“Someone once threw me a small, brown, hairy kiwi fruit, and I threw a wastebasket over it until it was dead.”
The day was just beginning when I woke up this morning. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t so I came downstairs. The papers weren’t even here yet so I checked the TV news then went on the deck. The sky is cloudy and the morning has a damp chill. People have yet to stir. Across the street my neighbors still have their shades drawn. I can hear four different bird songs. It has been a long time since I last woke so early.
My mother never bought peaches. I didn’t like them and I don’t think my sisters did either. I always thought peach skins looked hairy, and I could never get beyond that. When I was little, my mother used to peel my apples for me. She’d also cut the oranges into pieces, sometimes four, sometimes eight. I was on my own with bananas. My mother only bought tangerines at Thanksgiving. They were easy to peel and eat in segments. I just didn’t like the seeds. There were always so many. Pears were best when they were yellow. I learned that when I used to take green pears from the neighbor’s tree. They were hard to bite and tasteless. Another neighbor had grapes and never minded when we picked them. They were big and purple. Watermelon was summer and I remember juice rolling down my hand and on my cheeks. Cherries were best because you got to spit the seeds. We always had a contest. I didn’t usually win.
Exotic fruits were of the future. I could never imagine a kiwi, a pomegranate or a carambola. I ate my first mangos and paw paws, papayas, in Ghana. I thought the mango tasted like furniture polish, but I loved the paw paw and eventually even came to love the mango. Cut fresh pineapple and sweet green oranges sold by the aunties on the sides of the road were my favorites. For lunch every day I had a bowl of cut fruit.
I buy bananas, and I love strawberries. Only if I have a recipe in mind do I buy blueberries. They are not for eating out of hand unless you’re picking them. I love watermelon. Cold watermelon on a hot day is like manna from heaven. It still drips down my hand.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: apples, bananas, bird songs, blueberries, early morning, fruit, mango, paw paw, peaches, watermelon
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
June 19, 2014 at 10:05 am
The best part of summer is the fresh locally grown summer fruit. I love peaches, plums and nectarines. My mother always told me that the nectarine is half a peach and half a plum. Mel Brooks playing the 2000 year old man with Carl Reiner confirmed it in their comedy album. I am sure that It’s an old wives tale but fun to think about a peach and a plum having sex an creating an interracial fruit. 🙂
My favorite time of the summer is when the bing cherries are in season. I can make a meal out of them. I disagree that blueberries by the handful are only appropriate when picking them. Blueberries by the handful are good anywhere and anytime.
Although grapes are now available year round from places like Chile, nothing can best a fresh Parker county peach bought from the farmer by the farmer at a farmer’s market in July. Canning and freezing can extend the useful life of the fruit but it’s just not the same as fresh. If I can’t get it fresh I just skip it and eat chocolate.
June 19, 2014 at 10:44 am
Bob,
Cranberries are the only fruit growing on Cape Cod. People might have assorted trees, but there are no farmers with groves.
I can’t get excited by a peach, even from straight from the farm. I haven’t ever been a fan of peaches, but I have always been a fan of chocolate.
My favorite part of summer is when the homegrown tomatoes are available. I can eat them plain!
June 20, 2014 at 9:17 am
A nectarine is just a hairless pech, it’s more or less the same fruit. But lots of botanists count them as belonging in the plum group in the Prunus family 🙂
Christer.
June 20, 2014 at 10:42 am
Christer,
I see nectarines in the grocery store but do’n fever think to buy them. Now hairless I like!
June 19, 2014 at 10:07 am
Oh, you are really early, enjoy the long day. I slept in today, we have another holiday, Feast of Corpus Christi. It’s not important in the region where I live, just a nice day off.
We are in raspberry heaven right now, despite the storm we have more berries in the garden than we can eat and even the blackbirds are picky. No exotic fruit plants. The kiwi experiment failed, the plant survived for 5 years, but froze one winter before it had any fruit. Too bad I can’t grow bananas, my only daily exotic fruit. I rarely buy other exotic fruit, because most of the fruits are sold so unripe they never get any taste. I was surprised how delicious figs can be when I ate ripe figs in Malta.
Soccer evening today, England:Uruguay. Good luck England!
June 19, 2014 at 10:47 am
Birgit,
Thanks, I have already been out doing a bit of shopping, and the guy was here to clean the furnace and air conditioner.
It is raining now so no deck today. Nice you get a day off and can sleep late.
Nothing much in the way of fruit grows down here because of the salt air. Strawberries and blueberries do well, but that’s it. I love fresh figs and dates. I think all the traveling I’ve done has made me try all sorts of stuff I wouldn’t otherwise find.
I just bought some fresh strawberries!
June 19, 2014 at 11:08 am
I love strawberries. And also this song:
Miriam Makeba – Love Tastes Like Strawberries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rH7TAhyZwg
June 19, 2014 at 1:05 pm
Birgit,
I hadn’t heard this song before, and I love it! I have added it to my music collection!
June 19, 2014 at 12:56 pm
Birgit – Thank you !
I am officially on “blackout” at 3.00 pm this afternoon hoping to make it home without knowing the score. I also warn my friends that if things don’t go well then a 24 hour rule applies before I should be approached.
I have watched almost every match (ok, I skipped The Russians) and I thought that Germany was by far the most impressive team after the first round of matches.
Enjoy the game in beautiful Bochum……Come on England
June 19, 2014 at 1:06 pm
MDH,
I echo you: Come on England!
June 19, 2014 at 1:18 pm
Here’s a little rarity that probably should have stayed a rarity. But it does fit today’s theme.
June 19, 2014 at 2:27 pm
im6,
I haven’t ever heard this song before this. I doubt it is on their greatest hits album. Wait, do they have a greatest hits album?
June 19, 2014 at 4:28 pm
OF COURSE The Monkees have a greatest hits album. Maybe you were in Ghana at the time, but Davy, Michael, Mickey and Peter were HUGE. And actually pretty darn good, too. In 1967, they outsold The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
June 19, 2014 at 4:53 pm
im6,
That was just tongue and cheek! I even used to watch their TV show.
June 19, 2014 at 2:36 pm
Kat,
Love peaches, but I’m a bit weird in one regard. I love them when they are absolutely rock hard. I hate soft, juicy peaches where the juice gets all over me. I hate messy.
Am I wrong?
Waving from Jersey…
Coleen
June 19, 2014 at 2:51 pm
Hi Coleen,
Nope, never wrong to hate messy unless you’re a kid and messy is part of the deal.
I always think peaches need a hair removal gel.
Waving from finally sunny Cape Cod!
June 19, 2014 at 2:55 pm
Hi Coleen, I am in Jersey for the Special Olympics USA games. I am at the Peddie a School right now watching woman’s gymnastics. Yesterday my daughter won one gold and five silver medals in gymnastics.
My better half likes them hard also along with hard plums and nectarines. What’s the fun without the juice running down your chin. To each their own.
June 19, 2014 at 3:10 pm
Bob,
How fantastic, an award winning Olympian In what events did your daughter compete? Give her my best congratulations!
June 19, 2014 at 6:09 pm
My daughter competed in gymnastics. Special Olympics has been wonderful for her. It was started by Eunice Kennedy Schriver and her husband Sargent Schriver as a tribute to her older sister Rosemary who had some kind of intellectual disability. Her son Tim Schriver, Chairman of Special Olympics, presented the medals yesterday.
June 19, 2014 at 6:14 pm
Bob,
I knew about Eunice and the Special Olympics and how it all started in her backyard and love that her family is still so involved.
Gymnastics isn’t an easy sport. It takes such coordination and determination. Your daughter is impressive.
June 20, 2014 at 8:07 pm
flyboybob,
That is wonderful that you are here for the Special Olympics! You are about 45 mins away from me, as I live in Wall Township. You will have good weather this weekend and I hope you enjoy!
And now I do not feel so weird about my choice of peaches…Kat, your comment on peaches needing hair gel cracked me up!
Waving…
Coleen
June 20, 2014 at 8:23 pm
Coleen,
It is true I swear about peaches.
June 20, 2014 at 9:22 am
Living in the twon where all imported fruit went through, they all came by ships back then, I got used to exotic fruits already from the beginning. But I do remember the first time I ate a Kiwi, we did try eating it with the skin but realised it wasn’t edible 🙂
We always had satsumas at Christmas, I guess they are much like tnagerines but without the seeds, they are still the most popular citrus fruits here during winter.
Passion fruit is another big favorite of mine but one really has to have no problems with seeds in the fruit since most of it is seeds 🙂 Easy to grow too if one can place them cool and light during winter.
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 20, 2014 at 10:41 am
Christer,
I looked up satsumas and they were defined as tangerines from Japan. I hadn’t ever heard of them. I like kiwis but seldom buy them. I stick to the old regulars.
Fruit on a hot summer day is the best!
Have a great day yourself!!