Blueberries, blueberries and more of those blue tasty morsels of fruit.
I eat a lot of blueberries with five grain cereal in the morning for breakfast.
They are also nice in salads, baking and blueberry smoothies — try some interesting wine some time.
Cherries are on the market shelves now, however, it will be a week or two before we see any of the Okanagan cherries.
I ate so many cherries one time I got a little ill — dumb thing to do but my taste buds loved it.
Corn from Washington state in store shelves and it is sure fun to have a good barbecued corn on the cob. It’s even better when it’s Soda Creek corn.
Don’t you just love this time of the year when summer fruits and vegetables start making their way into some very scrumptious recipes.
Beets are amongst the garden rewards that are coming into our kitchens, so we have a chance to make up some really good Borscht, a beet salad or cook the leaves then add a bit of balsamic vinegar, along with some pepper and salt. Yummy.
Peas and carrots also are being harvested in some gardens then enjoyed straight raw with nothing else — even the pea shells are good.
Baby carrots plucked from the ground, wipe one with a wet towel to clean and then quickly put it in your mouth and chew really slow to get the wonderful summertime flavour dancing on your tastebuds.
Mixing young carrots and peas together is a match made right from the garden as they compliment each other so well.
Add in some other goodies and you can have a variety of salads using peas and carrots as the base.
Fresh Peas and Baby Carrot salad
• 1 medium lemon
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp fresh mint
• 1 tsp fresh dill
• 1 bunch of small young carrots with tops
• 1 good sized bunch of fresh peas
• Freshly ground pepper and salt
Finely grate a little lemon zest and then squeeze about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of lemon juice into a bowl and whisk, then put in the dill, oil, mint along with pepper and salt.
Cut the leaf off the carrot top, down to about one inch above the carrot and clean them. In a pot with a steamer insert add about an inch of water and set stove to high. Steam covered until crisp and tender. About 4 mins. You can stop the cooking by dumping them in an ice bath…same with the peas you have steamed for about three mins.
Mix the peas and carrots and add the dill-oil dressing. Let sit for about a half hour.
You could even do some baby beets and add into the mixture.
Enjoy the tasty, tantalising, terrific tastes of summertime.
Don’t forget Fathers Day is only just over a week away.
Bye for now and Gooood Cooking.
Ken Wilson is a freelance columnist with the Tribune/Weekend Advisor.
