First of all, let me say that I had a much better day with significantly less anxiety. Working it out on the blog really helps. True dat!
Now onto today’s topic. I know that Fresh Produce is a clothing line, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean the real deal, not just comparing apples and oranges, but actually discussing apples and oranges! Right now my home smells of baking apples. I’m making my favorite homemade apple sauce. It’s a recipe I gleaned from Ina Garten aka The Barefoot Contessa. It’s easy with delicious results. Plus I’m using all organic fruit. One peels, cores and quarters the apples and then mixes them with some fresh orange juice and lime juice, a bit of brown sugar (most of which I omit), cinnamon and all spice. Pop it in a covered baking dish for 90 minutes and remove when the fruit is soft. You then use a whisk to break the apples into a chunky sauce.
Several co-workers and I belong to an organic buying club. Every two weeks a large truck arrives at work with bunches of fresh organic produce that gets split into whatever shares each of us purchased. I get the mini fruit share. This week it contained Braeburn apples, pears, navel oranges, grapefruit, strawberries and bananas. One of those oranges got zested and juiced for the apple sauce. I have more grapefruit than I can eat right now, so I’m going to juice some of those. The berries and bananas will be used for smoothies. I predict that sometime this weekend, one of those pears will be spotlighted with goat cheese and toasted walnuts over mixed greens for a yummy dinner salad.
In addition to the fruit share, I added kale and collard greens. Some of the kale will be added to my smoothies and the rest will baked into chips. I haven’t decided what to do with the collard greens yet, but I’m sure I’ll find a delicious recipe somewhere.
Fresh produce is a wonderful addition to my life. I used to eat fruit sporadically and was usually sometimes pretty fairly good about adding veggies to my daily meals. I’ve never been a fan of canned vegetables, but didn’t shy away from the frozen brands. I don’t know whether it was laziness or what, but fresh produce often seemed to be too much effort.
This is strange when I think about it because I grew up in southern New Jersey where farm stands were plentiful, particularly when I was a kid. Corn that had been on the stalk in the morning could be on our plates that night for dinner. I picked my share of strawberries and blueberries too.
Now that I’m buying and eating more organic items, I’m so into the fresh taste, the crispness, and the great appearance of the produce. I enjoy using it in recipes, and even researching new recipes that I’ve never tried before. When it comes to fruit, I’m trying to retrain myself so that, when I crave something for “dessert”, I don’t automatically wish for cakes, cookies or ice cream.
This doesn’t mean that I can stuff my face on sweet fruit, but it gives me healthier options.
Even a diet can benefit from “freshening up”, don’t you think?
Do you have a favorite fruit or vegetable? What was the last, freshest thing that you ate?
Weighty Matters 
This post is making me hungry! We have a CSA share that will be starting fairly soon. Well, middle of June. I can’t wait!
My favorite fresh produce is corn. I’ve heard people say that freshness doesn’t make a difference, but I think the fresh-picked stuff is way more tasty.
Last night it was asparagus and sugar snap peas in the shrimp stir fry. Our garden is just barely starting to sprout wee little lettuce and in a few weeks we will start eating them. It tastes SO MUCH BETTER when freshly picked. We also joined a CSA this year, so it will be interesting to see what we get from them.
p.s. I have an awesome kale salad recipe if you’d like it!
Yes, please share the kale salad recipe!
Do you want it here or in an email?
If you can send it in email I can include it in a post to share with others.
I’m not sure how fresh the fruit that I have eaten has been. As long as an apple tastes crisp, then I think of it as fresh. But given that the last apples I ate came from Houston, where they are not grown, they couldn’t have been that fresh.
When I used to live in Seattle and had my own house, I had a ton of raspberry bushes. I would go out in the morning and pick raspberries, fresh with dew, for my cereal; I’d pick more raspberries for dessert at night. And of course, more fresh for making pies. That was my favorite time for fresh fruit. And my favorite kind of fresh fruit, although blueberries and apples come close seconds!
To continue…
I will feel free to borrow your ideas!
Borrow away!
Oh Mary, you have my mouth watering for good, fresh fruit!
A couple of years ago, I took my mom and youngest sons blueberry picking. It was wonderful. Now that I am missing Mom, I look forward to the year’s best blueberries. I will smile along with her as I prepare them.
We have a wonderful year of harvests ahead, and I will check in to see what you do with them. Of course, I