A Tribute to Summer Fruits
Memorial Day, the traditional gateway to summer.
Having just reveled in the profusion of spring berries, we now enter the botanical bliss offered by summer fruits and the tender recollections they evoke.
Who is not transported to a happy family picnic or balmy night outing with your first love when you smell the soothing aroma of a sun-warmed peach, or bite into the juicy, sweet-yet-sour bouquet of a plum? Each summer we revisit the garden of earthly delights and celebrate warmth and sunny days.
Memories resurface of tracing rivulets of ice cold watermelon juice running down a loved one’s chin or seeing the telltale stains of sweet cherry nectar on lips and fingertips.
Buy local whenever possible
Local farmers markets, fruit stands and perhaps our own gardens offer a veritable feast of nutrition and nurturing, yet how often do we stop to appreciate and luxuriate in the full sensory blast of nature’s perfect food? As a raw foods enthusias, a high percentage of my daily nutrition comes from fruits and vegetables, power-packed with phyto-chemicals that charge my cells and fill my mind, body and spirit with confidence, exuberance and vitality.
Photo Credit: Facebook/Slice of Life
Pitfalls of the pitted fruit
Most of the most beloved of the summer fruits — peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, apricots — fruits that have pits, are also high up on the “Dirty Dozen” list of the fruits and vegetables that have the highest levels of trace pesticides. You can visit the website of the Environmental Working Group‘s informative website to learn more or peruse this handy chart below, which also lists the “clean fifteen” fruits and vegetables showing the fewest trace pesticides. Sweet corn may be on this list, but be aware that about 85-90% of the corn in the U.S. is genetically modified.
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