"SummerFruit" news and stories

Last summer, I socked away a gallon-sized zip top bag full of handpicked blackberries in my freezer's ice bin (that side of the kitchen isn't plumbed, so we can't hook up the ice maker). Those berries have been there since August, a visual reminder that it was once summer and that warm weather really does exist.

Just about every summer, I manage to squirrel away at least one bag of fruit for winter use, be it peaches, blueberries or blackberries. However, every year, I waste an awful lot of mental energy trying to find the exact right time to actually use my frozen bounty. I finally broke down this weekend, using my berries to make a big, bubbly cobbler with a biscuit-y topping.

I'm curious, does anyone else struggle with using the foodstuffs they've frozen or preserved?

While I've never been one to turn down a piece of pie, I go positively bonkers over a good galette. There's something about the rustic, free-form nature of a galette that really appeals to my inner farm wife. I made my first one several years ago, with mediocre supermarket strawberries and dough that kept falling apart. Despite those challenges, brushed with a bit of milk and baked until golden brown, it exited the oven a delightful thing indeed.

Thanks Lelo, for adding this gorgeous galette to the Slashfood Flickr pool.

Source

I grew up eating wild Oregon blackberries, picked straight from the brambles. During my middle school years, we lived in a house that sat on about half an acre of land and had multiple fruit trees and loads of blackberry bushes. Those bushes were hugely thorny and picking the berries required long pants and sleeves and a willingness to sacrifice a bit of skin in order to come away with buckets of gorgeous fruit.

Seeing this berry makes me think of those days picking fruit. I've never been able to find anyplace on the east coast where wild blackberries thrive the way they do all over the Pacific Northwest.

Thanks Jill for adding your picture to the pool and giving me the chance to take a short blackberry-inspired jaunt through my memories.

Source

Stone fruit is abundant right now, and while it's lovely to eat a peach, plum or apricot just as it comes, sometimes you get tired of simply eating the fruit out of hand. Cobblers, pies and jams are all fine and good, but sometimes, putting halved fruit on the grill is a simple and delicious way to finish off a barbecue (if you aren't grilling out, it's also wonderful to briefly saute up the halves in a little butter on the top of the stove).

Here Gillian has taken some ripe apricot halves and set them on the grill to soften them up and enhance those sweet fruit flavors. Yum!

Thanks for adding your pic to the pool, Gillian!

Source

I am not a pie person. I enjoy eating them, but I find the process of making crust, rolling it out and getting it into the pan more bother than I can really deal with. However, I happily embrace all varieties of crisps and cobblers because they are hugely easy and are a wonderful way to use all that great summer fruit.

Yesterday, I made the easiest cobbler ever. It requires just one bowl, one measuring cup and a baking pan. Butter your favorite baking pan and set it aside. Pour five or six cups of blueberries into a medium-sized mixing bowl and add a few cubed nectarines (not required, but very tasty). Sprinkle cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon and grated nutmeg over fruit and squeeze half a lemon in. Stir to combine and pour into the baking pan. Use the same bowl to mix up the biscuit-style topping (recipe after the jump) and spoon it over the top.

I took it to a cookout last night and it was the perfect finish to a meal of hamburgers, potato salad, grilled corn and fresh, garden squash.