Summer Lovin'

I love summertime for many reasons; the warmth, the sunshine, the vacations, the freedom and relaxation, but most importantly, the food. With summertime comes an abundance of fresh, great tasting produce. A great number of fresh fruits and vegetables are in season some time in the summer. It is even better if you have your own garden. Then you can just walk outside, pick something and eat it. It doesn't get much fresher or tastier than that! We have a very small vegetable garden and a little rhubarb plant in our backyard. It isn't much, but we already have more cucumbers than we know what to do with, and they certainly taste better than any you would buy at the store, no matter how local or fresh they claim to be. We also have some tomatoes and green peppers. Our other vegetables aren't quite ready yet, but hopefully they will be soon. We are also lucky enough to have neighbors and friends with gardens who are willing to share and trade their vegetables with us. I also look forward to the fresh fruits of the summer, even if I can't find them in my backyard. There are Farmer's Market's and local grocery stores that carry these fresh, local fruits at reasonable prices. We had an excellent strawberry season, with a few batches of strawberries still coming in. Blueberry season just began, and I have already taken advantage of it and baked a few blueberry items. Fresh cherries can still be found around, which are best for eating just as is, in my opinion. And peaches and plums are still around too. Aside from fresh fruits and vegetables, there are some other tastes of summer too. Fruit smoothies, any grilled food, corn on the cob, hamburgers and hotdogs, lemon meringue pie, and of course, ice cream, all remind me of summer. I may not get a chance to enjoy every summertime food now, but I'll be sure to have a taste of one of these in the wintertime to bring me back.

PHOTO CREDIT:"758icecream" http://www.photo-dictionary.com/phrase/391/ice-cream.html#b .Photo Dictionary, n.d. Wednesday, August 22, 2012.