Sensational Summer Spreads
Attention! We have hit primetime for local produce. Don’t miss out. The juiciest, sweetest, freshest food you can eat is ripe on vines, trees, bushes, and plants all around us … right here, right now!
If you are not usually the farmer’s market type, summer is the one season of the year to give in. Those shipped-in Georgia peaches at the grocery can’t beat Texas peaches from your neighbor, picked the day before you eat them.
What is especially wonderful about all the fresh, local fruits and veggies at this time of year? They all go together and almost any combination works. I’m talking about berries, peaches, apples, tomatoes, onions, figs, melon, beans, squash, cucumbers, herbs, peas, pears, and peppers.
How about a peach, tomato, and cilantro salsa? Or a fig and onion sauté to top-grilled chicken marinated in Texas olive oil, watermelon juice, and cracked pepper? An herb salad with cucumber, pear, and onion will rock your socks off. And a medley of peppers and squash on the grill to toss with pasta or serve as a side to protein? Yes, yes, and yes!
This prime produce barely needs seasoning. Enjoy raw or cooked, as you like. Pile all the fruit on top of some ice cream for dessert or just eat a big bowl of it, with a dollop of yogurt, for breakfast. I’m writing this article a little ahead of the season’s start and am recalling the sensational colors, flavors, and textures as I type! So excited.
I’ve gotten so snobby about some things (like our Texas tomatoes, peaches, and figs) that I truly don’t eat them except during the local season. The taste experience is subpar the rest of the year; it’s just a waste of my chewing and digestion energy (ha!). Instead, I gorge during summer when the best of the best rolls in. That time is now. Go forth.
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