One of the things I look forward to every summer is picking produce with my kids. I find it very relaxing and peaceful to be in a field picking fruit. I think this is a great thing for me to teach my children where the food we eat grows and the flavor is outstanding in fresh produce. We have made some of our picking adventures a group activity by asking the kids’ friends and parents to join us. My children enjoy the social aspect of picking as well as eating the great tasting produce. During the summer when the kids are home for every meal and snack this helps keep costs down because u-pick is usually the best price you can find on produce. We enjoy picking strawberries, cherries and blueberries each several times to start the picking season. Then we make lots of stops to get the many varieties of peaches grown locally. Later in the summer, tomatoes and green beans are excellent for u-pick.
One way to preserve your fresh produce harvest is to try a refrigerator pickled vegetable recipe. This is an inexpensive way to preserve produce to eat in the future. Pickled vegetables can last in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. They are excellent in pasta salads, chopped up on a taco or used on a salad. I even liked to use the pickle juice to add flavor to dressing I make for salads, especially when I have used some spice peppers in the juice and lots of spices. I have used the foodhero.org recipe to make refrigerator pickled vegetables which is fun because there are so many possible spice combinations. I really enjoyed garlic, jalapeno, dill and turmeric in one of the batches.
To get back to tacos, how many of you like fruit salsas? I have been surprised how much I enjoy the sweet spicy flavor of a fruit salsa. I have included a peach salsa recipe that I think is a great one to try. However you can use just about any fruit to make salsa like watermelon, kiwi, strawberries and grapes. Foodhero.org has tons of different fruit salsa recipes to check out. The peach salsa recipe is not too spicy so if you like a little more kick try out the strawberry jalapeno one from foodhero.org.
Fresh picked fruit also makes great desserts. I really like desserts that are not too sweet so you can taste the flavors of the fruit you use in the recipe. Let the fruit be the star of the show because it has so much flavor. Crisps are great like the foodhero.org rhubarb blueberry crisp.
Whatever produce you enjoy eating during the summer try having a picking adventure in one of the many local u-pick farms in Douglas County. You cannot beat the price or flavor of the local area bounty.
Mandy can be reached by e-mail mandy.hatfield@oregonstate.edu or phone at 541-672-4461
Recipes
Refrigerator-Pickled Vegetables