NEWS ARTICLE

For:            Release week of June 17, 2002

To:            Rotating News Article

By:     Linda K. Bowman, Ext. Agt. IV - Family & Consumer Sciences

Santa Rosa County Extension Service

Telephone: 850/623-3868 or 939-1259, ext. 1360

 

 

Enjoy the Fruits of Summer!

 

Every season has its own wonderful fruits and vegetables, but summer has the very best and a multitude of choices.  Summer fruit is a wonderful snack, just eaten out of hand.  Be sure to have a bowl of washed, chilled fruit in the refrigerator for warm weather snack attacks.

Beyond fresh - Fresh fruit is enjoyed the most when eaten at the peak of ripeness.  Fruit that has gotten a little bit too ripe is very useful, if not for snacking, then as an ingredient.  One of the best things to do with ripe fruit is to prepare a sauce called coulis.  A coulis is nothing more than a fruit or vegetable puree that has been sweetened or seasoned.  A coulis is beautiful in color, wonderful in flavor and contains little or no fat or sodium.  Here are some tips on making coulis.

•                     Puree berries with cantaloupe or peaches.

•                     Use artificial sweetener, honey or maple syrup for added sweetness.

•                     If you’d like to make your coulis creamy, puree a small amount of banana with the berries.

•                     Use coulis as a sauce for fresh fruit salads, sorbets, or fruit ice, as a dipping sauce for grapes or other berries, or as the start of a great fruit smoothie.

•                     You can freeze your coulis and make your own fruit ice.

•                     You can also stir coulis into orange juice for a fun breakfast beverage.

Saving summer fruit - You may want to dry some summer fruit to use later in the year.  Drying fruit can be done easily with an oven or a fruit dehydrator.  Fruit for drying should be ripe or very ripe, so you get a sweet product.  To dry in the oven, you’ll need a gas oven with a pilot or an electric oven that you can set to 175 degrees for drying.  Wash fruit and pat dry; slice as thin as possible and place, single file, on baking sheets.  Allow to dry in the oven until all the moisture has evaporated.  Store in airtight, covered containers.

Just for now and later - Any type of ripe fruit makes a good juice.  Use a blender or a juicer and create your own combinations, like strawberry-banana, honeydew-peach or apricot-plum juice.

•                     Wash fruit well and remove pits or seeds before placing in blender.

•                     Fresh fruit will last about two days in the refrigerator or about one month in the freezer.

•                     Use fresh juice as an ingredient in salad dressings.  Replace up to 25% of the liquid in a baked goods recipe with fresh juice for added nutrients and flavor.

•                     Make a smoothie with ½ cup light nonfat, yogurt, ½ cup frozen fruit and 1 cup fruit juice.

•                     Make ice cubes and popsicles with your fresh fruit juice.

•                     Flavor iced teas with fresh fruit juice.

Freeze It For A Quick Treat - Do you want to know what to do with that extra summer fruit?  Freeze it into desserts!  Here’s how:

•                     Berries: Select overripe (but not moldy!) Berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries; puree in a blender.  For a creamy mixture, add a small amount of silken tofu or low-fat yogurt.  If you need a bit of sweetness, add a dash of maple syrup, orange juice concentrate or peach nectar.  You can eat the frozen version like sherbet or allow it to thaw and use as a colorful, nutritious sauce for slices of angel food cake.

•                     Grapes: Wash seedless grapes and pat dry.  Place them in the freezer and allow them to chill until hard.  You can then stack them in an air-tight container.

For more information of if you have a question, call Linda Bowman, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent, The University of Florida--Santa Rosa County Cooperative Extension Service--IFAS, at  (850)623-3868 or (850)939-1259, Ext. 1360 for south county residents, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays.  Hearing-impaired individuals may call Santa Rosa County Emergency Management Service at 983-5373 (TDD).

Extension Service programs are open to all people without regard to race, color, sex, age, handicap or national origin.  The use of trade names in this article is solely for the purpose of providing specific information.  It is not a guarantee, warranty, or endorsement of the product name(s) and does not signify that they are approved to the exclusion of others.