Summer Fruit

Fresh peaches from Banks Farm are a delight and perfect for eating out of hand or baking.

Summer in Mississippi is amazing for eating. During the past several weeks, I've tracked down fantastic fresh peaches (at Banks Farm in Rankin county) and blueberries (at the U-pick Locust Grove Berry Farm in Hinds county). Having access to such fresh, delicious summer fruit inspired me to make some new creations!

Caron making her perfect cobbler recipe

At Banks Farm in Brandon, you can buy a half a peck, a peck, or a bushel of peaches. They also sell other vegetables (tomatoes, corn, etc.) that are grown on their farm, as well as jellies, jams, and preserves. In your batch of fresh peaches, you'll find that some of them are really ripe (for eating over the sink as the juice drips all over your hand), and other are a bit firmer for baking.

I rustled up my friend Caron and started with a day of baking that we dubbed "PeachPalooza." She brought her time-tested cobbler recipe, and I chose a peach-blackberry cake. (One summer, Caron set herself to finding the perfect cobbler recipe. She made cobblers all summer until settling on the one that pleased her best. Her husband found nirvana.) We made a big pot of coffee and chatted while we peeled and chopped peaches, then assembled the cobbler and loaf.

While they baked off, we picked up lunch at a local restaurant. (Hubs kept an eye on the oven.) Then, after lunch, we sampled the fruits of our labors. Delicious!

Summer mornings are for blueberry picking!

For the berry picking, my neighborhood friend Shawn and I drove out to Locust Grove Berry Farm, near Ridgeland, early in the morning. This U-pick farm used to have TONS of different fruits you could pick, but I think they've cut back to just blueberries and muscadines now. We got there either the first or second weekend they were open for the season, and the bushes were heavy with fruit. We each picked a big bucket full of berries, so juicy and sweet that my mind spun with ideas about what to make with them.

When I got home, I made two delicious lemon blueberry loaves (one for me, and one for my father, who LOVES lemon). Later in the week, I spent one evening after supper making a big batch of blueberry scone dough, shaping the scones, and then storing them in the fridge. The next morning, I baked off fresh, hot scones for breakfast and hollered at Shawn (who lives just down the street) to come and get one if she wanted it. We ate the buttery scones warm from the oven with fruit salad and cups of fresh coffee. A lovely way to start the day!

Up next will be FIGS! I've made preserves and jam with them before, as well as just eating them fresh. They are so amazing! I'm already looking at recipes!

Happy summer eating!

These blueberry scones were fantastic!