Fruit

We have to have a conversation about cranberries. Everyone goes cranberry mad from Thanksgiving through Christmas, and then the poor cranberry is shelved as a major player until the following year. And yes, of course, cranberry sauce of every variety from jellied ridged can-shaped to elegant homemade versions is the star of many a holiday buffet, and strings of the fresh fruit are deeply festive garlanded on a tree or swagged on a mantlepiece.

We don’t eat a ton of applesauce in our house, but when we do, I make it from scratch. This never seemed to be a very big deal for me, until I was talking to a friend on the phone and mentioned I had a batch of applesauce on the go, and she was immediately way more impressed than she should have been. She spoke of remembering her grandmother making batches of applesauce and how laborious a process it was, and how much time it took, and the special equipment needed and how egregious the cleanup.

Of all the things that Jerry Seinfeld said, the one I think about most often is: "Fruit is a gamble." No matter how diligent you are in choosing your produce, no matter how many articles you've read on picking the ripest, juiciest watermelon, sometimes you're just going to end up with a dud.

Ah, mid-September in Pennsylvania—apple trees are popping with ripe red and green and yellow fruit, late tomatoes are prime for picking, and pumpkins are getting close. And, farmers are also starting to harvest another crop: the pawpaw. And while its bright flavor might remind you of something tropical—it tastes like a cross between mango and banana—it’s actually indigenous to North America.

You may already be acquainted with tamarind. After all, the tangy-sweet fruit is an integral part of many Middle Eastern and South Asian dishes. In the United States, you're mostly likely to run into tamarind in the form of tamarind paste, which you can find at grocery stores like Whole Foods. Tamarind paste is in more things than you might think. It's an essential ingredient in Worchestershire sauce and Pad Thai, for example.