"fresh fruit" news and stories

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a review of Vlada, a New York bar that specializes in infused vodkas. As I mentioned in my post, my experiences at Vlada had made me nostalgic for the moonshine that I had once enjoyed in Southwest Virginia. Back in the day, I used to buy 'shine by the gallon and infuse it with fruits, herbs, honey, and other ingredients, producing a wide range of aperitifs. While I'm a huge fan of store-bought liqueurs, I have yet to meet the mass-produced tipple that can rival the blueberry-infused moonshine, moonshine-based absinthe, or moonshine krupnikas that I once made.

The more I thought about it, the more I decided that the time had come to restart my experiments in fruit infusion. I had a half bottle of Everclear in the liquor cabinet, which I quickly determined was still relatively fresh and potent. A trip down to the farmer's market gave me a couple of pints of fresh blueberries, which I washed, dried, picked over, and packed in mason jars. I covered the fruit in grain alcohol, closed the lids, and set them in the back of one of my kitchen cabinets. Apart from giving them a daily shake, I was content to let time and the 190-proof alcohol do their work.

A week later, the alcohol was stained a deep purple and the berries were gray. A quick taste assured me that the grain was still mighty strong, but was now infused with a nice blueberry flavor. Wanting something a little more intense, I let a second batch of berries steep for a week in the alcohol. Afterward, I had a very alcoholic, very intensely flavored blueberry liquor. I also had a second batch of slightly sour-tasting blueberry alcohol that I got from running the leftover blueberries through my fruit juicer.

Last week, my local produce market devoted an entire shelf of their display space to these pint boxes of fresh, local strawberries. They were selling for $3 a basket and I bought one (I wish I had gotten two or three more). When I got them home, I took them straight into the kitchen, washed a few and stood by the sink to eat the deep red fruit. The seeds were more assertive than those you find in those sturdy, pale California berries and while it was a surprise at first, I found myself enjoying the crunch, as it added a satisfying textural counterpoint to the fruit.

It seems like everyone is enjoying the abundance of berries right now. Over in the Talk section of Serious Eats, people are trading Strawberry Cake recipes. At Coconut & Lime, Rachel made Strawberry Thyme Cupcakes. Strawberry Kutchen is the dish du jour at Sunday Nite Dinner (the recipe is posted along with lots of tantalizing pictures). Or you could be like me and just chop up your fruit and eat it with yogurt and a drizzle of honey (only if the berries are tart).

What are your favorite ways to use fresh strawberries?

As I mentioned last week, sometimes the best pictures aren't of the completed meal, but of the ingredients themselves. We received some links back from readers directing us to even more amazing collections of fresh fruits and veggie pictures, which I've included in a little photo essay that you can view after the jump. Have more? Send them to us via this link.

(Special thanks to Sheri and Anita!)

Apricots are a stone fruit that has been cultivated for the past 4000 years. The originated in China, near what is now the Russia border. The tree was brought to Europe by the Romans in approximately 70BC, but it gradually spread westward through Asia over the course of s few thousand years to countries like Turkey, where it became very popular. Apricots were brought to America by Spanish missionaries.

Classified as stone fruits, apricots have a large, hard seed in their center around which the flesh of the fruit grows. They appear to be very similar to peaches and nectarines, but are often a bit smaller, measuring 1 1/2-2 1/2-inches in diameter with a prominent suture running down one side. They range in color from yellow to orange, and some varieties even have a reddish cast to them.