One Reason I Like Summer.

The Food! I love all the sweet fruits that come with summer time. I've always had a sweet tooth. It's probably what has kept me nice and chubby most of my life. But that's not what this post is about. I LOVE this time of year in the produce department because there are so many delicious ripe and sweet fruits to choose from! And the neat thing about living where we now do is, there are several farmers markets where we can buy fresh, homegrown fruit, which in my opinion is even better! Here are just a few of my favorites.

Watermelon is not only delicious and refreshing, but it has a lot of memories tied to it. Running around outside as a child when the family had a barbeque; the Fourth of July; having contests to see who could spit the watermelon seeds the farthest; and telling the neighbor kids that if they swallowed those seeds they would grow a watermelon tree in their belly. Now you can get watermelon without seeds! Are we so lazy as a society now-a-days that you can't take a minute to spit out a seed? I remember visiting my beautiful and lovely great-grandmother, Lily, once and she had some dried watermelon for me to try. It tasted just like candy!

Raspberries are probably one of my very favorite fruits. Growing up my neighbors used to have raspberry bushes lining their back fence and me and my friend used to spend hours laying in the dirt and picking raspberries off the bush and eating them. One of my favorite things to do with them then was to pick each little juicy plump juice-filled circle apart from the whole of the raspberry and then combine them all together for one delicious juicy chomp. I'm sure you're asking yourself, "why didn't she just put several raspberries in her mouth and chomp on them without taking the time to seperate each little bulb of juice?" Because it just wasn't as fun, okay? Geez. Plus, like most things in life, I think I appreciated it more cause I had to work for it. Now-a-days I love mixing them with some fresh vanilla yogurt. And my very favorite jam just happens to be raspberry!

Cherries are an excellent fruit. When cherries are good, they are soooo good. Shawna's family has cherry trees in their yard and I remember a couple summers helping them pick cherries when they were ready. It was so fun climbing the trees and working hard to get the cherries picked and then getting to munch on cherries as a reward for all our hard work. Cherry pie is so good. And cherry has always been my favorite flavor when it comes to candy.

Grapes. Even as a 31-yr-old I enjoy filling my mouth with grapes and then chomping down on them all at once so the juice fills my mouth. Madeline loves peeled, quartered grapes. It's one of her favorite foods! And could a food be more fun? Coming in all those beautiful colors like it does? Paul is a big fan of grapes. That must be where Mads gets it. Or it could just be that grapes, like all of these other fruits, are just totally delicious!!

So, are you in your car yet? Go get some healthy, fresh fruits and have a party already!! And don't forget to thank Mother Nature - that woman knows how to cook.