Morning Fruit

Our homegrown blackberries are ripening beautifully. The other morning they joined Japanese bananas from a friend's tree and strawberries from Finley Farms in a breakfast bowl that tasted of summer.

Summer Fruit

 The Hollywood Farmers Market is piled with peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, pluots, grapes, melons in more varieties than I can name, and strawberries.

That's along with all the apples and citrus fruit that I now take for granted.

It's hard to limit my fruit shopping. We eat fruit once a day - for breakfast - so we don't need basketfuls. I rarely cook fruit - it's too darned hot to cook, and why waste all that nutrition? So I control myself as I walk through the market buying two of this and two of that, restraining myself to a small basket of strawberries, two - oops actually three - melons.

The stone fruits tend to be hard - flavorful but not completely ripe. I leave them on the counter for a few days until they are fragrant. I check them each every day, looking for mold, squeezing gently for ripeness. When they are really ripe, I either put them in our morning fruit, or refrigerate them until we need them.

Melons, however, can be bought completely ripe and ready to eat. Last Sunday morning we bought strawberries and cantaloupe at Finley Farms stall and ate them for brunch. They were so sweet they tasted like candy. The accompanying omelet was a good counter-balance with heat from a homegrown anaheim pepper and some salty cheese.

We had the remaining strawberries and melon for breakfast on Monday morning, Tuesday was grapefruit and last week's Santa Rosa plums - finally ripe and incredibly juicy. Then on to the nectarines and peaches, and the other cantaloupe we bought. We still have a white Japanese melon that Mr. Ha says is good to eat now but if we can wait a week or two until it is soft it will be unbelievably sweet. Let's see how long we can wait.

Summer fruit: there's nothing like it.

Eat organic

I'm fortunate to be able to eat a wide variety of organic produce. It helps to live in southern California and shop at the Hollywood Farmers' Market.

I know that not everyone is as lucky as me, so here is the annual list of foods that are safe to eat even if they are not organic.

Every year the Environmental Working Group tests US-grown food for pesticide residue. Although we don't know what long-term use of pesticides does to the human nervous and endocrine system, there are standards as to what is too much to consume.

The first list, The Dirty Dozen, refers to foods that should never be eaten unless they are organic, because the pesticide residue is too high in the conventionally-grown kinds.

The second list is of foods which have a minimal level of pesticide residue when conventionally grown.

Notice that greens must be organically-grown. Don't let that stop you from eating greens. Instead ask your produce manager or favorite organic farmer to stock organic greens. They're available, they're delicious and they're healthy. And even at $2.50 a bunch, they're a better deal than a multi-vitamin.


Dirty Dozen: eat only if organic
apples
bell peppers
blueberries
celery
cucumbers
grapes
green beans
kale / greens
lettuce
nectarines - imported
peaches
potatoes
spinach
strawberries

Low Pesticide Residue: These 15 foods are lowest in pesticide residue, and are considered safe to eat even if not organic.
asparagus
avocado
cabbage
cantaloupe
corn (probably gmo if not organic)
eggplant
grapefruit
kiwi
mangoes
mushrooms
onions
peas
pineapples
sweet potatoes
watermelon

Avocado and Strawberry Salad

It was too hot to cook the other night, so I rooted around in the fridge. Strawberries and butter lettuce from Finley Farm, avocado from Jorge --  that's the making of a great hot-weather supper.

I used equal quantities of oil and vinegar because I wanted a tart dressing to off-set the incredibly sweet berries. The goat cheese toasts mellowed the tartness and gave a rich earthiness that matched well with the toasted almonds.

Best of all, it went together in a flash

Avocado and Strawberry Salad
lettuce for 2 people
1 ripe avocado
1 cup strawberries
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup almonds
2 oz goat cheese
crushed peppercorns
6 slices baguette


Wash the lettuce and tear into bite-sized pieces. Peel and dice avocado. Remove the stem from the strawberries and halve them. Toss lettuce, avocado and strawberries together.

Toast the almonds in a dry frypan on the stove. When they smell toasted, remove from heat and chop coarsely.

Lightly toast the baguette slices in the toaster oven or under the broiler. Turn the slices over. Cut the goat cheese into 6 and pat it into rounds. Roll the edges of the rounds into the crushed peppercorns (this is messy, but worth it.) Put the goat cheese on the baguettes and warm in the toaster oven.

Combine the oil and vinegar. Season with a little salt and pepper and toss with the salad.

Arrange on a serving plate, sprinkle the almonds over top, and arrange the goat cheese toasts around the edges.

Serves 2

Reducing pesticide exposure

I make a point of eating organically-grown food because it is better for me, the farmworkers and the planet.

However, I realize not everyone is fortunate enough to have a great farmers market nearby, or a family who is willing to eat seasonally.

Since it is always better to eat non-organic produce than to avoid fruits and vegetables, I present here a list of produce which is safe to eat even if not organic.

The list is compiled by the Environmental Working Group, which tests fresh U.S.-grown produce for levels of pesticide residue.

You can find their full report here. They mention that if you choose your daily 5 servings of vegetables from the Clean Fifteen list instead of the Dirty Dozen, you will reduce your pesticide intake by 92 per cent. That's worth doing.

New on the toxic list from last year: spinach, blueberries, potatoes and collard greens. Make sure to find those in the organic section of your supermarket. Grapefruit, mushrooms and cantaloupe are new on the safe to eat even if conventionally-grown list.

Dirty Dozen - eat only if organic
apples
celery
strawberries
peaches
spinach
nectarines - imported
grapes - imported
bell peppers
potatoes
blueberries
lettuce
kale / collard greens


Clean Fifteen - safe to eat even if not organic
onions
sweet corn
pineapples
avocado
asparagus
peas
mangoes
eggplant
cantaloupe
kiwi
cabbage
watermelon
sweet potatoes
grapefruit
mushrooms

Dry-farmed apricots

If you find dry-farmed apricots, snap them up.

Dry-farmed apricots are grown with minimal additional water, generally just the winter rains. So as the fruit is ripening, the flavor and sweetness get concentrated in the tissues. They actually taste of apricots, rather than the overly-plump and flavorless apricots that are commonly available.

I found some of these wonderful apricots at the Flora Bella stand at the Hollywood Farmers Market yesterday, and we ate them for breakfast with some sweet strawberries from Finley Farms.

Wow.