favorites]
oh man cotton candy grapes how did I not think of those right off they are thankfully nothing like actual cotton candy but so so delicious
posted by bile and syntax at 1:34 PM on May 31, 2019
posted by bile and syntax at 1:34 PM on May 31, 2019
Growing up we had a peach tree, and there's nothing quite like picking a ripe peach off the tree in the early morning and slicing it into warm oatmeal.
I have several pear trees, and a perfectly ripe pear that just dissolves in your mouth is amazing.
But my absolute favorite is Tangerines when the peel is loose and you can easily remove it in one piece. I love the randomness, will it be will it be firm and bitter? soft and sweet? perfectly in between? or over-ripe and a little off?
posted by zinon at 1:45 PM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have several pear trees, and a perfectly ripe pear that just dissolves in your mouth is amazing.
But my absolute favorite is Tangerines when the peel is loose and you can easily remove it in one piece. I love the randomness, will it be will it be firm and bitter? soft and sweet? perfectly in between? or over-ripe and a little off?
posted by zinon at 1:45 PM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
2 years ago (just about) I bought an apartment with outdoor space. after 2 years of work (the place was a dump when I got it), I planted a full garden and most importantly, 3 types of raspberry canes in containers. They are FINALLY flowering. I am excited beyond belief for fresh raspberries grown on my NYC terrace.
otherwise, I'm fond of apples, wild blueberries and blackberries and pears.
fruit is good.
posted by larthegreat at 1:53 PM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
otherwise, I'm fond of apples, wild blueberries and blackberries and pears.
fruit is good.
posted by larthegreat at 1:53 PM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Loquat season is ending again and I have not had time to make jam, so 2019 is a year without loquat jam. I get about 300 lbs. of loquats on my tree every year and the only way to save them is dehydrated or jam. The neighborhood kids ring my doorbell all May to ask if they can pick some nisperos (en Espanol). We give them bags to pick as many as they want.
I have a pomegranate tree that only produces pomegranates for the squirrels and rats. This makes me more irritated than necessary. Perhaps I will get a couple of pomegranates this year.
This year my blueberry plant produced about 30 blueberries which is more than any other year ever. I have been going outside and eating one blueberry every day. If I buy blueberries, I do tend to eat a lot in one go and, did you know that your poop can turn blue?
Lemons are ubiquitous here in L.A. so I make a lot of lemon jelly with vanilla bean which makes everyone's head explode because they don't know why it's not more common. It's like putting lemonade on your toast.
I love cherries so much. I have to be careful because I will easily eat a pound of them.
Basically, I will eat almost any fruit except, cantaloupe, honeydew, papaya and mango. For some reason, these 4 fruits are not at all tasty to me, so Mr. Sophie gets all of my fruit when we go out for breakfast.
posted by Sophie1 at 2:08 PM on May 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
I have a pomegranate tree that only produces pomegranates for the squirrels and rats. This makes me more irritated than necessary. Perhaps I will get a couple of pomegranates this year.
This year my blueberry plant produced about 30 blueberries which is more than any other year ever. I have been going outside and eating one blueberry every day. If I buy blueberries, I do tend to eat a lot in one go and, did you know that your poop can turn blue?
Lemons are ubiquitous here in L.A. so I make a lot of lemon jelly with vanilla bean which makes everyone's head explode because they don't know why it's not more common. It's like putting lemonade on your toast.
I love cherries so much. I have to be careful because I will easily eat a pound of them.
Basically, I will eat almost any fruit except, cantaloupe, honeydew, papaya and mango. For some reason, these 4 fruits are not at all tasty to me, so Mr. Sophie gets all of my fruit when we go out for breakfast.
posted by Sophie1 at 2:08 PM on May 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
Torn between pineapple and raspberries as my favorite fruit for pure eating pleasure. I buy pineapples a lot because Aldi seems to have them on sale for less than $2.00
The people who owned my property about 15 years ago had homesteading fantasies and put in a lot of fruit trees that are now mostly mature. I've probably mentioned it before but there are apples, plums, an Asian and a Bartlett pear, 3 different varieties of peaches, raspberries, grapes, Juneberries, pie cherries and a big old sweet cherry that is dying...I killed off the strawberries by not weeding/mulching enough. Oh yeah, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and I think there's a pair of English walnuts that haven't yet set any nuts. And an apricot that is newer and doesn't seem super happy and set one fruit this year (having never set fruit before). And a stupid thorny bitter orange in an inconvenient location that needs cutting down. And wild pawpaws and wineberries in the woods.
posted by drlith at 2:13 PM on May 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
The people who owned my property about 15 years ago had homesteading fantasies and put in a lot of fruit trees that are now mostly mature. I've probably mentioned it before but there are apples, plums, an Asian and a Bartlett pear, 3 different varieties of peaches, raspberries, grapes, Juneberries, pie cherries and a big old sweet cherry that is dying...I killed off the strawberries by not weeding/mulching enough. Oh yeah, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and I think there's a pair of English walnuts that haven't yet set any nuts. And an apricot that is newer and doesn't seem super happy and set one fruit this year (having never set fruit before). And a stupid thorny bitter orange in an inconvenient location that needs cutting down. And wild pawpaws and wineberries in the woods.
posted by drlith at 2:13 PM on May 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
Also meant to mention that I'm not, like, a huge fruit eater in general though, and other than what comes from my property these days I only buy/eat pineapples, grapes that my daughter fails to eat, and the occasional box of strawberries. I am not much of a banana fan. I had a bad incident involving morning sickness and bananas and it put me off them for the next 20 years.
posted by drlith at 2:17 PM on May 31, 2019
posted by drlith at 2:17 PM on May 31, 2019
Here's a fun tidbit about bananas. Honey bee alarm pheromones smell like bananas, so do not go hang out at a beehive after having eaten a banana, as the bees take it as a signal to sting the thing that smells like banana.
posted by Sophie1 at 2:34 PM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Sophie1 at 2:34 PM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm wondering if a lot of the people who say they love blackberries (which are just okay) really mean black raspberries (which are delicious, among the best of fruits.) It seems odd that blackberries would be so popular, but on the other hand, an awful lot of people seem to love pineapples and grapefruit, which I actively dislike, so maybe my tastes are just unusual.
posted by Redstart at 4:13 PM on May 31, 2019
posted by Redstart at 4:13 PM on May 31, 2019
Strawberries have always felt decadent to me, especially eating almost an entire pound in a sitting as I do sometimes instead of rationing them out. It seems people are likely to buy several pounds of apples and eat them casually but berries are something many are stingier with (maybe because they're often more expensive.)
I used to love grapefruit but haven't found good/cheap ones in recent years. Actually I feel like I've had that problem with a lot of fruits somehow :(
posted by needs more cowbell at 6:31 PM on May 31, 2019
I used to love grapefruit but haven't found good/cheap ones in recent years. Actually I feel like I've had that problem with a lot of fruits somehow :(
posted by needs more cowbell at 6:31 PM on May 31, 2019
I love the banana, I hate the banana. But I eat about one a day; at least five a week. Keeps my digestive system well; potassium; good stuff. Also in its own carrying case - the peel. No need to wash it like an apple. Bads; well; uh, bland, smooshy texture; and just kinda boring.
Oranges. Love the peelables, so convenient. Been cutting the regular ones into 1/4s in the morning lately; then I fillet out the fruit part for my little guy; and I take the teeth to the rest.
Cherry season is upon us. Sitting outdoors and spitting seeds is classic America.
Watermelon, so juicy and sweet.
I'll compost all the peel rind seeds too. Might mean tossing them along the creek in a semi-rural middle of the city spot; or into the backyard compost. Which kinda never does much thanks to a cooler, drier; high altitude thing that CO is.
Froot! Love to spell it that way. :)
posted by Afghan Stan at 7:52 PM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
Oranges. Love the peelables, so convenient. Been cutting the regular ones into 1/4s in the morning lately; then I fillet out the fruit part for my little guy; and I take the teeth to the rest.
Cherry season is upon us. Sitting outdoors and spitting seeds is classic America.
Watermelon, so juicy and sweet.
I'll compost all the peel rind seeds too. Might mean tossing them along the creek in a semi-rural middle of the city spot; or into the backyard compost. Which kinda never does much thanks to a cooler, drier; high altitude thing that CO is.
Froot! Love to spell it that way. :)
posted by Afghan Stan at 7:52 PM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
Oh! I have fruit story!
So a couple of years ago we were visiting my wife's aunt and uncle in Ottawa, and one evening her aunt put out a dish of dried fruit for snacking. I don't remember all of the items in it, but there were definitely some dried pineapple pieces, which I loved.
So I was snacking away, and then I got one dried pineapple piece which was kinda funny, had a weird taste and texture. I thought it had gone bad, but in a really good way. So I ate it and didn't complain, because I didn't want to embarrass my wife's aunt.
So I had a few more pieces and then got another weird one. Now I started to worry. I didn't want to embarrass my wife's aunt, but they are old and I was also worried that if they got a bad one and got sick that it could be really bad. When I got a third one, I decided I had to mention it. The funny thing was, though, that I thought they had gone "bad" in a really delicious way.
I said "Mary, I'm really sorry, but I think some of you're dried pineapple pieces have gone bad.", and she said to me "Oh, those are candied ginger!"
And thus I was enlightened.
posted by Reverend John at 8:14 PM on May 31, 2019 [7 favorites]
So a couple of years ago we were visiting my wife's aunt and uncle in Ottawa, and one evening her aunt put out a dish of dried fruit for snacking. I don't remember all of the items in it, but there were definitely some dried pineapple pieces, which I loved.
So I was snacking away, and then I got one dried pineapple piece which was kinda funny, had a weird taste and texture. I thought it had gone bad, but in a really good way. So I ate it and didn't complain, because I didn't want to embarrass my wife's aunt.
So I had a few more pieces and then got another weird one. Now I started to worry. I didn't want to embarrass my wife's aunt, but they are old and I was also worried that if they got a bad one and got sick that it could be really bad. When I got a third one, I decided I had to mention it. The funny thing was, though, that I thought they had gone "bad" in a really delicious way.
I said "Mary, I'm really sorry, but I think some of you're dried pineapple pieces have gone bad.", and she said to me "Oh, those are candied ginger!"
And thus I was enlightened.
posted by Reverend John at 8:14 PM on May 31, 2019 [7 favorites]
Last year, travelling in northwestern BC, I was introduced to the delights of the thimbleberry. Apparently they do grow where I live, but when we were hiking in and around Prince Rupert, Kitimat, and Terrace, they were EVERYWHERE along the trails and in the woods. Lots of people don't like them because they are considered "seedy" but to me, they are like little concentrated mouthfuls of the most delicious jam you've ever eaten. We met some First Nations folks along one of the trails who showed us the traditional way to make a cup out of a leaf to gather the berries in, and after that I gathered and ate many, many leaf-cups full of thimbleberries.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:59 AM on June 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:59 AM on June 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
What, no love for durian?
Cherimoya are AMAZING. Wish we could get ‘em up north.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:04 AM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Cherimoya are AMAZING. Wish we could get ‘em up north.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:04 AM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Once a few years back I bought a cup of pomegranate arils and temporarily lost it at the back of my fridge. When I found and ate them they had just begun to ferment or something like that and tasted absolutely incredible... they seemed to be fizzy like champagne. Definitely my superlative fruit-related experience.
posted by XMLicious at 5:06 AM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 5:06 AM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
You haven't sworn intensely enough unless you've ever been instructed to sear grapes - sealed without destroying all the moisture. This is a madness similar to the phrase "there be dragons".
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:09 AM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:09 AM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Late-July tomato — beefsteak or cherokee purple — sliced about an inch thick, with salt, pepper, and Hellmans mayo* on fresh sourdough bread that's been lightly toasted on the inside only** .
* Southerners: Yes, swap in Duke's and leave me alone about it. Midwesterners: Best Foods is literally the same mayo with a less scandalous name.
** A key anti-sogginess trick — but I do mean LIGHTLY toasted, bud.
posted by D.Billy at 5:14 AM on June 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
* Southerners: Yes, swap in Duke's and leave me alone about it. Midwesterners: Best Foods is literally the same mayo with a less scandalous name.
** A key anti-sogginess trick — but I do mean LIGHTLY toasted, bud.
posted by D.Billy at 5:14 AM on June 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
Man, I love fruit. Almost all of it, really. I just got a carton of golden berries at our tiny small-town grocery that stocks very little but has a nice (and exceedingly random) tropical/South American produce selection, and they're interesting!
We leaned hard into berries when we bought the house, and have a terrifying number of raspberry varietals, a currant, a gooseberry, a strawberry patch, and ten blueberry bushes on order, waiting for us to properly acidify the soil they're going in. Also two varieties of plum and, soon, a mulberry tree. And we live down the street from a peach and apple orchard and the university's big experimental apple orchard. So yeah, fruit is a big thing around here.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 8:07 AM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
We leaned hard into berries when we bought the house, and have a terrifying number of raspberry varietals, a currant, a gooseberry, a strawberry patch, and ten blueberry bushes on order, waiting for us to properly acidify the soil they're going in. Also two varieties of plum and, soon, a mulberry tree. And we live down the street from a peach and apple orchard and the university's big experimental apple orchard. So yeah, fruit is a big thing around here.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 8:07 AM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I love the apples from the tree in my yard. Crisp and solid, with just the right balance of sweet and tart. I probably had to grow to love them so much but they just seem the best now. I don't have much interest in any other apples, which usually seem too soft and bland.
Bing cherries have long been my favorite fruit. I was so happy when the price seemed to drop substantially a few years back and I could buy them throughout the season.
I love those little ez-peel mandarin oranges. Just perfect. I have a banana for breakfast every morning. Enjoyable, and I can share a little with my dog, but nothing to get too excited about. Summer berries, pineapple, peaches are all good.
posted by DarkForest at 9:23 AM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Bing cherries have long been my favorite fruit. I was so happy when the price seemed to drop substantially a few years back and I could buy them throughout the season.
I love those little ez-peel mandarin oranges. Just perfect. I have a banana for breakfast every morning. Enjoyable, and I can share a little with my dog, but nothing to get too excited about. Summer berries, pineapple, peaches are all good.
posted by DarkForest at 9:23 AM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Anything that grows locally. Crisp apples and hard pears and tart gooseberries (jam!) and all the other berries. I like the taste of other fruits (bananas, for example), but the thought of all that shipping and so on just to give me two minutes of something from the other side of the world puts me off them a bit.
posted by pracowity at 9:59 AM on June 1, 2019
posted by pracowity at 9:59 AM on June 1, 2019
I got mad love for the durian!
posted by Don Pepino at 10:04 AM on June 1, 2019
posted by Don Pepino at 10:04 AM on June 1, 2019
Olives. Give me all the olives.
posted by biggreenplant at 11:16 AM on June 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by biggreenplant at 11:16 AM on June 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
Late-July tomato — beefsteak or cherokee purple — sliced about an inch thick, with salt, pepper, and Hellmans mayo* on fresh sourdough bread that's been lightly toasted on the inside only** .
OMG drooling. we used to get two bushels of maters from a friend's Farm every summer. The first bushel was canned right away, and we worked on the other one as long as we could, making tomato sandwiches or - oh, man, I can taste it now - just a bowl of cut-up tomatoes and cucumbers with just a dab of mayonnaise, or Italian or creamy cucumber dressing. Whatever we couldn't eat up in time got stewed and frozen. I can't just scarf up tomatoes and cucumbers like I did back then (acid, etc.), but the memory tastes wonderful.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:16 PM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
OMG drooling. we used to get two bushels of maters from a friend's Farm every summer. The first bushel was canned right away, and we worked on the other one as long as we could, making tomato sandwiches or - oh, man, I can taste it now - just a bowl of cut-up tomatoes and cucumbers with just a dab of mayonnaise, or Italian or creamy cucumber dressing. Whatever we couldn't eat up in time got stewed and frozen. I can't just scarf up tomatoes and cucumbers like I did back then (acid, etc.), but the memory tastes wonderful.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:16 PM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
I have always loved peaches, but they have to be just-picked and local or - just no. The very best peach I have ever eaten was on a bicycle trip in New England, we stopped at a hostel in Grey Ledges, NH. There was a roadside stand down the hill. The peach was still warm from the sun, and juice ran from my mouth on the first scrumptious bite.
Now in the PNW, we grow apples (three kinds), raspberries,strawberries, blueberries, and pears. We had an old peach tree that got overloaded too many years in a row, and committed suicide. We may replant another one, the only kind that do well here is the Frost, very thick skin, but lovely as a jam, sauce, or broiled.
posted by dbmcd at 1:10 PM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Now in the PNW, we grow apples (three kinds), raspberries,strawberries, blueberries, and pears. We had an old peach tree that got overloaded too many years in a row, and committed suicide. We may replant another one, the only kind that do well here is the Frost, very thick skin, but lovely as a jam, sauce, or broiled.
posted by dbmcd at 1:10 PM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
We had dinner with a friend who just moved to Orlando last night, and it turns out that he's got access to Meyer lemons and white grapefruits, and is more than happy to ship me citrus.
This may be perilous.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 1:19 PM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
This may be perilous.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 1:19 PM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
My garden produces a lot of apples (some sort of Cox hybrid and a Worcester Pearmain), strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blueberries and rhubarb.
I think I like rhubarb the best. Most of ours lives in a single raised bed, and produces a couple of kilos a week if you keep pulling it. Makes an excellent gin liqueur.
A recent-ish addition to the British fruit garden, I find blueberries disappointing. To me they are utterly bland, even straight from the bush, with no distinctive taste. The humble blackberry is far superior in my opinion, and it's also largely free.
posted by pipeski at 3:45 PM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I think I like rhubarb the best. Most of ours lives in a single raised bed, and produces a couple of kilos a week if you keep pulling it. Makes an excellent gin liqueur.
A recent-ish addition to the British fruit garden, I find blueberries disappointing. To me they are utterly bland, even straight from the bush, with no distinctive taste. The humble blackberry is far superior in my opinion, and it's also largely free.
posted by pipeski at 3:45 PM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I find blueberries disappointing. To me they are utterly bland, even straight from the bush, with no distinctive taste.
I wonder if you're leaving them on the bush too long. They get milder as you let them ripen more. I like to pick them as soon as they're all blue with no pink or red, not leave them until they get darker blue. Some varieties are better than others, also. I have one variety I like a lot less than the others.
posted by Redstart at 7:47 PM on June 1, 2019
I wonder if you're leaving them on the bush too long. They get milder as you let them ripen more. I like to pick them as soon as they're all blue with no pink or red, not leave them until they get darker blue. Some varieties are better than others, also. I have one variety I like a lot less than the others.
posted by Redstart at 7:47 PM on June 1, 2019
I thought of two more:
Italian prune plums. We had a tree and my aunt and grandmother had a tree. I ate so many every summer I'm surprised I didn't make myself sick. There's a nice lady in our neighbourhood with a tree and she lets people pick as many as they want. They are soooooo good.
Blackberries. I grew up near Vancouver, BC, where they grow wild all over the place and we had them in our backyard. My mom would send us kids out to pick them. I now live somewhere where they do not grow, wild or otherwise, but they are sold for outrageous prices in the grocery store. I cannot bring myself to buy them. Buy blackberries?? That's like paying money for dandelions (tasty, tasty dandelions).
Raspberries. These grow very well where I live--we have a ton in our backyard--and they are a superb balm for my disappointment regarding blackberries!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:47 PM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
Italian prune plums. We had a tree and my aunt and grandmother had a tree. I ate so many every summer I'm surprised I didn't make myself sick. There's a nice lady in our neighbourhood with a tree and she lets people pick as many as they want. They are soooooo good.
Blackberries. I grew up near Vancouver, BC, where they grow wild all over the place and we had them in our backyard. My mom would send us kids out to pick them. I now live somewhere where they do not grow, wild or otherwise, but they are sold for outrageous prices in the grocery store. I cannot bring myself to buy them. Buy blackberries?? That's like paying money for dandelions (tasty, tasty dandelions).
Raspberries. These grow very well where I live--we have a ton in our backyard--and they are a superb balm for my disappointment regarding blackberries!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:47 PM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
Wild blackberries. The technique is that you walk up to a giant bush full of them & shove them into your face until your hands & lips are purple. It’s really pretty simple.
When I was 9, we lived in Portland for a short while & there was a vacant lot next door, and what had been the basement of a house had become a house-sized blackberry bush. Us kids from the neighborhood feasted on that bush for days. When the outside edges were eaten up, we tossed down a 2x12 so that we could wade into the bush, & right in the middle we found the biggest blackberry I have ever seen, still to this day. There were four of us, but only one of it, & we knew someone had to be Chosen. We each demurred, offering it to one another in turn, until finally the other 3 came to a mutual agreement that I should be the one to eat the berrry. It was like getting married & winning the lottery all at once. Let me tell you I ate it ceremoniously & by G*d it was the best bite of food I will have ever taken in my life.
I just remembered this the other day when I stumbled across the Brautigan story Blackberry Motorist, but there was no car beneath our bush.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:09 PM on June 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
When I was 9, we lived in Portland for a short while & there was a vacant lot next door, and what had been the basement of a house had become a house-sized blackberry bush. Us kids from the neighborhood feasted on that bush for days. When the outside edges were eaten up, we tossed down a 2x12 so that we could wade into the bush, & right in the middle we found the biggest blackberry I have ever seen, still to this day. There were four of us, but only one of it, & we knew someone had to be Chosen. We each demurred, offering it to one another in turn, until finally the other 3 came to a mutual agreement that I should be the one to eat the berrry. It was like getting married & winning the lottery all at once. Let me tell you I ate it ceremoniously & by G*d it was the best bite of food I will have ever taken in my life.
I just remembered this the other day when I stumbled across the Brautigan story Blackberry Motorist, but there was no car beneath our bush.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:09 PM on June 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
I worked at a restaurant in Florida for a little while that would broil grapefruit with a pat of butter in the middle & brown sugar sprinkled around it. We’d add the brown sugar gradually, pulling them out of the broiler & adding more 4 or 5 times until they were cooked through. They garnished breakfast plates with these & they were pretty damn good.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:36 PM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:36 PM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
Like saladin I'm loving mulberry season, and it both saddens and cracks me up how many people just seem to have no interest in or are disgusted/annoyed by this amazingly fecund weird giant tree that just drops candy at you.
There's a dove family in mine again this year, and every time I've gone out there with the stepladder they just kinda stare back at me like little bird statues, knowing I can't quite reach them. I always assure them I'm only taking what I can reach, but I'm not sure they understand my thick human accent . . .
posted by aspersioncast at 10:07 PM on June 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
There's a dove family in mine again this year, and every time I've gone out there with the stepladder they just kinda stare back at me like little bird statues, knowing I can't quite reach them. I always assure them I'm only taking what I can reach, but I'm not sure they understand my thick human accent . . .
posted by aspersioncast at 10:07 PM on June 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
Almost any fruit with plain yogurt is a treat.
Figs in a salad with proscuitto and arugula - I haven't had that in a long time but NOM.
I like eating grapefruit by myself, on the couch, with a bowl next to me for skin and membranes, while watching TV. And I like it in salads with thinly-sliced fennel.
Pomegranates. I used to suck the flesh away and spit out each seed - this slightly gross practice made it a fruit to be enjoyed in private. But then I learned you could just eat the seeds. Started putting them in salads and serving them to guests. Total game-changer.
I like apples in practice. I have trouble getting excited about them in theory, but a good crisp apple, cold from the fridge, is a delight.
posted by bunderful at 8:49 AM on June 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
Figs in a salad with proscuitto and arugula - I haven't had that in a long time but NOM.
I like eating grapefruit by myself, on the couch, with a bowl next to me for skin and membranes, while watching TV. And I like it in salads with thinly-sliced fennel.
Pomegranates. I used to suck the flesh away and spit out each seed - this slightly gross practice made it a fruit to be enjoyed in private. But then I learned you could just eat the seeds. Started putting them in salads and serving them to guests. Total game-changer.
I like apples in practice. I have trouble getting excited about them in theory, but a good crisp apple, cold from the fridge, is a delight.
posted by bunderful at 8:49 AM on June 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
I eat an apple every night -- it makes my stomach happy, for some reason. Feeling a little queasy? Got that "Ugh, I ate too much dinner" feeling? Eat an apple! Fixes me right up.
I live for cherry season. Nice dark sweet cherries, yum. And watermelon, I love watermelon.
posted by sarcasticah at 12:35 PM on June 2, 2019
I live for cherry season. Nice dark sweet cherries, yum. And watermelon, I love watermelon.
posted by sarcasticah at 12:35 PM on June 2, 2019
I forgot to mention that I eat grapefruit in a way I’ve never seen anyone else eat it, which is weird because to me it’s so quick and easy and so much less frustrating than using a serrated spoon or knife. I just cut it into slices like you would an orange, cut those in half, then do a tiny little triangle cut in the very center to take out the white center stem (I do this with oranges too). Then you can chomp the whole slice at once and eat a grapefruit in 30 seconds flat and move on to the next. If you’re me, you like to have 2-3 at a time as fast as you can as long as your mouth isn’t hurting from doing so many days in a row.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 12:42 PM on June 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 12:42 PM on June 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
Also if I ever need another Metafilter account my handle will be The Scorpion Trees have Citrus.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 12:43 PM on June 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 12:43 PM on June 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
Oh, yeah, I forgot about the rhubarb! At the same place where we had the apple orchard, there was also a relatively big rhubarb patch. The freezer always had a good stock of rhubarb pie, rhubarb cake, stewed rhubarb, and bags of raw rhubarb chunks. Warm stewed rhubarb over vanilla bean ice cream. Gah!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:32 PM on June 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:32 PM on June 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
This thread inspired me to load up on fruit. I just ate blackberries and blueberries with cream-top yogurt. And I have cherries and some kind of melon waiting on me. And apples.
posted by bunderful at 7:52 PM on June 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by bunderful at 7:52 PM on June 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
I made a berry clafoutis from a recipe that didn't work really well (order of operations was bad, proportions were subtly off - not the recipe linked in this thread). I wouldn't serve it to a guest...but somehow I managed quite a large portion myself.
posted by Frowner at 5:33 AM on June 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 5:33 AM on June 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
There is nothing better than a good peach. I have gotten to the point where I will take one bite of a peach and it it's not good I will throw it away. Life is too short to eat bad peaches, but a good peach is literally the best thing on the planet.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 11:42 AM on June 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by rabbitrabbit at 11:42 AM on June 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
A quote from Alice Walker that I will probably remember to my grave:
"Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring and because it has fresh peaches in it."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:02 PM on June 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
"Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring and because it has fresh peaches in it."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:02 PM on June 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
I have never been a big fruit person; it's ok, I just don't get excited about it. But I discovered fruit salsas exist and that was a revelation. On tortilla chips? Hot damn.
posted by emjaybee at 5:34 PM on June 3, 2019
posted by emjaybee at 5:34 PM on June 3, 2019
BLACKBERRY EATING
Galway Kinnell
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths and squinched,
many-lettered, on-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.
posted by nantucket at 5:53 PM on June 3, 2019 [4 favorites]
Galway Kinnell
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths and squinched,
many-lettered, on-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.
posted by nantucket at 5:53 PM on June 3, 2019 [4 favorites]
It's persimmon season here, and one of my housemates got many (many!) from a friends orchard. They are very old trees, so the fruit needs to be very, very ripe or they are too bitter to eat. Essentially mush. We've been eating them for weeks now, and I've finally worked out how to eat them without getting covered in sticky persimmon goo. Pull out the stem, cut in half downwards, then eat each half out of the skin with a spoon, like a kiwifruit.
This week we got piles of kumquats from another friend, so I'll be salting some, making some marmalade and eating a lot of kumquat, lentil and bacon soup. It's amazing how much fruit you can get for free if you make friends with people with fruit trees!
posted by kjs4 at 8:53 PM on June 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
This week we got piles of kumquats from another friend, so I'll be salting some, making some marmalade and eating a lot of kumquat, lentil and bacon soup. It's amazing how much fruit you can get for free if you make friends with people with fruit trees!
posted by kjs4 at 8:53 PM on June 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
I was just thinking of Prince Harry's fruit-based best man speech from the Blackadder episode "The Queen of Spain's Beard."
"It is with exstrawberry pleasure that we welcome you. May you always be the apple of your husband's eye, and may he in turn cherries you, even though it's an oranged marriage."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:43 PM on June 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
"It is with exstrawberry pleasure that we welcome you. May you always be the apple of your husband's eye, and may he in turn cherries you, even though it's an oranged marriage."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:43 PM on June 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
We had the first strawberries from our container garden last night with good plain vanilla ice cream from the local shop and OMG the best.
The raspberries are in full flower, and I am super excited to at least get a handful or two given that these were bare root canes less than2 months ago! I am extremely optimistic about how many raspberries I will have next year!
posted by larthegreat at 8:10 AM on June 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
The raspberries are in full flower, and I am super excited to at least get a handful or two given that these were bare root canes less than2 months ago! I am extremely optimistic about how many raspberries I will have next year!
posted by larthegreat at 8:10 AM on June 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
But I discovered fruit salsas exist and that was a revelation.
I don't actually really like raw tomatoes very much, (I'm mildly allergic to them, and they're usually so... meh... yes I know they're a fruit technically) but anyway, I love fruit salsas. I made a strawberry one when they were in season that was divine, and last week I made a watermelon salsa that might be my new favorite. Peaches next.
posted by PearlRose at 12:36 PM on June 5, 2019
I don't actually really like raw tomatoes very much, (I'm mildly allergic to them, and they're usually so... meh... yes I know they're a fruit technically) but anyway, I love fruit salsas. I made a strawberry one when they were in season that was divine, and last week I made a watermelon salsa that might be my new favorite. Peaches next.
posted by PearlRose at 12:36 PM on June 5, 2019
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by soundguy99 at 1:18 PM on May 30, 2019 [4 favorites]