Posted by on Jul 5, 2017 | 14 comments

image

Do you eat a lot of fruit?  It’s the best thing you can eat in summer or anytime, especially to keep trim.  A friend of mama’s told her once that fruit can never add calories because it sort of goes in and out so fast….sorry about that, but it made sense!

image

Well, today on this lovely July morning, I was ruminating (whatever that is) about all the sweet fruit things this little burg has to offer, not the least of which are some of the best stone fruits in the region.  In fact, this is the fruit basket of southern France and below you see the nectarines and whoopee cushion peaches (as papa calls them) that turn up every Wednesday and Sunday in our open market.

Did you know you really must look for the spottiest nectarines you can find and they will be the sweetest, because all those spots you see are sugar coming to the outside of the fruit.  And make sure they are heavy, heavy before you buy any stone fruits as that will ensure a high sugar content.  Not that I eat this stuff, but mama is a nut for stone fruits and so there are several baskets of them around the kitchen for the next few months.  Oh, and the apricots!  They are killer, almost like apricot jam when ripe, but with a great firm texture.  That’s mama’s downfall–apricots.  In Los Angeles she used to wait for the speckledy ones, the Blenheims, which are the primo apricots of all time.  Ugly and exquisite at the same time.  There are none here but there are the lovely apriots of the Rousillon, very famous.  I play with the seeds.

image

image

See all those speckles on the ones on the right?  That’s sugar, baby.

image

Whoopee! Peaches!

image

image

A fruit salad beginning with all the fruits around here….oranges from Spain included and kiwis that taste like lemonade!

image

Uh, oh, gotta run. Mama just threw a peach seed in my play area!