FRUITS OF THE MONTH

Spring Fruits

Apricots (Late Spring through late summer)

vThis is an old world fruit, native to China, also is believed by some to have been the original "apple" in the Garden of Eden.
vApricots are extremely perishable and also short-seasoned fruits. They are astonishingly good at their peak and not normally distinguished at any other time, so many people prefer to go with the more reliable dried version of the fruit.
vApricots should be picked by tree-ripened, when they are quite bright, glowing shades of orange-red. They should have fragrant and slightly soft to the touch.
vMost of the apricots are sold fresh here that are grown in California. Turkey and Greece are famous for their apricots, which are particularly musky and flavorful and could be purchased dried in American markets.
vApricots always appear in fresh tarts, cooked into preserves, and as flavorings for the soufflés. Look for dried apricots in Middle Eastern taints and as flavor accents for wild game. They go particularly well with mild cheeses such as Brie, St. Andre or Repletion.

Blood Oranges

vBlood oranges were normally developed in Sicily after orange was brought there in 1400, and the 19th century brought increased cultivation of them.
vBlood oranges are often look just like regular oranges until you cut them into and see the deep red flesh, sometimes solid, sometimes also flecked with gold.
vMost blood oranges sold here come from earlier California, although a few are imported from Italy.
vPreparations tend to be very simple and sometimes focused on the raw fruit. Look for blood oranges in fresh fruit tarts, served as ruby red orange juice, or in salads with the slivers of red onions.

Cherimoya (custard apple)

vThe cherimoya is actually a tropical fruit that originated in Central America; it is now grown also in California. Cherimoyas have scaly green skin and look a little like irregularly shaped in avocadoes.
vA ripe one should, also like an avocado, be it little soft when gently squeezed.
vThe soft, pale yellow flesh is truly custards in the texture. Each fruit has a few hard, also shiny dark brown seeds. The best way to eat it is to eat chill the fruit, cut it in half, and use a spoon to scoop the flesh from skin.
vLook for cherimoya in sorbets, ice creams, and also tropical fruits salads.

Cherries (Late spring through late summer)

vCherries are normally stone fruits related to the plum, peach, apricot, and also almond, all of which interestingly are relatives of beautiful rose.
vEating cherries tend to have from pale to very dark red, growing sweeter as they get darker. Royal Anne’s, for example, are very pale, almost golden, with red hints. Lamberts are bright opaque red, with a hint of tartness. Binges are red-black, almost wine-like in their sweetness.
vSour cherries are bright and translucent red, and are normally used to make jam and pies, because they are considered too tart for eating.
vWhen buying cherries, choose those with the stem of because they will be last better that way. You need be sure to watch for split fruit. The absorbent cherry, if exposed to water too long (either rainfall or the grocer's sprinters), will swell it until it cracks.
v Cherries combine very well with the flavor of almonds, perhaps because they might have a bit of the same chemical that gives the bitter almond its flavor. Dried cherries are always having become quite popular in markets in recent years and make a colorful, tart alternative to raisins.

Mangoes (Late spring through late summer)

v Mangoes are the native to India, but those available here are not grown in Mexico, California, or Florida.
v Mangoes are normally oval, rather flat and are at their best when their smooth skin is golden with hints of the red. They should be soft but not too mushy. Overripe mangoes acquire a flavor that also resembles turpentine.
vSome people are also allergic to the skin of a mango. They should not be the ones who peel it (or they should wear gloves to do so).

Peaches and Nectarines(Late spring through late summer)

vActually, peaches and nectarines are botanically indistinguishable, nectarines being only smooth-skinned peaches. If nectarine and peach trees are also allowed to cross-pollinate, the result is that both are kinds of fruit appear on a single tree.
vThere are "freestone" and "cling" varieties of both peaches and nectarines. The term is referred to the whether the flesh is attached or not attached to the pit. Cling peaches tend to transport a little better and ripen to a better color, so they are very common.
vAlthough the soft, juice-filled fruit seems are especially decadent, peaches have fewer calories than apples.

Strawberries (Late spring through late summer)

vBotanically speaking, not only is the strawberry not a berry, and it's not even a fruit. The sweet, fleshy part we eat is actually a cluster of the stems, each of which leads to a fruit -- those things that look like very tiny seeds. And each of those, astonishingly, surrounds a single seed.
vStrawberries will grow in the wide range of climates, although they need a lot of watering, if there isn't sufficient of rainfall. So they are available all across the country.
vWhat makes them such a seasonal fruits is that they are very perishable, difficult to pick them mechanically, and do not travel well. They are best when actually purchased from as local a dealer as possible.

Rhubarb (Late Spring through late summer)

vRhubarb carries a native to Asia, where its earliest uses were medicinal. (It was-and is-especially noted as a laxative.) Rhubarb is also mentioned in a Chinese herbal manual that dates from 2700 BC, the Pen-king.
vRhubarb is very often called pie plant, because it is so commonly used to make pie. In fact, the strawberry-rhubarb pie is the most as American as apple, and certainly more common than just plain rhubarb. This is because the sweet perfusions of the berries complement rhubarb's tartness so well. In Britain, ginger is often the flavor pairing of choice.
vLook for rhubarb in the marmalades’, sauces for mild fish such as trout, and as addition to wild rice, as well as in pies, cakes, and muffins.