It's hard to feel or believe in summer's impending arrival, though the signs around me suggest otherwise. Longer days. Slowly, more green (last week, sorrel; this week, pea shoots) in my CSA box. Seeds that are no longer seedlings but now full-fledged plants. What's helping me play catchup with my surroundings? Nigel Slater's "Ripe," which was published in 2012.
Almost a decade-old, Slater's tome on all things fruit is armchair travel that, itself, doesn't leave the home garden. With Slater's help, I've assembled a guide for choosing and using some of summer's juiciest, heartbreakingly sweet treasures. You'll learn about how to pick, store, and bake with summer fruits like berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries), stone fruit (like apricots, peaches, plums, and nectarines), and late-summer arrivals like apples. May you collect one, or all (!), and eat them over the sink, turn them into a pie or buckle, or serve them as a side dish for an epic grilling feast.
