Apricots, Peaches and Cherries, Oh My

Here in California we are into the stone fruit season with an abundance of wonderful, fresh, ripe apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, apriums, pluots and other new stone fruits that are crosses -- the names that I can't remember. Also, there are cherries.

This year my friend Ellen had a bumper crop of cherries and she made a pie. I don't really eat pie but I do love the fruit inside. I prefer fruit crisps for their taste and higher nutrition value with oats, nuts and cinnamon and other spices which enhance rather than enrobe the fruit. I am not into crust. But oh, the cherries -- which Ellen gave me a bag of since I didn't want pie. I am savoring them. They are ripe and deep red bings.

Amazingly, that same day I was able to pick Ranier-type cherries from my late friend Jon's tree and ate far too many before going out to dinner. They taasted much better than dinner. I realize that I could sit and eat cherries for much of a day, if I had the intestinal fortitude. And I mean that seriously since cherries, like all fruit, have a lot of fiber. So when you eat too much of them, you know it. Therefore Mother Nature has created something of a perfect system, unlike that of manufactured food such as potato or other chips, where it's almost impossible to eat too much fruit without suffering the "natural consequence".

My favorite summer salad contains stone fruit, lettuce and bitter greens with spring onions and a raspberry or strawberry dressing, topped with toasted sunflower seeds and ripe avocado. It is divine decadence and so satisfying. And the good part is that you can eat quite a lot, in fact, pretty much all you want without feeling stuffed. I urge you to try this and see how you feel.