International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 56 | Page 82

Summer Dreams
Wo r d s : A l a n C o x o n

I just love summer if not only for the weather, but for all the
delicious soft fruits that become available.

Another of my
summer favourites
has to be raspberries,
interestingly, a
distant relative of the
peach and almond
and for that matter
the raspberry isn’t
botanically a berry
at all as it is in fact a
“droplet”

For the first time in 4 years
my little cherry tree is actually
bearing fruit!, however every time
I look at it standing all alone in
its pot, it`s pitiful sample green
specimens dangling from thin
stalks, I can’t help but think about
my travels last year that had me
wading through some 300 square
kilometres of cherry orchards in
the Jerte Valley of Extremadura,
an area that boasts ton on ton of
bright glistening bulbous sweet
and juicy fruits, warm from the
30 dgrs heat, just dangling and
tantalising you at every turn.
The cherry is said to have
originated in Western Asia and
brought to Europe by the Roman
general Lucullus, today the Jerte
Valley now employs over 15,000
people to hand pick their fruity
jewels.
Continuing the theme of red
fruits, then we have to mention
a firm favourite and one which is
synonymous with the Wimbledon
tennis that is currently being
staged (and no I don`t mean
Cliff Richard), but of course the
Strawberry, where last year
28,000 kg English strawberries
equating to 112,000 punnets were
sold during this sporting event all
splashed with 7,000 litres of cream
and a staggering 25,000 bottles
of champagne used to help wash
them down!.
Strawberries historically were
often used as a beauty treatment
and a remedy for freckles and
slight sun burn, the affected area
of flesh would be rubbed with the
fruit to whiten the complexion.
Strawberries were also historically

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used as an aid to teeth whitening,
the idea being that the fruit was
held on the offending stained
denture to clean it!, and as I can
almost hear every dentist across
the land scream with horror at the
very thought as the acids removes
not only the stain but also most
of your protective enamel in the
process!.
Recently I had a play with
macerating a few strawberries in a
splash of “Heavy Water” Vodka, a
new vodka brand on the market,
it is clean and smooth and a
wonderful with strawberries and
a rather naughty treat on a warm
sunny afternoon!
Another of my summer favourites
has to be raspberries, interestingly,
a distant relative of the peach and
almond and for that matter the
raspberry isn’t botanically a berry
at all as it is in fact a “droplet” , and
whilst the fruit can grow anywhere
from the Himalayas to Alaska it is
Scotland that produce the bulk of
the British crop.
My late grandmother, who had
numerous bushes, used to eat as
many of them fresh as possible
with a little clotted cream, as a
child one of my jobs was to pick the
fruits in readiness for tea, every so
often she add them to a summer
pudding and any less than perfect
fruits were steeped and turned
into raspberry vinegar and used
during the winter months, just like
her grandson is doing today!.
On that note, I leave you to enjoy
the flavours of summer and my
Drunken Summer dessert!