[1] Crunchy Asian pears were reserved for the nobility and the wealthy. Now, they are the most popular fruit in all of Asia per an American grower, Virginia Gold Orchard (photo © Wonderful Fruit).

[2] Born in the USA: The boysenberry is a cross among the European raspberry, European blackberry, American dewberry and American loganberry. The loganberry itself is a hybrid of the North American blackberry and the European raspberry. Thanks to American horticulturists for all that hard work (photo © Good Eggs)!

[3] The galia melon is a cross between a honeydew and a cantaloupe. The rind is netted like a cantaloupe, but the green flesh is like a honeydew. The flavor has notes of banana (photo © Melissa’s Produce).

While we can get much of our favorite produce year-round, fruits and vegetables in season taste better, are better environmentally (less fuel expended to import them from faraway places), and support American farmers.

Today, we focus on summer fruits. Tomorrow, summer vegetables.

Some of the items are harvested for only a few weeks; others are around for months. So peruse the list, note what you don’t want to miss, and add it to your shopping list.

The list was created by the Produce For Better Health Foundation. Take a look at their website, FruitsAndVeggiesMoreMatters.org for tips on better meal planning with fresh produce.

We’ve included the less-familiar produce in footnotes below (e.g., black crowberries).

And in the photos: fruits that most of us don’t eat often enough.
 
 
SUMMER FRUITS

 
 
MORE SUMMER PRODUCE

 
 
________________

*Plus: Acerola/Barbados Cherry, Black Crowberry, Breadfruit, Elderberry, Loganberry, Longan, Loquat, Mulberry, Olallieberry, Rose Apple

Iced coffee fans who’d like to try something new can whip up these two iced coffee recipes made with cold brew coffee and a hit of Slane’s Irish Whiskey.

Thanks to Slane’s Irish Whiskey for the recipes.

We really liked them as is, but we took the recipes one step further: by making them into floats with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (coffee ice cream works, too).

Can you use coffee other than cold brew? Yes. Cold brewing produces coffee with much lower acidity, greater smoothness and sweetness, and little or no bitterness. It’s very fashionable now, and fans prefer the different flavor profile. However, feel free to use your favorite coffee, iced.
Here’s how to make cold brew coffee, and the history of cold brewing.

Can you leave out the syrup/sugar? Yes. You can use the sweetener of your choice.
 
 
RECIPE #1: SLANE’S COLD BREW
 
Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

If you’re making a float, use a glass that will accommodate the scoop of ice cream.

1. ADD ice to a shaker; then add the whiskey, maple/honey/agave and cold brew coffee, Shake or stir well to dissolve the syrup.

2. STRAIN into a glass over fresh ice.
 
 
RECIPE #2: SLANE’S ICED IRISH COFFEE

Most of us have only had hot Irish Coffee. Here’s a delightful alternative. It uses demarera sugar syrup instead of regular simple syrup.

Why? Demerara syrup uses demerara sugar in place of regular granulated sugar. Demerara is a less processed, raw cane sugar that has delicious caramel/toffee flavor.

Those flavors in a simple syrup add deeper flavor notes to the drink. Here’s how to make simple syrup: It couldn’t be easier.
 
Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

If you’re making a float, use a glass that will accommodate the scoop of ice cream.

1. ADD all ingredients to a Collins glass over ice. Stir and serve with an orange twist.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF COFFEE
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF IRISH COFFEE
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF COFFEE
 
________________

*Demarara sugar is simple syrup made with demarara (raw) sugar instead of white granulated sugar. It has much more flavor.

[1] Recipe #1: Cold brew iced coffee with a hit of Irish whiskey (photos #1 and #2 © Slane’s Irish Whiskey).

[2] Recipe #2: Iced Irish coffee is creamy, thanks to half & half.

[3] Maple syrup (shown), honey and agave are unrefined sweetener alternatives to granulated sugar (photo © Rent Mother Nature).

[4] Demamara is a raw sugar that has much more flavor than white table sugar. It is available in granulated and cube forms (photo © Katharine Pollak | THE NIBBLE).

[1] Que Pasa’s limited-edition Liberty Chips for July 4th (both photos © Que Pasa).

[2] Look for this bag.

[3] Want to make your own star-shaped chips? Here’s the recipe for both the chips and the salsa (photo © Wisconsin Dairy Farmers).

Almost everyone will be serving some kind of dip over July 4th weekend. Show your patriotism with these limited edition Liberty Chips from Que Pasa.

A festive mix of red, white and blue chips, they’re made from the highest quality organic, non-GMO ingredients.

These authentic chips are made in the traditional Mexican way: whole organic corn kernels ground between hand-cut volcanic rock.

They’re also certified kosher by OU.

You can find the chips at:

 
…and other fine retailers and e-tailers. Check the Que Pasa website for a store locator.

And if you can’t find them, here’s a hack:

Make your own mix of white corn tortilla chips, blue chips and red chips (individual colors available from Garden Of Eatin’, Que Pasa and others).

We actually serve a mix of colors year-round.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF JULY 4TH / INDEPENDENCE DAY
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF TORTILLA CHIPS
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF TORTILLAS
 
 
>THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TORTILLA CHIPS & CORN CHIPS

Just in time for July 4th menu planning, we received this recipe Chef Tom Fraker of Melissa’s Produce.

While the broad concept of “cheesecake” is not an American invention, the modern cream cheese cheesecake is. Cream cheese was invented in New York State in 1872.

So: this cheesecake is an all-American dessert.

(Here’s a more elaborate history of cheesecake).

We can’t think of anything we like better than cheesecake. And it even tastes great frozen! Don’t believe us? Make a Cheesecake Hot Fudge Sundae with a base of frozen cheesecake. Ice cream is optional.Beyo

Beyond July 4th, there are more than 30 cheesecake recipes below, including other holidays and savory cheesecakes.

> July 30th is National Cheesecake Day.
 
 
RECIPE: JULY 4TH CHEESECAKE

Prep time is 12-14 minutes, bake time is 65-75 minutes.
 
Ingredients

 
For The Garnish

[1] We’re celebrating July 4th with this red, white and blue cheesecake (photo © Melissa’s Produce).

[2] Get festive with sparklers (photo © Driscoll’s).

1. PREHEAT the oven to 325°F. Make the crust: In a bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, 3 tablespoons of sugar and the melted butter. Press the mixture into a tart or pie pan.

2. ADD the cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar and the vanilla extract to the bowl of a standing mixer.

3. SPLIT the vanilla beans in half lengthwise, and scrape the pulp into the bowl. Blend until well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, allowing them to completely incorporate before adding the next egg.

4. POUR the mixture into the tart tin and smooth the top. Bake in the oven for 60-75 minutes, or until completely set.

5. REMOVE the cheesecake from the oven, let cool, and then chill for at least 4 hours.

6. GARNISH: Run a row of the blueberries around the outside edge and then fill the center with alternating rows of the strawberries and bananas.

 
MORE CHEESECAKE RECIPES

 
 
HOLIDAY & SPECIAL-OCCASION CHEESECAKES

 
 
SAVORY CHEESECAKES

These are wonderful as an appetizer/first course.

 
 
FROZEN CHEESECAKE

[1] It’s blue? Yes indeed: This herbal iced tea is made from a blue flower. It can be enjoyed straight or in a latte, as shown. Here’s the recipe (photo © Oh How Civilized).

[2] If you have blooming tea balls, you can make ice tea with them. Brew them as usual, and chill (photo © Joy Buy).

[3] Do you sweeten your iced tea? If you’re a maple syrup lover, consider substuting it for sugar, honey, etc. (photo © Runamok Maple Syrup).

[4] One of our favorite herbal iced teas is made with hibiscus flowers. Another is made with fresh sage leaves: Just pour boiling water over the leaves and let steep (photo © Republic Of Tea).

[5] Fruit-flavored teas are very popular and available in tea bags, like this strawberry iced tea from Shangri-La. They’re great iced, but you can also muddle fresh fruit and add it to regular iced tea (photo © Shangri-La Teas).

[6] After we had this peach-jalapeño iced tea created by Canard Catering, we created a version at home. As your tea steeps, add peach and jalapeño slices. Frozen peaches are fine (photo © Canard).

It’s the first full day of summer, and June is National Iced Tea Month (June 10th is National Iced Tea Day). Those two facts easily led us to today’s topic: iced tea.

It took a while for humankind to get to enjoy a chilled glass of tea.

In modern times, we have ice on demand from our refrigerator-freezers.

But in the millennia before the invention of the mechanical ice box, only the wealthy had a cool drink.
 
 
HOW PEOPLE IN THE PAST HAD ICE IN THE SUMMER

 
Here’s the history of iced tea.
 
 
ICED TEA TIPS

We’ve had delicious bottled teas from companies that brew great tea—like Harney & Sons, Honest Tea, Inko’s, Republic Of Tea and Tea’s Tea.

But personally, we’re conscientious about doing our part to spare the environment.

So we reserve these bottled iced tea treats for on-the-road options—i.e., when we’re out of the house and out of liquid refreshment.

But just about anything we can buy in a bottle can be brewed at home, saving not just the environment but lots of moolah.

Make iced tea in the microwave. We’ve devised a way to quickly brew iced tea in the microwave.

 
Another tip: Freeze the bottle. If you’ll be outside in the heat, freeze a bottle of iced tea.

 
 
ICED TEA RECIPES FOR ANY TEA TYPE

And now: Here are some of our favorite iced tea recipes and tips for brewing and serving.

The photos were selected to illustrate additional ways you can prepare iced tea.

Note that most iced tea recipes can be made with any tea: black, green, herbal, white.

 
 
BLACK ICED TEA RECIPES

 
 
GREEN ICED TEA RECIPES

 
 
HERBAL ICED TEA RECIPES

 
 
TEA TRIVIA

 
 
THE TEA EXPERIENCE