August Produce Picks: 5 Fruits and Veggies to Use Now

Tomatoes – August is all about tomatoes, as they never taste better than they do this month. Enjoy luscious late summer tomatoes to their fullest by exploring what VegKitchen has to offer. Fresh salsas, salads pastas, cold soups, sauces, pizzas and much more are better with summer tomatoes and these ideas are at your fingertips:

• Enter Tomato Heaven gives you our full gamut of tomato recipes of all kinds.
• Tomatoes — Recipes and Tips for Summer and Beyond gives you a listing curated by recipe type, plus handy tips.
• If you prefer having a handy pdf e-book that you can look at on your device or print out and keep in your kitchen, consider Fresh Summer Tomato Recipes, part of our affordable e-book series.

Zucchini – By now, gardeners are wondering what in the world to do with all the zucchini they’re harvesting, and farm markets and CSAs are bursting their bins with them. Zucchini isn’t exactly a nutritional powerhouse, but it’s a versatile and useful veggie. See our entire gamut of ways to use it in Tasty and Abundant Zucchini Recipes. Find some really fun ideas in Raw Veggie “Noodle” Dishes. And when you find a cool evening, make our yummy Zucchini-Raisin Muffins.

Fresh corn – America’s native crop at its sweetest in August. Some people are concerned about GMOs in corn, but if you purchase organic corn, you need not be concerned. A lot of small farms local to your areas also avoid GMOs. Lightly cooked or grilled corn-on-the-cob is a perfect side dish for your summer meals. It’s also amazingly versatile. You can easily strip kernels off the cobs to use in soups, pastas, salads, salsas, and more. To see our full array of recipes, go to our category for Fresh Corn.  For a list of our favorites, see 7 Fantastic Fresh Corn Recipes.

Watermelon – This hydrating fruit is a perfect finale to your summer meals and is a fabulous addition to refreshing blended beverages. Now that it’s at its sweetest, you needn’t do more than cut it into wedges to eat out of hand, but if you want to take its fabulous flavor a step further, try some of these:

• Watermelon and Peach Gazpacho
• Blackberry Watermelon Popsicles
• Watermelon Slushy
• Watermelon-Strawberry Splash

Peaches – August is when peaches really taste like they should — no more buying them hard as rocks and waiting for them to ripen into mush! Ideally, see if you can find locally grown (and organic, if possible) peaches that have a little give when you press them. Aside from eating out of hand, consider some of these creative ideas:

• Unbaked Peach-Berry Crumble
• Skillet Peach Crisp
• Peach Melba Ice Cream
• Peach Salsa
• Peaches and “Cream” Smoothie