We went back to Mr. Solsticedawn's ancestral home for the last few days. Here in the Midwest, fruit season is in full swing. Sweet cherries are ripe, and due to the lack of a late frost this year, there is a bumper crop. We bought 10 lbs of sweet cherries, fresh off the tree, for $11.00. We didn't even have to pick them ourselves for that price.

It is amazing how sweet and juicy those little things are when they are fresh off the tree. Storage does absolutely nothing good for the flavor of fruit. The kids have been enjoying them, too - how does all that juice get on the front of their shirts anyway?

Between the two adults in our family, we are the world's pickiest consumers of fruit. MSD lived in a Midwest fruit growing region, so he only eats the following fresh and ripe:

-strawberries
-blueberries
-raspberries
-cherries
-peaches

I spent my formative years in southern California, so I will only eat the following if we can find them vine-ripened:

-avocados
-plums
-oranges
-grapes

Of late, it's been easier to get good quality fruit in the grocery store. Good thing, that, otherwise our younglings would never see mom and dad eating fruit.

The bonus of the weekend was finding a wild mulberry tree. Our clan took care of any low-lying fruit that the birds hadn't already eaten. Fresh off the tree. Yum! All my memories of childhood running around Long Beach came back fresh in my mind with the flavor of those little berries. All because we had a mulberry tree near our apartment. Isn't that an amazing connection?

What fruits do you like the most from your childhood?