[1] The champion: Cucumbers are 97% water, the most of any food (photo © Sun Basket).

[2] It’s easy to carry celery sticks—95% water—to munch on for added hydration (photo © Good Eggs).

[3] Tomatoes are 95% water. These are home-grown tomatoes: Have soil, will plant (photo © Bonnie Plants)!

[4] Watermelon is 91% water. In addition to adding watermelon to a fruit salad or green salad, you can carry cubes of watermelon, too (photo © Good Eggs).

[5] Strawberries are 91% water (photo © Good Eggs).

[6] We were surprised to learn that spinach is 91% water. Steam it as a side or a base for poached eggs; turn it into salad (photo © Good Eggs).

In our area of New York City, the health department issued a heat alert today: Don’t go out until after 6 p.m. this evening.

It’s expected to hold for the next week. Whew!

If you’re living amid high heat and must be outside (or inside heat), hydrate extensively.

You can hydrate with plain or flavored water, still (flat) or carbonated water—mineral water, club soda and seltzer (here’s the difference).

Some people love to drink water, and have no problem drinking lots of it.

If you’re not one of them, you can hydrate yourself by picking water-filled foods.
 
 
FOODS WITH THE HIGHEST WATER CONTENT

Bonus: In addition to being high in water, they’re low in calories; and most can be served at all three meals.

Most of these can be toted in a snack bag (to carry with you, cherry tomatoes are the best tomato option).

In order of percentage of water:

 
Thanks to United Healthcare for this information.
 
Some easy “hydration” meals:

 
 
ANOTHER WAY TO HYDRATE: NIBBLE ON CRUSHED ICE

When dehydrated and at home, you can nibble on ice chips or crushed ice if you don’t want to keep drinking water.

Before we got a home water filter and didn’t enjoyed the taste of our tap water, we crunched on ice chips or ate spoonfuls of crushed ice (think of it as a snow cone without the syrup).
 

HOW TO CRUSH ICE WITHOUT AN ICE CRUSHER

The best way is to have a refrigerator that supplies cubes and crushed ice.

There are also electric countertop ice crushers and ice shavers (have a snow cone machine?).

But most of us have to rely on other techniques.

There are at least five ways to crush ice. Note that if you’re crushing ice for drinks, you’ll need more crushed ice to fill up a glass, because there’s more air space between the ice cubes.

Also note that the smaller the piece of ice, the faster it melts.

Blender Or Food Processor

Place the ice cubes in the machine. With the top on firmly, pulse to the desired size.

Toss the crushed ice into a strainer to drain out the melted water on the bottom.

If you make a large amount, you can re-freeze the crushed ice and re-pulse it the next time you need crushed ice (the frozen pieces will have stuck together).
 
 
Lewis Bag Or A Freezer Bag & Mallet

A Lewis bag is a heavy canvas bag that that was originally used by banks to transport coins.

In the 19th century, before electric devices easily created crushed ice whenever it was needed, some clever bartender came up with the idea of repurposing a Lewis bag to crush ice cubes with a mallet.

The heavy canvas bag is not only durable, but it absorbs the water given off by crushing the ice.

You can buy one, including the mallet, for less than $20 on Amazon and elsewhere.

The downside: Since the bag isn’t see-through, you end up with uneven pieces.

Try substituting a plastic freezer bag. If your mallet cuts through the plastic, double-bag the ice cubes and try again.
 
 
Ice Tapper Or Spoon

Some of the early ice boxes—cooled by large blocks of ice—had a place for an ice cube tray. If not, they could chip larger, irregular pieces off the block of ice with an ice pick.

They then used the back of a spoon to tap the piece of ice (or ice cube) until it splintered.

In 1949, Frank W. Ernest, tired of the limitations of the spoon and ice pick, patented a device he called the Ice Disintegrating Utensil, today known as an ice tapper.

A mining engineer, Ernest employed his scientific knowledge to create a tool that could break ice cleanly and evenly.

Originally marketed as the Tap-Icer, the ice tapper lets you crack cubes, one at a time.

You can get it at Amazon and elsewhere, including many hardware stores.

We still have our grandmother’s, from the 1950s.
 
 
Manual Ice Crusher

For nostalgic value, we offer the Manual Ice Crusher, used by our great-grandmother and still made today in Germany.

Bear down on hinged metal plates with a handle to crush an ice cube placed between them.

You can get an upper arm workout crushing the ice!
 
 
> CHECK OUT THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF WATER

Fishers Island is located in Long Island Sound, between the eastern tips of Connecticut and Long Island.

Open for 100 years, it has long been a haven for summer visitors.

The Pequot, the only public bar and restaurant on the island, is a gathering place for cocktails, burgers, wood-fired pizza, local Fishers Island oysters and fish, and a light-up dance floor.

For most of us who won’t get to sample the delights of The Pequot, the establishment’s famous Fishers Island Lemonade is now available beyond The Pequot.

The spiked lemonade, with a 9% ABV*, is made from:

 
There are no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners; no high fructose corn syrup. And no malt!
 
 
HOW TO ENJOY FISHERS ISLAND LEMONADE

For us, Fishers Island Lemonade is a perfect summer cocktail. We don’t need a straw or a glass; just the can, chilled.

We keep the can cold with last week’s Top Pick, Zak’s Vacuum Insulated Can Holder.

But other people:

 
 
WANT A MORE COMPLEX COCKTAIL?

For those who want a higher proof drink, there are numerous options, including:

 
 
GET YOURS

Check out the store locator on the Fishers Island Lemonade website.

The company is a good citizen: a member of 1% For The Planet, which supports environmental causes.

________________

*ABV is the abbreviation for Alcohol By Volume, the percent of a beer, spirit or wine that is alcohol. Double the number to get the proof of a spirit; e.g., 40% ABV is 80 proof.

[1] Our favorite summer cocktail: Fishers Island Lemonade (all photos © Fishers Island Lemonade).

[2] Make your own fruit cocktail with a splash of liqueur and fresh fruit (here, blueberry).

[3] A spiked Half-and-Half: iced tea and lemonade, also known as an Arnold Palmer.

[4] Are you a beer lover? Make a special shandy by adding it to Fishers Island Lemonade.

[1] Just pop fruits that need to be ripened in a paper bag (photo © Good Eggs).

[2] The riper the banana, the faster it will help to ripen the other fruits (photo © King Arthur Flour).

[3] Before you can dig into the creamy flesh, you need to ripen an avocado (photo © Aldi).

[4] Cherries are the one stone fruit that doesn’t ripen after picking. Stash them in the fridge (photo © Gaelle Marcel Wesual | Unsplash).

Some fruits, like berries, cherries, citrus and watermelon, don’t ripen further once picked (see the full list below).

So don’t wait for them to get better; they will only decline.

But other fruits need to ripen, no matter how much we’d like to bite into them.

Here are tricks to speed up the ripening.

What if the fruits are ripe but not sweet?

Add a bit of sweetener, caloric (sugar, honey, agave, etc.) or non-caloric (artificial sweeteners, stevia, etc.).

A restaurant trick for sprucing up boring berries is to place them in a strainer and dip them in a bowl of sugar water.
 
 
ALL FRUITS

For any fruit that needs to quickly ripen, paper bags are the go-to method.

These fruits include avocados, bananas, mangoes, melons (but not watermelon)*, pears, stone fruits† and tomatoes. They give off ethylene, a colorless gas.

The bag traps the ethylene inside, and the concentration of ethylene ripens the fruit quickly.

For extra help, add a banana to the bag. Bananas are a high producer of ethylene, so adding one to the other fruits will cause them to ripen faster than if it were in the bag by themselves.

The riper the banana, the faster it will help to ripen the other fruit.

Apples are another producer of ethylene, but less so than bananas.

Roll the top of the paper bag to close. Plastic bags are not recommended, because they concentrate moisture and heat that can encourage mold.
 
 
AVOCADOS & MANGOES

If you don’t have a paper bag but you do have rice, a rice bath is an option.

It can be used for fruits with inedible skins: avocados, bananas, mangoes, melons, papayas.

Uncooked rice—white or brown—traps ethylene gas effectively and ripens fruits with hard (inedible) skins.

Use a bowl or other container large enough to hold the fruit, and cover it completely with rice. You do not need to cover the rice itself.

If your fruit isn’t ripened within two days, check it once or twice on subsequent days, so it doesn’t over-ripen.

You can re-use the rice for cooking—or for more ripening.
 
 
STONE FRUITS

Our great-grandmother’s trick for ripening peaches, nectarines and apricots, was to spread them on a tea towel, topped with another tea towel.

The fruits should not be touching.

While the towels trap some ethylene, the paper bag method with an apple or banana works best.
 

FRUITS THAT DON’T RIPEN AFTER PICKING

These fruits may soften after picking, but don’t confuse that with ripening. The flavor doesn’t improve.

After they’re picked these fruits begin to break down, which ultimately leads to rot.

*Watermelons develop a creamy yellow splotch on the bottom, where they have rested on the ground. This means it’s ripe, and farmers tend to pick them when the splotch appears. You can also give the underbelly a thump with your hand. A ripe melon will have a deep, hollow sound.

†Yes, avocados are a fruit—a tree fruit. Stone fruits include apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach, plum and hybrids like apriums, plumcots and pluots. However, cherries are picked when they are already ripe, and do not require further ripening—just stick them in the fridge. Here’s more about stone fruits.
 
  

Lush summer tomatoes invite a no-cook tomato sauce that delivers fresh tomato flavor.

Use homegrown or farmers market tomatoes for the most vibrant taste.

This no-cook sauce is also delicious on:

 
It couldn’t be easier or faster to whip up. Thanks to DeLallo for the recipe.
 
 
RECIPE: PASTA WITH NO-COOK TOMATO SAUCE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PLACE the chopped tomatoes in a large serving bowl. Using your hands, squeeze and smash the tomatoes to release all of their juices.

2. COMBINE with the olive oil, garlic, basil and salt. Set aside to marinate for up to an hour.

3. COOK the pasta according to package instructions. Drain.

4. IMMEDIATELY ADD the hot pasta to the bowl with the tomatoes. Toss to combine.

5. SERVE topped with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
 
 
> CHECK OUT THESE PASTA SAUCE SUBSTITUTES
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF TOMATOES

[1] It takes less than 10 minutes to make this no-cook spaghetti sauce (photo © DeLallo).

[2] Does this inspire you to grow your own tomatoes (photo © Bonnie Plants)?

[1] Yukon Gold Potato Ice Cream (photo © Idaho Potato Commission).

[2] Yukon Gold potatoes (photo © Bonnie Plants).

[3] Yukon Gold potatoes (photo © Good Eggs).

July is National Ice Cream Month; so pull out the ice cream maker (or consider buying one).

There’s nothing better than freshly-churned ice cream, before it goes into the freezer. The flavor has a vitality that disappears once the ice cream hardens.

While summer is the season to make fruit ice cream, here’s some food fun that uses a vegetable.

Vegetable? Yes indeed. We’ve also made beet ice cream and truffle (the fungus) ice cream, both exquisite.

You can amp up the potato ice cream recipe with mix-ins like chocolate chips and berries.

A garnish? Chocolate-covered potato chips, of course.
 
 
RECIPE: POTATO ICE CREAM

Ingredients For 1 Quart

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F. Wash the potatoes, leave on the peel and cut into 1/2″ cubes.

2. TOSS the potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread onto a baking sheet and roast until cooked through, about 20 minutes. Set aside.

3. BRING the milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup to boil in a saucepan. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. REMOVE from the heat and whisk in the cream cheese and salt, then the sour cream. Chill.

5. MIX the ice cream base with the potatoes in a blender, until completely smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer, preferably a chinoise.

6. PROCESS in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions. Place in the freezer for 6 hours or overnight.

Yukon Gold is a cultivar of potato most distinctly characterized by its thin, smooth, eye-free skin and yellow-tinged flesh. This potato was developed in the 1960s by Garnet (“Gary”) Johnston in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The cross was made in 1966 and Yukon Gold (after its yellow-gold flesh) was finally released into the market in 1980.

Yukon Gold quickly became a favorite with fine-cuisine chefs. It can stand up to both dry-heat and wet-heat cooking methods.

Its waxy, moist flesh and sweet flavor make it an ideal potato for boiling, baking and frying. You can also use them for grilling, pan frying, and roasting.

Here’s more about the Yukon Gold potato.