When it comes to your personal kitchen supplies, it is no surprise that I like one grocer over another for the consistency in quality and supply.  The traditional format of grocer have all the fresh veggies and fruit, meats and dairy and baking on the perimeter of the store. The new format is creating that perimeter in a store within a store. My local Sobeys has one traditional format and a new format. I enjoy the new format because it allows me to load up on fresh first and often I have a number of meals to think about the ingredients I will need.

With one day left in July, I look forward to the next month and what seasonal fruit is available.
Fruits
Cherries – first 3 weeks of July
Strawberries and Raspberries – late June to late July
Plums – last week of July – Mid August
Apricots – Mid July – Mid August
Peaches –  starts with semi freestone Mid July, freestone Early August to Mid August and Clingstone in late August.
Nectarines have a long season from Late July through to September
Grapes both eating and wine making from Mid August through to the end of September
Apples – from
Pears depending on the variety from Mid August to the first cold snap
Tomatoes – Field, Roma and Beefstake varieties while savoury are in the fruit group.
When we were young we made an annual trip to a local farm to get bushel baskets of tomatoes and peaches for canning. We boiled water and bathes the tomatoes and peaches to peel off the skins for canning and stuffed the prepared 1 quart jars and filled to cover the fruit with clear water. Once sealed they went into the water bath canner and boiled away several minutes depending your local altitude directly affects the time to boil(from 5 minutes at sea level to 15 minutes at 8000ft). It was a lot of work, but the reward through winter was well worth it to get a mouthful of flavour. I remember names like Ball and Kerr jars  and you could interchange glass lids or snap lids.

These are the foundations that create ideas for dishes for you, for family and for the people you serve at your job as a cook.  We often change the form of many foods but the more we keep food to its’ natural state provides the best color, nutrition and flavour.

Whether you feed young or aging, feel the fresh, hear the crunch, enjoy the flavour.