Just-picked summer fruits look like they’ve been kissed by sunshine. They are readily available this time of year so now is the time to put a little more sunshine in our diet. Bright oranges, ripe peaches, succulent strawberries, blueberries and sweet little cherries, fruits are the ultimate finger food. It’s fun to eat the rainbow!
For those of us who try to incorporate fresh fruit into our meals but find our fruit wilting untouched in the refrigerator, here are some tips to keep fruit fresh and easy to eat:
- As soon as you bring fruit home from the market get it ready to eat. Wash it, cap strawberries, pull off any little stems from the blueberries, peel and cut pineapple into chunks, etc. Place the prepared fruit in little plastic snack bags in the refrigerator. These bags will be easy to grab for a fast breakfast, quick snack, take them in the car and pack them in a lunch.
- Purchase a juicer. “The Juiceman” is a relatively inexpensive and easy to use juicer that is available locally and on-line. It juices oranges and other large citrus fruits as well as lemons and limes. A glass of fresh orange juice is a bright start to the day. Blood orange juice is a pretty and a delicious alternative to traditional naval orange juice.
- Visit your local farmer’s market and make friends with a farmer. They know which fruits are in season and if you’re lucky they might give you a sliver of fresh peach to munch on while you mull over the produce.
- Make fruit an icy treat. Peel clementines and break into segments and freeze. Make fresh fruit popsicles and fresh fruit kabobs (raspberries, clementine segments and blueberries make fabulous kabobs). Freeze honeydew and cantaloupe melon balls.
- Smoothies are a wonderful way to enjoy fresh fruit. Layered smoothies are especially pretty – think of it as “drinking the rainbow” – try layering strawberry smoothie on top of blueberry smoothie for a 4th of July treat.
- Put fresh blueberries in your lemonade.
- Grow a fruit tree in your backyard. Create fun childhood memories with an apple tree with sturdy limbs for climbing. If space is limited plant blueberry bushes. Pick-your-own fruit farms are fun too! Here’s a link to a comprehensive list of pick-your-own fruit farms from local food writer Christina Nifong: http://christinanifong.com/tag/pick-your-own-farms/
- Make a fruit platter with honeydew melon, cucumber slices and halved cherry tomatoes. Use as many different colors of cherry tomatoes as you can find. Rolling Meadows Farm, one of the Downtown Roanoke Market vendors sells yellow, black, green and red cherry tomatoes. Cucumbers and tomatoes are fruits too!
- Try “new to you” fruits to give your taste buds a treat …kiwi, mango, Asian pears, and dragon fruit perhaps?
- Now that you’ve added fresh fruit to your daily routine it’s time for a special treat ~ dip big juicy red ripe strawberries in dark chocolate.
