Summer Fruit
As I am writing this morning, I am nibbling away on half a melon with some yogurt. I typically don't eat this way - eating while doing something else. I prefer to pay more attention on my meal, but I am pretty crunched for time this morning. What I noticed though, is the melon is just so delicious. Each bite just grabs my attention. How lucky I am to have all this great food, literally, out my front and back door. Fruit this good is expensive and hard to find, so I find myself still not out of the mindset of treasuring it and trying to make it stretch. Really silly, because in my house we get much of what is leftover from the market, so most often there is more than we can eat. AND yet, I still can't just let myself go for it, consequently I find myself giving a bit more to the chickens than I really should. Today, I hope to use some of the fruit for fresh juice, maybe some melon with a little cucumber and a couple of strawberries? Not sure yet, but I do hope to put all of it to good use (although feeding the chickens is actually a great use of excess produce). I take the strawberries that don't sell at the market to steam juice. That juice then is used to make Strawberry Softers, which we sell at the Farmers Market. I can do that with a lot of the fruit, but for all of you I would suggest if you feel you might not get through your fruit, cut it up and freeze it. Frozen fruit can be enjoyed many ways, in pies, smoothies, freezer jam, over porridge and is always a welcomed treat in the middle of winter. I love to freeze melons (not the watermelon though) in chunks and toss those into winter smoothies. For that matter, you could cube summer squash and freeze them for use later in the year. This is how we make a bountiful harvest stretch and really work for us.