Natasha here! If you follow my blog at all, you know that I love eating seasonally. It’s something I have been growing in the more I learn about food. It’s hard to tell what’s in season when shopping at the local grocery stores, so I like to do a little internet research to find out or pop by our Saturday Farmer’s Market in town to see what’s out!
It’s the peak of summer harvest here in the Pacific Northwest. Gardens are over-flowing with the bounty. Local farmers markets are saturated with the vivacious tastes, smells, and colors of the season. Co-workers bring in boxes full of produce, letting the bright colors seep into the office, laying out the summer bounty in the break room, making the donuts seem sad and desperate. Neighbors drop off baskets overflowing with greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and purples so deep and rich you can hardly believe it.
Your mind starts to race as you think of all the recipes to be explored. Your heart quickens as you dream of the canning to be done; to capture the tastes to be savored on a cold winter day as you open summer captured in a jar. You start to salivate as you think of sitting down to a meal, oh the cooking to be done! But instead of turning on the stove and tying the apron strings on, you slice a tomato and sprinkle it with salt, taking a bite of it raw. It is perfection on the tongue, so sweet and juicy; it makes you wonder what piece of plastic has been posing as a “tomato” the rest of the year in your grocery store. Yes, it’s time to enjoy the splendor of what the good earth has to offer.
It’s cherry season! All those gorgeous cherries in the store have been making me dream of cherry recipes.
Cherry cookies, cakes, pies, cobblers, popsicles, breads, and oh my! There are so many options!
Have you ever noticed that people tend to eat cherry desserts around Valentines Day? It’s a great idea, don’t get me wrong, but cherry season is in the summer, and we should be spreading the Valentine love throughout the year.
Summer. It’s finally here! One of my personal favorite ways to while away the summer days is spending time outside any way that I can. In New York City it was always a challenge, no car to escape the city, no mountain to climb to feel the solitude, no hammock to relax in while the hours slipped by. So I would walk by the water, wander in Central Park, take in the farmers market or go to one of the many street festivals. It was at such a festival that I had my first taste of Street Corn. I was instantly hooked!
