Colorful summer bounty

It's true. Fruits and vegetables always taste better when they are in season. And summer is one wonderful season, don't you think? The warm sunshine offers up ripe freshness perfect and primed for picking. Goodies like cherries, tomatoes, oranges, peaches and strawberries. And that's just what I bought when I stopped by Francisco's Fruit Stand in Fillmore last Sunday. (I'm eating some of my cherries right now, in fact. They taste like little plums to me.)

There was an abundance of other vibrant fruits and veggies, too. If I had unlimited funds and an ability to make my selections stay fresh long enough for me to use them all, I would have bought more. As it was, I satisfied my urge to shop through photography, capturing all the colors of summer's bounty.

Crates of bell peppers...

A rainbow of peaches, plums, nectarines...

Don't you just want to take a bite?

Huge melons...

Sweet stacks of California berries...

This has me dreaming of apple cobbler.

Tomatoes, on and off the vine...

It's funny. A couple months ago, I wasn't a big fan of tomatoes. I mostly just liked them in cooked form: pasta sauce, pizza, ketchup. But recently, I have discovered that tomatoes are actually amazingly delicious, even in their natural raw state. I've been eating slices of them on club sandwiches and hamburgers, and I absolutely adore pairing them with fresh avocado, scooped right out of its shell.

Since I bought a vine of eight campari tomatoes from the roadside market, my task became figuring out what to transform the red beauties into. Luckily, while catching up on my blog reading, I came across this super simple bruschetta recipe from Analiese over at Tulips & Tea. All you need is tomatoes, a couple cloves of garlic, a few basil leaves, olive oil, salt and pepper.

A little chopping, a grind here, a drizzle there, a quick mix and ta da! Fresh and delicious bruschetta-- as good as the kind you'd get at a fancy Italian restaurant. Maybe even better. And I was so proud of my creation. I spooned mine atop thick, toasty slices of ciabatta bread. So good and good for you. I can't wait to hit up the farmer's market again.

So when's the last time you went to a farmers market? (This was really my first time ever buying anything.) And have you discovered a new food recently? Maybe one you hated that now you love? It's interesting how our tastes change over the years... that's why every so often I take a nibble of something I don't think I'll like. Because sometimes I surprise myself!

Well, I'm off to dinner to catch up with a long lost sorority sister. Hope you had a delicious weekend,