In this episode learn what fruit you should be looking out for in the grocery store during the month of July. Learn about fruits like black raspberries, the best cherries of the season, pluots, and peaches that taste like peach pie.
🎧 Listen
You can listen to this podcast episode below or listen on any of these podcast players - Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts. If you would prefer to read the text, you will find a transcript below.
📜 Read
It's now the hottest month of the year. It's also a hot time for fresh fruit. We got a lot of ground to cover in this month's fruit picks.
Before we get started, if you are loving these fruit pick episodes, please let us know by contacting us at [email protected] or heading over to your favorite podcast player and leaving us a 5 star review. This helps support this podcast and I am grateful for your help. Alright let's get to the episode.
Let's kicking off with the peak of cherry season. It doesn't get any better than right now. Rainier cherries are at their peak at the start of the month, so eat them by the hands full.
Or look for these other varieties that are similar to Rainier - Orondo Ruby and Skylar Rae. Both of them taste like an improved Rainier cherry. Skylar Rae is extremely flavor and one of the best cherries you will ever eat. I got a great deal on them last year that I was extremely lucky to find as these cherries tend to be quite pricey. Any cherry lover much give them a try. You cannot pass them up.
If you like in a state that grows tart or sour cherries now is the time for them. My home state of Michigan leads the nation in sour cherry production. The pies or cobblers you make with them are far superior to pies made with sweet cherries. And don't even get me started on how good they are for a homemade jam.
Here is a fun peach variety you can try this month - Peach Pie Donut Peaches. They are a yellow inside and out. When you get a perfectly ripe one, you will wonder if all your favorite pie spices were sprinkled in every bite. They are often sold in plastic clamshell containers that are made to look like donut containers. Very cute. Although I prefer the smaller sized ones that are sold by the pound.
Believe it or not, I usually buy my first apples of the season in July. Transparent and Lodi apples are both green skinned apples that are very tart and also got soft really fast. I have seen these apples actually start to crack. While these apples may not sound appealing they made for the best textured applesauce I have ever had. I do need to add some sweetness to them, which I like to use honey for. Or you can mix in some sweet peaches or nectarines when cooking the sauce. We will talk more about the first eating apples of the season next month.
If you ever wondered when you can get fresh black raspberries, well now is the time. They ripen earlier than a lot of raspberries.
If you are into foraging for berries, then look for wild black raspberries at the each of the woods. I see them growing along pathways in parks. Also Saskatoon berries or service berries are ripe for the picking. They grow one what looks more like a tree than a bush. I found a ton of them in a park in Madison, Wisconsin one year. They were so good. They resembled blueberries in any appearance but with a more firm skin. Absolutely wonderful for baking.
Make sure you research well any type of berry you are going to pick on your own to be sure they are safe.
I often don't talk about them enough on the blog or podcast but I want to give a shootout to melons. If you are a fan, this is your time. The "Kiss" lemons are the ones I have been recommended the last couple years, especially the Sugar Kiss melons. Sugar Kiss is most similar to cantaloupe with a sweet, strong taste. It's tender and juicy as well. The other "kiss melons" you can look for include Sumer Kiss and Kiss Limon.
🎧 Make sure to look up our earlier episode on the Sugar Kiss melon.
Pluots or plumcots are great this month. Some varieties to look out for include - Dapple Dandy, Summer Punch. and Dapple Fire. The last one is actually a "necta-cot-um" It's part - plum, apricot, and nectarine. Isn't that nuts!
And I can't end this episode without talking about one of my son's favorite fruits - the Cherry Plum. This is a cross between a cherry and a plum - yep, they are related. What results is a small sized plum that is red in color, super sweet with lots of flavor. They don't last long in our household!
🛒 Before You Checkout
What you need to know before you checkout at the grocery store or market:
July is one of the best months of the year for seasonal fruit. That is why you should only be buying what's in season right now. This isn't the time to buy oranges, mandarins with a smiley face on the package, berries from Mexico, or apples from last fall.
This is the time to enjoy the bounty that we get locally and across our country. I recommend finding out the origin of what you are buying. Where was it grown? The closer it grows to me, the more likely I will buy it. I am not completely opposed to buying fruit imported from other countries, but when so much American grown fruit available right now I don't buy imported. My reasons are for flavor and for cost.
Leave a Reply