By Mandy Catlette

Updated every Friday

Last Updated: July 30, 2010

It's the fruit enthusiast's Christmas around here -- Bayfield blueberries have arrived! These seasonal treats hail from the pristine northern reaches of Wisconsin, specifically Red Oaks and Blue Vista Farms. Some of us in the Wedge Produce Department consider these berries to be our favorite fruit, period. These berries are vibrantly fresh and contain the majestic purity you can only find in the Northern climes of this region -- the rarified air that blows to us from Canada across Lake Superior, the stately and fragrant pines, the clean crisp sunshine that is never overpowering but gently warms. From this invigorating atmosphere comes the blueberry -- dusky blue and sweet-tart with unparalleled flavor, texture, and nutrition. They are a sky blue mountain morning -- they are a deep, clear, spring-fed pond. They will not fail you. Eat as many as you can as they come but once a year.

Local Icebox Melons

What is the maximum capacity of juice that a fruit can hold? You can find out for yourself with Gardens of Eagan red icebox watermelons this week. These melons may easily be the juiciest fruit I have ever eaten -- and as such are extremely refreshing in any kind of weather. The sweet, pure, clean water that these melons are packed with is ideal for replenishing your body and mind no matter if you've been working in an indoor controlled atmosphere all day, or pounding the pavement in the heat. After eating nearly half a watermelon, I started feeling smarter, more resilient, less achy, and extremely happy. What has your fruit been doing for you, lately?

White nectarines -- what is going on with you this year? Don't you ever quit? Don't you ever just feel like phoning it in now and then? Being the world's tastiest and most reliable stone fruit has got to come with a lot of pressure, but apparently white nectos are up to it this season. Every time I try them, I am sure they'll have fallen from their peak, but no. These are as syrupy, as sweet, as robust and potent as a tropical flower in bloom. They are a giant floral blast -- nothing demure or gentle about it -- this is the year the White Nectarine graduates to Diva status.

If you like plums, you are going to love the FlavorGem pluots this week. Just like every good parent wants for their children, pluots retain the best characteristics of plums and apricots and none of the bad ones. They are generally sweet, juicy, and as fragrant as a plum, but with more complexity and better texture, like a good apricot. The FlavorGem is a purple and yellow blush stone fruit about the size of a small baseball, and is full of zip, zing, and lots and lots of juice.

Apricots

Speaking of apricots, they have been quite good recently. Apricots are one fruit that to me just radiate perfect health -- I think it's a combination of their beautiful skin and the vitamin A-saturated color of their flesh. The current crop of California 'cots are large with a rosy blush on their satiny skins. Eat beautiful things = become more beautiful. Makes sense to me.

On the fruit horizon for the next couple weeks: Peaches from Michigan and Colorado! So exciting.

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

The good news for tomato-lovers is that this week tomato season began in earnest. Every day we receive new and different tomatoes from different farmers -- each farm has a specialty. From Featherstone Farms of Rushford, Minnesota, we have my all-time favorite tomato for snacking, Sungold cherry tomatoes. Sugary sweet with a fruity tropical flavor, these Sungolds are good evidence that tomatoes are actually fruits. Here is also a hint for those who avoid tomatoes because their acidity gives you a tummy ache: some people have better success tolerating orange and yellow varieties of tomatoes because they are much less acidic. Yellow and orange tomatoes are also very high in beta-carotene -- if you needed any more incentive to eat them!

Red Slicing Tomatoes

From Keewaydin Farms (Viola, Wisconsin) and our own Gardens of Eagan we have classic red, no-foolin' slicing tomatoes that are as plump and soft as they are juicy and flavorful. These beautiful tomatoes are as happy on a sandwich or salad playing backup as they are sliced onto a plate and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and salt in a starring role. Try one tucked into a baguette with luscious slices of ripe avocado, and nothing else. You will not believe dinner can be so easy.

Heirloom Tomatoes

The stars of any tomato party are inevitably the heirlooms, though. It's easy for a person like me to get jaded sometimes -- when you are around such excellent fruit and vegetables all the time, it's easy to feel like there's nothing new under the sun. I wasn't much excited about heirloom tomatoes this year -- but now that they are here, from Featherstone Farms, I can't stop eating them. Each one seems like a revelation in tomato wonderment. A tomato has to be good for a veteran produce employee to feel that she is trying a tomato again for the first time. These tomatoes are the kind you can eat with a fork and a knife, and share them with company. Try a yellow and red Marvel Stripe or the unique and mysteriously flavored Green Zebra tomato. I think they taste like a fruity Parmesan cheese. A tomato! That tastes like cheese! I love it.

Gardens of Eagan Sweet Corn

Gardens of Eagan sweet corn is back and boy do people know it! This early variety, “Temptation” is a shimmering bi-color sweet corn (white and yellow kernels) whose most charming characteristic is an ultra-tender kernel that bursts with milky sweetness in your mouth. It is fresh with a taste that is full of memories. Sweet corn is more versatile than many people think -- it isn't just for boiling. Grilling is probably the most common way to cook corn in the world -- throughout South and Central America it is standard. Sweet corn, cut from the cob, makes a special addition to most grains and vegetable salads, as well. Think off the cob...

Patty Pan Squash

Patty pan squash from Wisconsin Grower's Cooperative is beautiful -- the tiniest of these little starships of squash can be cooked whole, for a tempting and tasty morsel -- but the larger ones can be quartered or sliced horizontally, revealing their lovely asterisk pattern. Patty pan is a particularly rich and flavorful summer squash, kind of like a zucchini with lots of personality.

Kale

Gardens of Eagan's mega-sized bunches of kale are my pick for best value in vegetables this week. Take your pick -- these bunches of red, green, or dinosaur kale are easily two to three times as large as bunches from California, and the quality is flawless, while the price has remained the same or lower! Unbelievable. The nutritional bang for your buck here is outrageous -- and you have never had kale so sweet and tender. The dinosaur kale is tender enough to eat raw -- but I just love steaming up the green kale with sesame oil and tamari.

Have you tried Wisconsin Grower's Cooperative's green-top sweet candy onions yet? I love these onions -- when you slice one, the onion weeps a creamy sweet juice all over your cutting board, and when you mix this minced onion with anything (say potato salad, sour cream, soup, hamburger), you are transported to flavor-town, and the population is YOU. There is much hype about Vidalia onions, but for my money, it's an organic candy onion any day.