[Sca-cooks] Summer foods

[Stephanie Ross]

 I only wish I could hand each of you a slice of the fresh cantaloupe we
> get here in the late summer. The sandy soil here grows HUGE, incredibly
> sweet melons. The one my sweetie picked up today is as big as a small
> watermelon! Southern Maryland is a great place to be for fresh fruits 
> and veggies in the summer!
>
> Kiri

Are you still getting the spring droughts every other year or so? Many
years I wanted to plant a garden, esp. when we lived down in Drayden, but
the drought would be wicked, with the soil being the consistency of flour,
that I never got a big plot planted. My windowsill herbs always did well.
What I miss the most is the roadside sellers in Sept. and Oct. selling all
the fruit and fresh cider. One of my favorite fresh dishes in spring that
my mom would make when I was a kid in PA was creamed new potatoes and fresh
peas. Planting here in Florida is backwards. I can't plant until September
because everything either burns up or get chewed to death by bugs. I was
all excited this past Apr./May about getting a garden growing, until i
realized that it was just the wrong time of year for it if I wanted
success. We get strawberries in february, and tomatoes up until June or so.
Right now Georgia peaches are in season. I think it's time to make a batch
of peach melomel. Speaking of seasonal foods, has anyone seen the book,
_Feast for all Seasons_ by Roy Andries de Groot? The listing in it about
what foods are ripe in what State when are really nice. For summer:

Western apricots and bing cherries
NY state crab apples
Az, CA dates
CA nectarines
FL, HI papaya
NY seckle pears
HI pineapples
CA pomegranate
CA, FL avacados
CA, FL cucumbers

The list goes on, you get the idea. It's a cookbook too, but a mundane one
with several interesting sections on ethnic food. The best part of the book
to me is where he lists what kind of honey each state is known for (this is
back in '66 mind you). I'll post the list to the list if anyone is
interested.

~Aislinn~
Et si omnes ego non.

"The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the
first and only legitimate object of good government." --Thomas Jefferson to
Maryland Republicans, 1809.