Fruit in due season

A quiet domestic couple of days, mostly around the house, cleaning and washing, hunting down an original Spanish translation of Kahlil Gibran's poem of Marriage from 'The Prophet' to use at a  wedding, reluctant to proceed with the machine translation Google so kindly provides. Also adjusting to increasing heat and humidity, albeit from time to time we still get cooling breezes, strangely and  inconsistently changeable. Sometimes the sky is cloudy, and other times it's bright and clear. Nearby sierras go from being sharp and vivid to being wreathed enchantingly in mist. Photography cannot do it true justice.

This morning the weekly Mercadillo next to the urbanizacion. I meant to go early then go out for the day, but I slept late, then had an idea for next Sunday's sermon, which got written down after breakfast, so it was nearly lunchtime by the time I went out to see what was on offer. I bought a kilo of cooking tomatoes and one of unripe nectarines. The old lady who runs a clothes stall, with a sideline in fruit and veg was there again, shouting out her wares in an irresistible way,

She had ripe mangoes on offer. I fancied a couple, but she refused to sell me just two. Like it or not, I ended up with a bag of five very soft ripe fruit, and she accepted all my spare dineros, about €1.50 for them, about right compared with other stalls, I think. She's such a character, and I get to try out my Spanish on her. She ignores what I say, not because she doesn't understand me, but because she wants to get rid of all the fruit she's brought with her, ripe and ready to eat. It's always chancey, but great fun and worth the risk.

The kitchen filled with the heavely aroma of five huge soft ripe mangos. What to do with them? After nearly two months, I have a collection of clean spare glass jars. So, I cut up four of the mangos and fed them into two of the largest I had. to store in the fridge. When I walked out to the town, late in the afternoon, I bought a miniature of kirsch and another of Spanish brandy to add to the jars with the aim of preserving the mangos for a while. The kirsch seemed to go best with the wonderful flavour of fresh ripe fruit. I ate half the fifth mango for supper. The rest went to top up the jars, once the kirsch was added. That's a treat to look forward to. 

Then for supper, I cooked some not very ripe plums in orange juice with cinnamon and ginger, another nice summer fruity treat, and there are nectarins to cook tomorrow if they show no signs of ripening soon. So many possibilities given the abundance of good quality low cost fruit at this time of year. And it's such fun to experiment.