What's Your Favorite Summer Fruit?

During our recent visit to Washington, my mom tried in vain to take John and his mom to one of our local fruit stands. After making one wrong turn after another, she gave up, and I was disappointed - I was really looking forward to biting into a gigantic Honeycrisp apple.

Where I'm from, fruit stands are ubiquitous. I don't know how I developed such a sweet tooth, because my parents rarely ever indulged us with sweet desserts - instead, we always had fresh fruit. Cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, strawberries, persimmons, grapes, mangoes, apples, Asian pears, oranges - you name it, we had it after dinner. The hot summer months always remind me of my dad sitting opposite me at the dinner table, grimacing as he tried to peel an orange all in one go or the sound of him carving out slices of watermelon and honeydew in the kitchen before my mom put toothpicks in the slices to make eating more fun and less messy for everyone.

I love the variety of fruit in the Puget Sound and the sheer abundance of it, which you just don't get in the middle of London, save for an overpriced little packet of cantaloupe in a Boots' meal deal or in the to-go aisle of Sainsbury's.

I have terrific memories of going strawberry picking in fields near my house in Puyallup before my brother was born, and being treated to a Fruit Roll-Up or two when we were finished. Now, the only fruit stands I pass are the ones soaking up all the exhaust fumes on High Holborn, and the fruit is imported from other countries - hardly local.

So, as I savor the sweet strawberries (above) given to me by my co-worker this afternoon, I'd like to know: what's your favorite summer fruit?