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Chef Foster: Elusiveness, local availability of seasonal fruits is all just part of their appeal


It seems like only yesterday that we were enjoying the literal fruits of the land, indulging in big fat strawberries, then blueberries and on to black raspberries and the like. These fruits went by us so fast that unless you were locked into buying them all up you may have missed them entirely as they whizzed by.

Melons and cantaloupe and watermelons now rule the day, fruits we identify solely with the dog days of summer, and enjoy thoroughly. There are no winter watermelons worth their weight in anything, cantaloupes are dry tasteless packing filler outside of a few months of the summer. In short, you have a real, short season to enjoy the berries and the melons that we produce each year.

Add to that list the table grapes which up until a few years ago were nonexistent at the markets. The first time I spotted them at a booth in the market I had to look again and even taste before I believed. Now I search for them, starting earlier and earlier, because like all of the fruit before them, they go quickly.

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And truthfully, that’s how fruit should be; fleeting and transitory so we can’t get sated by the redundancy of it. As much as I would probably enjoy year a round berries, I understand that part of their appeal is the elusiveness of the fruit within the yearly calendar. We’ve been conditioned to buy and eat chocolate covered strawberries at Valentine’s Day, but truthfully we should wait until Derby Weekend at least.

Which leaves us with a terrible culinary conundrum; what is our alternative to out of season/state fruit?

We can wait for peaches to creep up through Georgia, they will eventually reach us, same for melons. We harvest terrific apples and I can get them for the restaurant all the way through the winter.

But where are the pears, the plums and the cherries? We will never duplicate the vast array of fruits that the west coast can produce, the citrus that comes out of Florida. But are we missing the chance to expand our diversity, and selection, and if so, for what reason?

Let’s dispense with the obvious ones, bananas and pineapple. I’m quite sure I don’t want any more heat and humidity commonly found in areas that produce the majority of those two fruits. Same for citrus which seems to me to be a finicky crop which does not suffer our cold snaps well.

Stone fruit has some promise, although we might be just a wee bit too far north to grow a good peach or plum. Cherries could be a potential addition, although we don’t have an established market or producer like our neighbors to the north in Michigan.

No, we are a berries-and-melon culture in this town, with apples in the fall. Celebrations are built around these fruits and there hasn’t been much call for anything else. True, we’ve had some paw paw developments, but this fruit is a very specific one and hasn’t seen the growth in popularity.

Chocolate covered strawberries in the spring, watermelon eating contests on the 4th of July, berry pies all summer, and apple cider comes in the fall. Neat, tidy and predictable.

Should we be upset by this? We do grow great berries in this state and with them make some top notch jams and jellies. Our blackberries this season were some of the best I’ve had, ever. And I can fondly recall that the strawberries actually tasted like, well, strawberries.

But as a chef, I lament the shortness of seasons, the lack of other fruits to fill the gaps, and the general lack of interest in the development of more choices. Where are my pear trees, my Bartlett’s and Anjou?

Years ago there was a small movement to grow figs in Kentucky. I had a tree until my dog ripped it out one day.

Table grapes continue to grow in popularity, and I think that’s where the next breakthrough will happen. As we re-establish our grape culture, mostly to benefit the rejuvenated wine industry, some ambitious grower should get the idea to expand to table grapes. The small samplings I’ve had so far are promising, both in flavor and texture. The market needs to get more involved, but the seed has been planted.

With the melons in full season now, there are plenty of dishes that can highlight the sweetness, freshness of flavor and the high moisture count of a good local cantaloupe or watermelon. Sorbets and ices or granitas are one way to enjoy the melons. Just a simple syrup of pulp and water and you can have a refreshing dessert in the time it takes you to spin it in the machine or freeze it.

Chilled soup, with or without sour cream or yogurt is a nice change of pace from gazpacho or even a hot soup. Some melons pair well with mint and tarragon, even basil. As we cross into the savory dishes, this list of herbs can grow to cilantro and parsley for quick melon salsas, spices like cumin and coriander, star anise and cardamom for chutneys.

Pairing melons with chilies can be as simple as sprinkling some cayenne on a wedge of cantaloupe to fresh chilies as part of a watermelon gazpacho. In all of these dishes we rely on the melon to be sweet and floral with lots of moisture. Try these same dishes with an off season melon and you will be disappointed with the results.

Whatever berries you come upon at this point, consider washing and freezing some. Even frozen, these local berries will have lots of flavor, and the recipe choices you make, with the exception of fresh won’t suffer much with the frozen. Fresh berries are versatile enough to use both in savory and sweet presentations.

Chutneys, salsas, pan sauces for chicken, duck and pork are especially fresh and vibrant with local, blackberries. For dessert preparations I favor pies and cobblers. Using the berries for a sorbet allows us to extract the flavor and leave the seeds behind. Using the whole berry in an ice cream or gelato is my least favorite as it invariably produces a hard chunk of fruit in the middle of a creamy, rich texture.

When the apples arrive in force, as they will soon, my thoughts turn to pies, crisp and turnovers. I’m a sucker when it comes to a good apple pie. Just the right amount of sugar and spice, cooked to just tender, and set in enough baked juice so that it oozes out when cut, the apple pie is my kryptonite.

Apple turnovers, the younger cousin to apple pie, can be almost as satisfying, and its allure extends to the fact that it’s portable. Crisp brings back my childhood, particularly the lunch line at school. Before things were massed produced, the lunch lady used to cook more often. Crisp was always a red letter day for me and I’ve tried to continue that with my kids at home.

While I will never have local Bananas Foster, or Scott County upside down pineapple cake, there is still much to look forward to. But when you see a new crop of fruit come through, dive in. When the opportunity arises for you to vote with your pocketbook to get more table grapes or some pears to your local market, do it.

It’s the small steps that might lead us to the next big thing.

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John Foster is an executive chef who heads the culinary program at Sullivan University’s Lexington campus. A New York native, Foster has been active in the Lexington culinary scene and a promoter of local and seasonal foods for more than 20 years. The French Culinary Institute-trained chef has been the executive chef of his former restaurant, Harvest, and now his Chevy Chase eatery, The Sage Rabbit.

To read more from Chef John Foster, including his recipes, click here.


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