fruit season is already well underway here in New York state. this is one of my favorite times of the year, and also a busy time for the fruit farms/orchards in the areas surrounding my little hamlet. fruit is in my thoughts very often these days. so......
For today's Question of the Day, let's talk about fruit --
What fruit is available in your country, state, or region? What fruit is grown locally?
Do you grow any fruit?
What is your favorite fruit(s) -- in any form (ie, fresh, dried, canned, etc)? Any that you don't like?
How do you like to eat your fruit? For example, fresh/raw, dried, canned, smoothies, juiced/made into juice, baked -- like in pies/cakes/crisps/etc, jams/jellies, or other ways?
Do you preserve any fruit to use when they're not 'in season'? And if so, how (ie, freezing, canning, dehydrating, jam/jelly/fruit butter making, etc)?
i'll start! i live in a rural agricultural area, so there is a lot of locally grown fruit available here. i'll see if i can list the fruit grown in my area -- strawberries, raspberries (red, black, and yellow), blueberries, plums/pluots, peaches, pears, apricots, grapes (both 'table'/for eating raw, and those grown for wine making), some melons (in my general area, though not in my immediate area -- that i know of), and tons and tons (literally) of apples. though we grow many kinds of fruit in my area, we're also able to buy other kinds at our grocery stores.
i grow strawberries, have a raised (garden) bed of about 4 ft x 6 ft with them in it. last year i thought i'd lost almost all of my strawberry plants to either chippies (chipmonks) or rabbits, who grab the berries and haul off the plants with them. last summer i only had two strawberry plants left. but the 'runners' (ie new growth, that make more plants) and the established roots must have had things well under control, because this spring/summer i have 9-10 plants -- all produced a good amount of strawberries this year.
i'd have to say that blueberries and apples are my favorite fresh fruits, though i like almost all kinds of fruit. i really like bananas, asian pears, and pineapple a lot too. i like canned fruit and dried fruit too. the only fruit i can think of that i don't like is pomagranite. i mean, what's up with pomagranites? you eat the seeds, with the thin coating of fruit pulp coating them. i tried a pomagranite once, and just did not like it at all. i don't like the POM pomagranite juice that's in the grocery store either. i guess it's like my dad used to say, 'more for me' -- more available for those who do like pomagranite. i've never tried persimmon, so i have no idea what they taste like or if i'd like them.
i like to eat fruit just about all ways it can be eaten, with only minor exceptions. i love to eat fresh fruit raw, and in the fall i'll keep a good sized container of raw chunks of apples in the fridge to snack on throughout the day. i also very much like fresh fruit served with yogurt. i like to eat dried fruit too, but mostly it's (dried) banana chips that i add to my homemade granola. i absolutely adore dried figs, but they're pricey here when they're available. i also like yogurt covered dried berries very much. i do eat canned fruit, but it's almost always in jello that i make. i do a lot of baking with fruit -- mostly in cakes, crisps, occasionally pies, and added in to some blondie (blonde brownies, with no chocolate/cocoa in them) recipes. i also will occasionally make a fruit smoothie, and like fruit jams/jellies -- homemade and store bought. i don't make juice from fruit usually, and for some reason i only like blueberry pie or crisp if it's warm or heated back up.
i do preserve some fruit. i freeze, can, and make jams/jellies/fruit butters. i'd like very much to be able to dehydrate some fruit too, but haven't bought a food dehydrator yet -- it's on my wish list. this year i made freezer jam for the first time. i was able to harvest enough fresh strawberries from my plants to make one full batch of strawberry freezer jam. freezer jam is my new 'thing' this year that i'm all excited about. i plan on making several more batches of freezer jam with other fresh fruits as they come in season here too. there are several things i very much like about making freezer jam -- it's fast, easy, no dealing with canning, and the jam tastes really wonderful in a slightly different way. i'd say the easiest way to explain the taste difference is that freezer jam has a much more like fresh fruit taste, as opposed to the cooked fruit taste of jams that are canned. this is because the fruit in freezer jams is not cooked.
i'll be very interested to read what fruit you all like and about the different kinds of fruit available in different countries, states, or regions.
For today's Question of the Day, let's talk about fruit --
What fruit is available in your country, state, or region? What fruit is grown locally?
Do you grow any fruit?
What is your favorite fruit(s) -- in any form (ie, fresh, dried, canned, etc)? Any that you don't like?
How do you like to eat your fruit? For example, fresh/raw, dried, canned, smoothies, juiced/made into juice, baked -- like in pies/cakes/crisps/etc, jams/jellies, or other ways?
Do you preserve any fruit to use when they're not 'in season'? And if so, how (ie, freezing, canning, dehydrating, jam/jelly/fruit butter making, etc)?
i'll start! i live in a rural agricultural area, so there is a lot of locally grown fruit available here. i'll see if i can list the fruit grown in my area -- strawberries, raspberries (red, black, and yellow), blueberries, plums/pluots, peaches, pears, apricots, grapes (both 'table'/for eating raw, and those grown for wine making), some melons (in my general area, though not in my immediate area -- that i know of), and tons and tons (literally) of apples. though we grow many kinds of fruit in my area, we're also able to buy other kinds at our grocery stores.
i grow strawberries, have a raised (garden) bed of about 4 ft x 6 ft with them in it. last year i thought i'd lost almost all of my strawberry plants to either chippies (chipmonks) or rabbits, who grab the berries and haul off the plants with them. last summer i only had two strawberry plants left. but the 'runners' (ie new growth, that make more plants) and the established roots must have had things well under control, because this spring/summer i have 9-10 plants -- all produced a good amount of strawberries this year.
i'd have to say that blueberries and apples are my favorite fresh fruits, though i like almost all kinds of fruit. i really like bananas, asian pears, and pineapple a lot too. i like canned fruit and dried fruit too. the only fruit i can think of that i don't like is pomagranite. i mean, what's up with pomagranites? you eat the seeds, with the thin coating of fruit pulp coating them. i tried a pomagranite once, and just did not like it at all. i don't like the POM pomagranite juice that's in the grocery store either. i guess it's like my dad used to say, 'more for me' -- more available for those who do like pomagranite. i've never tried persimmon, so i have no idea what they taste like or if i'd like them.
i like to eat fruit just about all ways it can be eaten, with only minor exceptions. i love to eat fresh fruit raw, and in the fall i'll keep a good sized container of raw chunks of apples in the fridge to snack on throughout the day. i also very much like fresh fruit served with yogurt. i like to eat dried fruit too, but mostly it's (dried) banana chips that i add to my homemade granola. i absolutely adore dried figs, but they're pricey here when they're available. i also like yogurt covered dried berries very much. i do eat canned fruit, but it's almost always in jello that i make. i do a lot of baking with fruit -- mostly in cakes, crisps, occasionally pies, and added in to some blondie (blonde brownies, with no chocolate/cocoa in them) recipes. i also will occasionally make a fruit smoothie, and like fruit jams/jellies -- homemade and store bought. i don't make juice from fruit usually, and for some reason i only like blueberry pie or crisp if it's warm or heated back up.
i do preserve some fruit. i freeze, can, and make jams/jellies/fruit butters. i'd like very much to be able to dehydrate some fruit too, but haven't bought a food dehydrator yet -- it's on my wish list. this year i made freezer jam for the first time. i was able to harvest enough fresh strawberries from my plants to make one full batch of strawberry freezer jam. freezer jam is my new 'thing' this year that i'm all excited about. i plan on making several more batches of freezer jam with other fresh fruits as they come in season here too. there are several things i very much like about making freezer jam -- it's fast, easy, no dealing with canning, and the jam tastes really wonderful in a slightly different way. i'd say the easiest way to explain the taste difference is that freezer jam has a much more like fresh fruit taste, as opposed to the cooked fruit taste of jams that are canned. this is because the fruit in freezer jams is not cooked.
i'll be very interested to read what fruit you all like and about the different kinds of fruit available in different countries, states, or regions.