At last, eggplant! Tiny green-striped-white, cook-’em-whole varieties, squash-shaped purple-white varieties to split and grill, and the bulbous purple ones with the funny green hats, just crying out to be made into ratatouille. Pick up some tomatoes and zucchinis when you buy your eggplant and you’re halfway there.
Plums are coming in: sweet Santa Rosas, tangy Shiros, and half a dozen other varieties. Melons, too, are going great guns (have you had the new spherical seedless ones? They’re pretty darn tasty). Gravenstein pie apples are at their peak, with Transparents for eating beside them. And then there are peaches: Almost every variety is in season just now, so you can afford to be choosy. Tip: Don’t squeeze them; sniff them. Smell is a more reliable indicator of ripeness and doesn’t leave unsightly bruises on the fruit.
Cauliflower is not a glamour vegetable, but it should be. No other vegetable takes as well to so many different classy treatments: curried, sautéed, gratinéed, steamed, creamed, puréed . . . wait till you taste the gleaming white just-cut heads from Mike & Jean’s in Mount Vernonyou’ll be looking for new ways to cook them.
And then there’s corn. Remember, the closer to picking time it’s cooked, the sweeter and juicier it is. The farmers market is good, but U-Pick is even better. Plan a family outing around a visit to one of the farms listed at www.pugetsoundfresh.org and make a day of it.
