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nafex - [NAFEX] fruit can help us stay positive during the darkest days of winter/which preserved fruit should I eat first

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  • From: "Mike Levine" <mlevine@umich.edu>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] fruit can help us stay positive during the darkest days of winter/which preserved fruit should I eat first
  • Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 21:22:16 -0500

Hi folks,
I for one get pretty depressed in the short days of December and often I look to the available food to help cheer me up. I always have trouble deciding what order to eat the things I have preserved. I have a nasty habit of saving and saving and saving things until they are almost in season again. I haven't touched the frozen pesto, persimmons, pawpaws, blueberries, or raspberries yet. I'm not sure why....

There's a nationwide tomato shortage (so I've read), but I've still got tons of ripening tomatoes on the kitchen table. Still, for some reason I am just not tempted by them or by my home-grown potatoes. I think I am more sensitive to solanaceous compounds than others. I also wasted a whole bunch of my onions and watched as they sprouted/rotted away. Wish I had a root cellar or a bigger fridge.

I have been working on the storage pears I got from Gordon's lawn a couple months ago and they are just coming into their prime now. BTW, I'm really sorry to see Gordon leave the list, he's a real asset and has done a lot to get me interested in fruits and nuts that I wouldn't have explored without him. Perhaps we can all do our best to make the list more welcoming, dynamic, and interesting to all levels of fruit expertise. I always find it fascinating.

I've noticed a seasonality to people's moods on this list and would like to start a thread about how fruit consumption can temper this grumpiness effect. What fruit chases your winter blues away? (and how long does it last). I know that when I do hit those raspberries, it will surely chase my winter blues away for at least the day. Recipe is just to heat frozen raspberries (briefly) with a little water and honey, then drizzle hot over organic vanilla ice cream.

Does anyone have ideas for a system for deciding what order to eat their preserved/frozen fruit/canned goods? I suspect certain ones are associated with certain holidays for certain people. I'm also wondering if some folks wait to use certain preserved fruits in recipes that also require fruits that are only available in winter (for example, pomegranate, certain citrus, N. american grown kiwis, or perhaps some southern fruit I haven't mentioned). I'm interested in what keeps the longest and still tastes good. Where is the point of diminishing returns in flavor for dried/canned/frozen fruit?

Mike Levine
Ann Arbor, MI Zone 5b





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