LATE SUMMER BOUNTY

I'm gobsmacked every time I go to the Farmer's Market by the variety nature puts before us.  There was a time where I didn't know that melons existed beyond the cantaloupe, honeydew, or water variety.  I also assumed raspberries were red and huckleberries were a blue cartoon dog.  What a philistine I was.

Orange Raspberries

Apparently there are not only red and blonde raspberries, but orange and black as well.  Pudwill Farms always has the top berry selection at the market, and this week the orange raspberries caught my eye.  They're sweet, tart, and have a deep berry flavor with a slight grassy finish.  The black raspberries were especially tart, and just asking to get turned into jam or a cobbler.

Huckleberries

I already posted my recipe for huckleberry muffins, but I thought I'd show a photo demonstrating that "just baked" juiciness I was discussing.  My friend Christie aptly called out that they look like the canned blueberries you get in Betty Crocker muffin mix, and I totally agree.  They taste anything but canned though, and are extremely wild, in flavor and personality. I realize I just anthropomorphized a berry, but whatever; they feel plucked from some remote alpine peak, dark and bursting with danger. Or muffin potential.

Saticoy Melons

Harry's Berries carry the best strawberries, amazing raspberries, and some fantastic cherry tomatoes, but recently they've been showing up with these hard as a rock cousins of the cantaloupe.  Even though they don't give a hint to their ripeness, other than the fine webbing at their stem, they are pure candy.  Juicy and sweet beyond compare.  You MUST try to hunt one down while they're still in season, they're to die for.