It’s pie season around my house. Wife make the crust from scratch and then, cherry peach pie. A scoop of vanilla ice cream, and we’re in summer heaven.
1
Here in Miami, it's mango season. We've already shipped our bounty to friends and family around the country otherwise I would consider sending a package of pure sweetness for Mr. Wells to sample.
Great writing, especially the private pleasure of a cherry. But I have 3 big issues with this: 1) Peaches are #1, seriously 2) No blackberries! Blackberry pie, hello! 3) I agree with another commenter that cantaloupe is the best of the melons.
Now I'm hungry.
PJP, spot on about the blackberries.
My favorite summer fruit are plumcots. There's nothing more delicious imho and I'm not a fruit lover.
1
Summer is now in full swing and EVERYONE is ready. With summer comes the beach, pool parties, and picnics. Having attended all of the above listed activities, I can assure you that there is always one particular fruit brought to share. With its vibrant color and crisp texture, people of all ages cannot help but indulge in the juicy taste of watermelon. While reading this article, I was not surprised to see watermelon listed at #1. The rest of the fruits are questionable. Where I live people do not have the patience to reason with the fast-spoiling raspberries, and despise the texture of a hairy peach. I think that oranges/tangerines and apples should definitely have made their debut in this article. Nevertheless, I appreciated how the author included different ways of using these fruits rather than eating them plain. I think those details made the article more two dimensional, which made it more enjoyable to read.
Half a century ago, my family would buy a cart load of water melons directly from a farmer. He would tap each melon and line them up against the wall ranked by ripeness. We would enjoy each
in proper sequence unless my baby brother insisted on standing on and cracking some to hasten the process.
1
I'm all about the summer watermelon. Watermelon is rich in L-citrulline, that metabolizes to L-arginine (important for cardiovascular and immune function). Watermelon is a rich source of lycopene (more than tomatoes), beta carotene, vitamins A and C.
Watermelon is low in calories and a great source for carbohydrate energy for the weekend warriors. Plus it's antioxidants and cardiovascular benefits may have post workout benefits. A small study found those who consumed watermelon puree before a heavy workout experienced reduced post workout muscle soreness.
Chilled, it's sweet and refreshing. What's not to love about watermelon!
No corn? No tomato?
Watermelon is #1 for me too. Pieces in a large bowl with the juice of an entire lime squeezed over the melon is the best for summer fruit. The lime enhances the sweetness of the cool, crunchy and juicy watermelon - nothing could be better than this.
Figs!!! Figs with some bleu cheese and red wine - that IS summer!
2
BINGO
What delicious writing!
Pete, we can argue about your choices, but not your fabulous writing, full of perfect-word choices and clever verbs. Who would have thought of "saber-off the top" (approx.)? Many thanks
3
Why disparage mulberries , that antioxidant and pectin-rich stalwart of back alley urban foraging which pairs so well with yogurt and granola?
2
What happened to a cantaloupe? Melon glory at its finest. Juicy, sweet, tasty. I wait and wait and wait for the farm stand to open.
But probably the hardest thing to get is a "just there" firm, juicy, but not mealy peach.
5
This is the most awesomely written story about fruits in the history of stories written about fruits.
1
Mango?
Fig?
Two reasons to look forward to summer
2
Hard to take issue with this list, but I have long been an ardent proponent for the honeydew. I feel that it is the most underrated summer fruit, often relegated to playing a mere complimentary role in fruit salads. The common stereotype of the honeydew as bland and tough is unfortunate and does not reflect the true merits of this singular melon.
4
I can't count the times that, at the peak of ripeness, I've eaten almost any fruit and felt like I was eating God's own food.
But of all of them, I would rate nectarines best. I can only forgive your not including them on the list because you may have considered them included under peaches--a very close cousin.
2
Our South Florida best summer fruits list is topped by mangoes and leeches. They’re the only thing the keep us going through summer heat and storms.
1
From the tree nectarines and cherries in CA.
Marionberries from the backyard in OR.
I am so blessed to live in California where all of these fruits are available to us in spades. I am also very fond of California apricots. Blenheim is probably best. The season is short but they are also delicious dried. Fresh, ripe apricots or yellow peaches stirred into my morning yogurt. When they are done nothing is so good again until Fuyu persimmons are in season in the fall.
Cherries, yes. But you forgot to include the best of all; Lambert Cherries!
Luscious and sweet, beautiful dark heart shaped rubies of fruit.
Indigenous to Montana’s Flathead Valley, not often seen on the east coast.
1
can't do raspberries or watermelons. makes my diverticulitis flare up.
"although the juice of a cherry left in the sun has a wonderful urgency."
This reminded me of Sam Sifton's prose.
How does the juice of a cherry left in the sun have a wonderful urgency? I recognize that this is going to be considered wonderful writing but similar examples are sprinkled all over this short piece; cumulatively it feels a little bit over the top.
Blackberries and mangos.
1
Blackberries!
3
Shout out to Calanda peaches in Spain. Burger King whopper size they’re worth every euro cent of €1,50.
1
Cantaloupe and peaches for me.
3
A ripe peach will always win, but who can find a ripe peach in NYC without first trying and tossing away a mountain of mealy rejects? That said, where oh where is cantaloupe?
8
Nectarines anyone?
3
The writing is good but the decisions are questionable. Plums could fill the top five spots. Green gave, black plums,...
1
Anyone who’s visited Maine in summertime would agree that lobster rolls qualify as fruit. Yum!
Also have to nominate blood oranges. The first time I ever ate one was as an intern at Pentagram New York in 2005. We ate family style lunch Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and Pentagram’s chef, Anne, bought them somewhere near Union Square. My first bite was a revelation.
3
But blood oranges are a winter fruit
2
Native strawberries are the first glory of the New England summer!
5
Anyone who has ever eaten Maine wild blueberries in August will know that these gems should be ranked numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. With that said, please don't come to Maine in August.
7
The most eagerly awaited day in our family is the day when the watermelons are ripe in the field over the hill. We put kosher salt and a sharp knife in the truck, drive to the field. Pick a melon, cut it and apply salt. Heaven, and for sure the best fruit in the world.
3
I completely disagree with this ranking of summer fruits. Blueberries are not exclusively a summer fruit, and lack the lusciousness which is the metric that appears to be used to rank the others in this category. Blueberries should be replaced by mangoes, the national fruit of several countries and the sweet sweet cornerstone of any great summer fruit salad.
I did enjoy the writing though.
5
No! The peach weighs in at only #4?!
I won’t divulge the name of the farm because I fear I may never get more if the secret gets out. The farmer developed the perfect peach, which is excellent for every use you proffered. However, it is extraordinary when a thick, sweet, juicy slice is wrapped in thin, salty, aged prosciutto. Nirvana!!!
3
No mention of the fig? Come on! That is just not right. ;)
12
Pete Wells can really write.
2
The thing I don't like about fruit....any fruit...in any season.....is that getting a delicious, juicy, full-of-taste specimen, is a total (and expensive) crap shoot. Even in season, I've had high summer watermelons that stunk, farmer's market peaches that were tasteless and had the texture of cotton, and blueberries that are only enjoyable when highly sugared up. No wonder we Americans snack on Doritos by the tractor-trailer load....tasty, reliable....perfection....from your first bag to your hundredth! As for "the list", I agree watermelon has it's rightful place as the number one summer fruit. There's a biggie chillin'in the fridge right now....fingers crossed!
10
Caveat emptor.
Watermelons lost much of their appeal for me with the introduction of the "seedless" variety which seems to now have a lock on the supermarket produce aisles. For me, at least half the joy of a summer watermelon for me was the seed spitting contests that ensued with the consumption of a sweet cold watermelon on the front porch on a hot summer day.
And a "personal" watermelon the size of a honeydew? Meh!
8
Yes! No seeds, no taste.
1
Summer, for me, means peaches. Decades ago, when I was still in my teens, a friend brought a flat of fresh peaches from his Southern California ranch, picked hours before, up to our San Francisco home. I've been hooked on fresh, fragrant, ripe, juicy, and yes -- fuzzy -- peaches ever since. My summer ritual, beginning usually in late May, is to try to eat a peach every single day -- usually purchased from farmer's markets or our local organic food store. The ritual is all the more meaningful because its joy is fleeting. There's always that day, usually in early September, where I bite into a peach that is mushy ... and then, I know that my peach indulgence must wait until the next year. The waiting makes its renewal all the sweeter!
4
My absolute favorite (late) summer fruit is pawpaw. Almost impossible to find in stores, so I grow my own.
1
Wonderfully written.
Thank you.
3
Years ago people laughed when I suggested trying watermelon with a little salt; this was handed down to me from a neighbor. Those same people whose scrunched up "yuck!" kind of looks are now the first to recommend those oh so fancy dark chocolate/sea salt confections.
Watermelon has always been - and always will be - where it's at!!
6
...and Maldon salt at that!
Articles on nine different styles of french but only five different fruits. Shows where our heads and stomachs are at.
I've noticed a wide variety in the quality and taste of blueberries, mostly mediocre. The best blueberries I've had in recent years were tiny ones swarming with bees bought from a farmer at a roadside stand in Maine near the border with Canada.
3
To me, summer means stone fruit. White peaches first, plums of every description a close second. Watermelon? Meh.
4
Grilled white peaches, sprinkle with minced mint leaf when they come off the fire!
2
I dont want to rank, Just want to ask when, how and why watermelons became looking like basketballs...
2
Excuse me. Blackberries?
14
How dare The New York Times doesn't mention Honeydew melon!
5
Re the Summer Fruit list - This was clearly written by someone who lives on the East Coast. Those of us from California understand that mulberries are incredibly delicious (and expensive - $10 for a small container) and we line up for them at the Santa Monica Farmers Market and pray there will still be some when we get to the head of the line. Although raspberries are good and I do love a good blueberry, what about ollaberries and boysenberries? I love peaches yet pluots are a close second. And then there's your choice of melons - I cannot begin to name the many varieties available that are so much better than watermelons. I invite Pete Wells to come to the Santa Monica Farmers Market and I will give him a tour of true deliciousness.
5
And be sure to get there early on Wednesday to get Harry’s Berry’s strawberries...
2
I just bought some yesterday in Boston! Spendy...and worth every penny!
I find your dismissal of peaches as too fuzzy to be a foolish blindness to the beauty of a summertime peach ice cream. The pink color and slightly almond flavor of the ice cream with the delicate taste of the sweet flesh is a treat to be experienced. When you experience a good homemade treat such as this it is a revelation. Perhaps you have never had a properly made example of such an August treat.
1
Gotta disagree on this one, since I loathe all melons. The peaches, cherries , raspberries and blueberries can be eaten plain (I have eaten them right off the bush) or baked.
You can't make a red, white and blueberry pie with watermelon - it needs the peaches, cherries and blueberries, and all those healthy phytochemicals.
Skip the watermelon - just drink water. And just for clarity - strawberries are more of a summer fruit here in the northeast. The local ones have actual flavor. I'd add them to my summer fruit list, even if they are very early summer.
1
Anyone who would put peaches #2 or lower has never had a Loring straight off the tree. After eating one you'll realize you've never had a proper peach before in your life.
3
Mangoes!!!!! Nectar of the gods!!!
16
The writing in this article was as tasty as the fruit it describes!
1
Meh. If watermelons somehow went extinct I don't think I'd even miss them. A ripe specimen of any "real" melon is infinitely better.
But why does a list of "5 best" include one that the author obviously hates? I'm not a big mulberry fan, but the only reason they are even here seems to be so he can trash them.
1
Mr. Wells dismisses honeydew too cavalierly. I'll admit that the usual mass-harvested thing you find everywhere, bred for its traveling stamina and nothing else, is intolerably hard and tasteless. But a really ripe, fresh honeydew — if you can get it — is a rival for watermelon.
Actually, the best melon of all is the sharlyn. It looks like a cross between a casaba and a cantaloupe. Haven't seen it around our area for several years, and its growing season brings it to the shelves for only 3 weeks or so in the summer. If you ever get a chance to try one, do NOT pass it up.
5
Growing up, I used to accompany my mother at times to go food shopping at, if I recall the name correctly, Penn Fruit on the Miracle Mile. Long gone, it had terrific fruit. Not shipped, frozen, across the country from California like much produce these days. Watermelon was 3 cents a pound! Great peaches, plums, all fresh. Not so many years ago, although it does feel like a bit of a lifetime.
Where does one purchase fruit that tastes like fruit? Most fruit I purchase at the markets, even those that claim to sell local fruit in the summertime, ends up being pretty bad. Peaches, particularly, rarely get ripe, just go from rock solid to rotten. If they ripen, they are typically not sweet and sometimes at $4.00 a pound. This can be said for strawberries (might ripen but are not sweet), blackberries, and raspberries. In winter, it's pears.....hard and then rotten. The growers cultivate for easy travel, long refrigeration and smooth looks. Somewhere, taste got lost along the way. The first time I had a peach, ripened on the tree and freshly picked, I was literally stunned. Ditto a tomato. I lament that my grandchildren might never understand why people like fruit in the first place. One other unrelated comment: "Beyond Meat" as a meatless hamburger. YUM! Also the sausages and the hot dogs. There are lots of vegetarian folks.......finding good fake meat is tricky but we might still want to join our carnivore friends at the BBQ. Would you try, in everything, when you evaluate meat to include us veggie people? Thanks.
14
This. I ate my (considerable) weight in fruit across Thailand last year, where it tasted as wonderful as I remember from childhood. The past year has been filled with disappointment, going from farmer’s market to even self-pick farms in search of anything that even resembled good fruit. Alas, I will be returning to Thailand this summer, where there are pineapple smoothies waiting for me, and I will eat my way across the country. We deserve better!
4
I totally agree about peaches. When I was a kid, growing up in New England, summer peaches were wonderful. I'm sure they came from somewhere else, but they still ripened as expected. Now that I live closer to the source, the peaches that I buy are ripe for about five minutes before they turn mealy and tasteless. What happened?
This might seem like an obvious answer: farmer's markets are excellent places to buy fresh, delicious fruit. I admit I've been spoiled living in Washington and now California since both produce great tasting fruit but I've also visited other states' farmer's markets -- including living for a while in upstate NY -- and have not had issues. The other answer is to learn to select ripe fruit -- at the farmer's markets, the sellers will give you tips and I was dismayed to see this column did not talk about how to pick but rather about combining fruit with all types of sugar, etc. The point of summer fruit is they are heaven unto themselves without extra flavoring needed. Third, buy from specialty growers: that farmer selling 5 varieties of peaches likely grows them better than the farmer selling a variety of fruit. Fourth go near the time when farmers' markets are almost closing: sometimes you can get great deals.
2
Notably absent: Strawberries, even better when you pick 'em; Creamsicle, it's orange on the outside and vanilla ice cream on the inside; a fountain cherry Coke was the ticket when I had a quarter;a tomato sandwich on whitbread with Duke's mayo; An A&W rooter in a frosty mug; Cold fried chicken on a picnic; sweet peas, eaten while standing in the garden; Okra, sautéed is best; a lobster roll from a seaside shack in Maine; Rhubarb pie; Blackberries picked by the roadside; wild blueberries; and a whole realm of veggies like green beans out of the garden.
4
Good choice! I love watermelon. Year-round. It is the perfect compliment to eggs for breakfast, tuna sandwiches for lunch or chicken/fish for dinner! And of course, lobster in the summer!
1
Watermelon, peach pie, rhubarb, raspberries. These are my favourites. Sadly, we don't get peach pie up here. Learned to love it when we visited the south. Many of our fruits are imported. Quebec raspberries are delicious.
2
Apricots!! The season is short - but the fragrance and color define summer for me. So fragile, a perfect apricot is something to be enjoyed with all one's senses.
5
A friend and I were driving the back roads of northern New Mexico once, and discovered two apricot trees covered in fruit ripe enough to be falling to the ground. We grabbed a sackful, washed off the dust, and were in heaven. Compared to hard, green grocery store apricots, it was like the difference between watching people kiss, and doing it yourself.
I'd trade a bucket of peaches for one of those perfect apricots.
2
Living in NYC blurs the lines of what is in season, however, something must be said for cantaloupes and mangos (esp. champagne mangos). Of course, limiting the ranking to five, and ranking the choice of fruit at all when daily whims should rule, is arbitrary.
Joy to all who start their days with a piece of fruit.
1
How can anyone take this list seriously when it doesn't include strawberries? Strawberry-picking season is an eagerly awaited event, whether you're able to indulge in this pleasure for yourself--what's better than picking those bright red, juicy, sweet gems while in a field perfumed with their aroma--or picking them up at local farmers' markets? It's only for a short time each year that these heavenly treats are available, making them that much more special!
And for those lucky enough to live in the few places where huckleberries are available, wow, that's a great one. I've been lucky enough to have been in Montana during huckleberry season, and couldn't get enough of them!
9
I live in blueberry country and love the look of them and their health benefits, but not their taste. Fresh, frozen, big, small, they all have a slightly moldy taste to me. Not to anyone else in my family, just me. Is this true for anyone else?
2
Native blueberries from our property and watermelon from our garden. Store bought? Surely you jest.
3
I totally agree with 3/5 of the fruits on your list: watermelons, cherries, and blueberries. However, I'd add strawberries and mangoes. My ranking would be more like 1) strawberries (they're good for pretty much every season in my opinion), 2) blueberries (they make great toppings), 3) mangoes (they're so sweet and tasty when they're ripe), 4) watermelons (what do you need most during summer: water), and 5) cherries (I especially like the darker cherries). I personally don't like peaches that much, probably because they have that fuzzy feeling on their coats and they're so soft. Nectarines surpass peaches. Raspberries are good but I think blueberries and strawberries are much more flavorful and sweeter. I normally eat fruits as they are, nothing fancy bu there is so much you can do with fruits, especially during the summer.
2
Ripenned, fresh from the tree and still warmed by the late afternoon sun: White Peach.
5
When I was a child in rural New Hampshire, there was a white peach tree on our land. It had the most heavenly fruit I ever tasted! The fruit was so abundant one year that before we could pick (or eat) all the peaches, the weight of the bounty split the tree in half. Sadly, it, and the peaches were gone forever. 50 years later, I still mourn that tree when peach season comes around.
5
All I need is the air that I breathe, and watermelon.
Well, not really, but close.
9
Right - Plus "No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound
Nothing to eat, no books to read"
I take it you don't know the song....
Plums! How could you leave plums off???
3
Can I get an amen for the veiled reference to watermelon football? Best played in a lake or large pond, with good friends, after a few drinks, and some fried kudzu. Spike the “ball” after winning. Serves everyone
2
Here in MN, Strawberries mark the start of summer and Peaches mark the end, swimming in a bowl of cream, set upon our outdoor table, amongst the flowers.
6
Blackberries and Cherries!
My list:
Strawberries
Strawberries
Strawberries
Strawberries
Nectarines.
I used to pass a farm stand on the way home from work, one year I spent $136 on strawberries just in the month of June. Real strawberries are completely unlike the off season ones you get in the supermarket. August, though, is nectarine month at the local pick your own farms. Eating them off the tree with the juice running down your arm- great way to spend a Saturday.
5
Yes--special clothing is required to eat a nectarine. And it's worth the effort.
1
I know NYT is in the East and can probably can't wait for summer to start, but stop rushing the seasons; it's not summer yet!
3
With each "best of" list like this, the NYT reminds me more and more of BuzzFeed.
4
Oh, come on Nat. It's such a great feature of the NYT, along with all the rest that the Times has to offer. Of course, you don't have to read a section you're not interested in. For me, while I don't check out the food section too often, it's fun to read...not only the advice but the actual writing. Great stuff, NYT!
6
Wow, why the hate for Mulberries? Deeply underappreciated. If you've got a tree, Pete, I'll gladly come by and relieve you of the nuisance
6
I'm starving for rhubarb.
4
A mouth-watering article! But how could you omit strawberries? Nothing smells more wonderful than the way fresh-picked strawberries perfume the air, and homemade strawberry jam can't be beat.
19
All of these fruits can be tasteless and bland when grown by growers more interested in size and transportability. When bought straight from the farmer market the choices are vast: pluots, apricots, nectarines, galia melons... Winter fruit is apples and pears--why limit your summer fruit when the variety is endless?
10
What a lovely piece of writing. This will be on my fridge, to remind me that beauty and joy shine through if we slow down and live in the moment. Thank you Pete Wells.
Childhood memories in a small hillside town in Italy; climbing up cherry trees and eating cherries to my heart content, sour cherries eaten fresh my favorite.
1
Pete wrote:
“Blueberries are the only big-deal summer fruit that is native to North America.”
Not true. Raspberries and cherries are native to North America. While the varieties sold in stores could be derived from non-native varieties, that’s true with everything.
I also (mildly) object to the dissing of mulberries. True, they’re too delicate to survive as a store-offered product, they’re highly delectable right off the tree. Peak season in Northeast: first two weeks of June. Get ready to shoot on a search and consume mission! White mulberries sweet, purple pleasant, black delectable!
4
Love purple AND white mulberries and gooseberries too!
For those old enough to remember when you could get summer fruit only "in season" and how much better they were than before they became so common outside of summer, this is a reminder of looking forward to blueberries only available in June, juicy strawberries and peaches in which you might find a worm. Let's not forget beefsteak tomatoes since tomatoes are fruit. Those delicious beefsteak tomatoes just don't seem to exist anymore.
7
What about nectarines?!! Best Summer fruit hands down. I'll take a nectarine over a fuzzy peach any day!
15
From our family's cross country trip, I recall reading around Iowa on sequential roadsigns every 100 yards:
A peach looks good
With lots of fuzz
But man's no peach
And never wuz.
Burma-Shave
Long live the peach. Peachier than nectarines
2
I agree 100%! I can't stand fuzz, give me a ripe nectarine any day!
1
You can get 4/5 all year round.
Only in Summer can you get peaches. Reason alone for it to be #1
11
And only in late summer can you get really good ones. (But mangoes are available year round and the best of them hit some of the same notes.)
I feel like honeydew got snubbed from this list.
16
And fabulous currants as well.
3
Sorry plums...??? Sorry that you have never had fresh ripe plums right off the tree from the northeast. They are amazing, even though they may be hard to find. Number one on my list...
17
strawberries please!! nothing beats strawberry shortcake and whipped cream!!!
5
I totally agree! Why were strawberries overlooked? Especially when they are straight from the field.
16
You folks in Massachusetts apparently have better strawberries available than here in neighboring NH (or maybe I haven't found the right place to get them).
All the strawberries in the supermarket are genetically modified to be pretty (and to all look virtually the same) and are tasteless, not to mention hard! On top of that, strawberries are heavily treated with pesticides and fungicides because they are especially prone to bugs and disease. In fact, strawberries top the list of the "Dirty Dozen" with one sample, according to reports, testing positive for 20 different pesticides!
In all my years here in NH, l have found only 2 places with heirloom strawberries that taste like the real thing. One went out of business and the other is not in my area.
Still, I agree with you--strawberry shortcake IS the best!
1
Why not have all at once minus the watermelon : tutti-fruity crunch ...
There has to be room on the list for blackberries. Every year I'm always surprised by how incredibly delicious blackberries are - probably because they are free for the foraging and the invasive canes are despised by all. The cultivated Marion blackberry is my all time favorite berry.
Apricots also need to included with a caveat. They must be purchased from a fruit stand nestled into the edge of the orchard - for apricots too exquisitely ripe, luscious and juicy to ship.
9
We received a bushel basket of peaches every summer from a cousin's orchard in Georgia. Their arrival signaled an ecstatic leap into summertime. We danced around the fragrant basket like a new verse from "Wells Fargo Wagon" in The Music Man!
First, ripe and ready (there were never any hard ones in our baskets) they were eaten out of hand. Breakfast for a week or more was big bowls of sliced, peeled peaches swimming in milk , not cream, that was saved for later, and stacks of hot buttered toast. Later in the first week, slippery, sugar-macerated peeled slices were cascaded over angel food cake. Finally, came the ultimate treat. The peaches now were over-ripe and slushy. It was everyone's job to slip the peels from the reddened flesh and toss it into a big aluminum bowl. Mama furtively produced a container she'd chilled to temper the custardy cream inside. "Philadelphia style" she announced. All ran to find the White Mountain bucket, the dash, the salt, the big bag of ice hidden in the deep freeze in the garage. I cranked,each sister cranked and Father, at last, put some real muscle into the task, finally heaving the glorious mass into a gallon container to freeze and ripen.
I'm not sure any of our peach ice cream ever really ripened. Both my parents were like willful children with a fresh batch of homemade ice cream. What didn't get eaten as dessert after dinner would be vandalized into big bowls before bedtime. Summer is for homemade peach ice cream.
37
So evocative and beautifully written!
3
Thanks Alex. I came to write some trite blurb about peaches but found your ode had already said it better.
Peach is the taste of summer.
3
OMG. I'm dying . . . . (and dreaming of peaches as I go!)
Plain watermelon is better to me than cold beverages when it's hot. The oblong-shaped watermelons have been replaced entirely by round watermelons of varied sizes. Seeded watermelons are rare too. What's going on with cantaloupes these days? The ones I see are extremely large (frankenloupes) and soft to the touch. Not good.
7
Blueberries only if they are perfectly ripe, with a slight give in the fingers and the perfect combination of sweet and tart. Or in other words, freshly picked and consumed in the wild after scaring off the birds and bears who will want them first.
5
Well, not ONLY if they're eaten in the wild! But that is the most fun way to eat them...as kids in the country we'd go blueberry picking, eating all the way, bit still with a good bucket full for mom to make pie and put up the rest in jars.
1
A good mango, dropped into a bucket of ice water for about an hour then peeled and sliced.
11
A good mango, sliced open and with a sprinkle of salt. Eaten over the sink.
4
Maldon woud be my choice.
i look forward to may every year so i can have my fill of haitian mangoes. such a unique flavor.
No love for blackcurrants ? Such a unique musky flavor, They are wonderful combined with raspberries and blackberries in summer berry pudding,my favorite dessert. Second place goes to sour cherry pie. Third to a ripe runny mango,with a squeeze of lime juice.
6
And wonderful jam too
2
Also here to defend the black current. My mother-in-law picks them for me in her cortage garden and delivers an annual pint of jam. Come November, when the venison roast hits the table, they are more than useful, they’re perfection.
Strawberries, blackberries (called brambles around here), plums and pluots. Sure, blueberries (blaeberries) and watermelon. Raspberries always let me down, cherries often too, and I haven’t hadn’t a good peach since I was 7.
1
My most favorite are large, green, sweet grapes, followed by ripe red cherries.
5
My choice would include in that order:
1. Peaches
2. Nectarines
3. Cherries
4. Mangoes
5. Watermelons
6. Tangerines
7. Papayas
8. Figs and fresh dates
4
Tangerines and dates are winter fruits, and I'm not sure about mangoes and papayas.
1
I would clarify that list:
5. Black raspberries
4. Nectarines
3. Low bush (aka "wild") blueberries
2. Sour cherries
1. Old-fashioned watermelon with seeds (much tastier than so-called seedless)
9
Yes to Nectarines. But also to Blackberries and Cantaloupe
9
Why not high bush blueberries? They’re also native to the Northeast and (I assume) taste about the same as low bush blueberries.
Fresh cantaloupe with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream in the seed cavity!