VMBURNS: Nothing says summer like fresh fruit. Many of you may know that while I was born in the Midwest, I now live in Northern Georgia. Georgia is known as the Peach State. If you're driving around Atlanta, you'll be amazed (and a little confused) by all of the streets referring to peaches. Peachtree St., Peachtree NE, Peachtree Circle, etc., etc. Peach season starts in Mid May down here and markets and roadside stands are overflowing with peaches. Seeing so many peaches makes me start to look for recipes to take advantage of this abundant fruit. Restaurants abound with peach cobbler, but I've never been a fan of cooked peaches. But, I do love peach flavored beverages. Peach tea, peach lemonade, and peach margaritas. I fired up the grill and made grilled peaches with ice cream. It was delicious.
What about all of you? What fruits signal the start of summer for you? Do you have a favorite summer fruit recipe?
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LUCY BURDETTE: Valerie, I love peaches so much but we won't have local fruit until late August. I can't wait! We did get our first batch of cherries last week. I will look forward to making this cherry galette again this summer!
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MADDIE DAY: I also adore fresh peaches. I grew up in the Pasadena area of California with a yellow and a white peach tree in the backyard. We also had lemon, fig, guava, and apricot trees, all planted by my parents when we moved in when I was four, plus boysenberry bushes.
Alas, a late-in-life allergy means I can eat cooked-only stone fruit like peaches and apricots (and apples and pears and cherries, oh no). Luckily, berries are fine, so the allergy doesn't rule out an Ode to Summer Fruit Tart!
Local strawberries and raspberries are already ripening at my local farm stands, and the blueberry bushes I planted ten years ago are laden with baby berries. I might try a summer fruit Sangria!
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KIM DAVIS: I love this time of the year when spring and summer fruits flood the stalls at the farmers' market! Plump, juicy cherries, raspberries, and blackberries are nearly impossible for me to pass up, along with peaches, nectarines, and apricots. I often come home with too much fruit and end up having to share with others... but I get no complaints. In all honesty, I typically eat the fruit straight from the container (after washing, of course) perched over the sink to catch the juicy dribbles. The only summer fruit (well, I guess it's really a vegetable) that I cook into desserts is rhubarb. Every early summer when we'd head to Illinois to visit my husband's family, my mother-in-law would greet us with a Homemade Rhubarb Pie... it was the BEST! And I'd often finish the last piece for breakfast the next day. Fortunately she taught me how to make it but hers still always tasted better... I think it was the love she poured into it.
In summers past I'd also visit my sister in Oregon where blackberries grew wild along just about every country road. When I'd visit, she'd often make this Busy-Day Blackberry Cobbler, a recipe passed down from our mother. It's an easy and delicious way to use up an over abundance of fruit!
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ANG POMPANO: Valerie, my favorite fruit that signals the start of summer may surprise some people because it’s sweet corn. Botanically speaking, corn is actually a fruit because it develops from the flower of the corn plant. Corn somehow manages to span three worlds at once: fruit botanically, vegetable when young, and grain when mature.
But I’m wandering off into the cornfield here.
I live in a town that still likes to think of itself as an agricultural community, so farm stands selling corn picked that very morning are only minutes away in every direction. For me, there’s nothing better than peeling back the husk of a freshly picked ear of corn, stripping away the silk, giving it a quick rinse, and eating it raw right off the cob. It beats dessert every time.
My recipe is simple. I cut the raw kernels off the cob and toss them into a bowl with chopped tomatoes, cucumber, basil, olive oil, salt, and pepper. It’s nothing fancy, but to me it spells summer.
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LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Here in NW Montana, we're a ways away from local fruit. My own garden gives us rhubarb, apples, and raspberries, and we're planting a new strawberry patch right now, as ours fell prey to voles. Cherries grown on the shores of Flathead Lake are short-lived and much-loved, here and beyond, though our home is in the woods at the base of the mountains and cherries won't grow in our yard. I grew up eagerly anticipating my mother's Rhubarb Custard Pie. I shared that recipe in Treble at the Jam Fest, the 4th Food Lovers' Village Mystery. (Kim featured it a few years ago on her blog, with photos pretty enough to make me want to eat the screen.) As a proud member of the People of the Pie, I believe you can never have too much of a good thing, so I put this Rhubarb Sour Cream Custard Pie to the test and it succeeded with flying colors!
Or try your rhubarb in a muffin. I created these Rhubarb Almond Muffins a few years ago, inspired by a Raspberry Almond Muffin at my favorite local cafe.
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I'll leave you with a photo of a recent discovery, on our Great Spring Road Trip -- 3,500 miles, 7 states, 4 national parks -- the Prickly Pear Margarita. Now, prickly pear does grow in central Montana, though it's far more common in the southwest, and we discovered prickly pear margaritas and lemonade in New Mexico. I snared a bottle of juice and we made margaritas last weekend -- gorgeous and tasty! (The recipe came from the maker, often the best source.)
Cactus is a fruit, right? Cheers!
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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: I love peaches, but like Lucy, ours won't be available locally until August. Until then, the ones in the supermarket are hit or miss. Right now cherries are in the store. Michigan is known for its cherries. As a matter of fact, Traverse City's airport is known as Cherry Capital Airport! And that reminds me, it's time I made this cherry cake again!
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LESLIE KARST: Okay, I'm gonna be a little boring and go with peaches, like so many of my other Kitchen cohorts. But I mean, c'mon--there's nothing in the world like a fresh summer peach, right?
The peaches here on coastal California are no where near as good as Valerie's Georgia peaches, but we do get delicious ones from the interior of the state where it gets good and hot in the summer. And this is one of my favorite things to do with them: Peaches and Cream with a French-Italian Twist. A simple and delicious dessert which lets the fruit shine, it's the perfect finish to a summer meal.
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MOLLY MACRAE: Beautiful
ripe berries are summer to me, beginning with strawberries in early June. When
we lived in upper east Tennessee, we’d go down the road to pick gallons of them
at the strawberry farm. We took them home, ate as many as we could and freeze
the rest. When our older son was 2 1/2, he and I picked strawberries the day
our younger was due. Maybe that’s why they’re both so sweet.
For blackberries we didn’t need to go anywhere at all. We had oodles of wild ones along the edge of our meadow. There’s nothing like a ripe blackberry, warm from the sun and straight off the cane. There’s nothing like blackberry cobbler, either.
Friends of ours had raspberries (and generously shared them). “Raspberry” was one our younger son’s first words (reduced to one syllable and more like a secret language).
In July, we’d cross over from Tennessee to North Carolina at Iron Mountain Gap and pick blueberries in Buladean—always heeding the warning to watch out for bears. Here are recipes for BlueberryPie with a Cornmeal Crust and BlueberryLemon Bread Pudding. And here’s a fresh fruit salad topped with gorgeous raspberries made by our younger son, still into raspberries at 43.
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DARCI HANNAH: For me nothing says summer like a slice of cherry pie! Although I now live in Michigan where we grow lots of delicious tart cherries, as a kid we always spent our summers in Wisconsin, on the Door County peninsula. Door County is also known for growing cherries, and when spring hits the orchards come alive with beautiful pink cherry blossoms. It's a truly magical sight to see. Then, in July the cherries ripen, and for me there's no better time of the year. Our family used to pick our cherries in the orchard, and when we'd come home my mom made her special Door County cherry pie. It's delicious served warm with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. In fact, my first cozy mystery series, the Very Cherry Mystery Series was set in Door County on a cherry orchard. You can print the recipe here:
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VICKI DELANY: My goodness what a fantastic selection of fruit, fruit drinks, fruit desserts, and pure yummy fruitie goodness. Right now in the farm country of Southern Ontario rhubarb is in and strawberries soon to come. Strawberry rhubarb bars are one of the things I love to make the most when everything is in season. In fact, it's so much my favourite, it was my very first recipe as a regular cook in the kitchen!
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CLEO COYLE: On hot summer days, I love to whip up this VIRGIN SANGRIA, which is not only refreshing and hydrating but also uses some of my favorite summer fruits (watermelon, strawberries, and peaches), although you can adapt the recipe to your own favorites.
Why virgin? While a white wine sangria is delicious, on a workday, I prefer that my fingers hit my laptop keyboard rather than my forehead, which means no firewater until the day is done. A virgin sangria is also a good idea for households with kids because it can be converted into an adult beverage at the time it's poured, which means one pitcher can serve drinkers and non-drinkers alike.
Click here for my VIRGIN SANGRIA recipe (with a free, downloadable PDF), and enjoy the fruits of summer, everyone! ~ Cleo
Readers, how about you?
What fruits signal the start of summer for you? Do you have a favorite summer fruit recipe? Let us know in the comments. If you're willing to share, include the recipe, too. Comment below to be entered in this month's giveaway!
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Murder at First Slice (ARC) by Valerie Burns
A Clue in the Crumbs (paperback) Lucy Burdette
Essentials of Murder by Kim Davis
When It's Time for Leaving by Ang Pompano
Cherry Scones & Broken Bones by Darci Hannah
All Shell Breaks Loose, (ARC) by Molly MacRae
No Roast for the Weary by Cleo Coyle
Treble at the Jam Fest by Leslie Budewitz
Murder at Cape Cod Costumers by Maddie Day
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Comments open through Wed. June 10
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