Prairie Fare: Rationalizing My Fruity Flavorite

I adore peaches. The smell, the flavor, the slurping way that perfect peaches demand to be eaten. My adoration is almost the same for cherries, especially Queen Anne cherries. I think seasonality is the key reason these fruits appeal to me. If I could eat a truly juicy peach while sitting cozily in my house during January’s coldest day, I don’t know that I would enjoy it as much.

I guess my thinking is that some fruits seem more season-less, and when I think of season-less fruit, I think of lemons. Lemonade in the summer and hot tea with lemon in the winter.

Lemon-laced vinaigrette. Lemon juice or lemon zest and garlic added to cream cheese or to buttered greens beans, peas, garbanzo beans, popcorn--just about anything except ice cream. Lemon juice, capers, onions and olive oil added to tuna for a Mediterranean tuna salad. Lemon juice added to taco meat. Lemon juice, paprika, brown sugar and salt mixed into a paste to rub into pork destined for barbecuing.

Lemon-meringue pie all year long. My great aunt Sylvia made the best lemon pie I’ve ever eaten, and at no time would she have considered using lemon filling from a can. Hers was from scratch all the way, and it was a pale yellow, not the neon-like hue of store-bought varieties.

Now, some may think that the yellower the better when it comes to the color of lemon pie filling. But for me, taste is the clincher, and the tangy tartness of Sylvia’s lemon pies remains unmatched in my experiences.

Once when my mom and dad were visiting relatives in California, they brought home some lemons from backyard trees. One of the lemons was larger than a grapefruit, and when Sylvia dropped by for a visit, I showed her the lemon. She said, "Imagine all the lemon pies you could make with that."

I still imagine Sylvia’s lemon pie. For those who are less sure than I am about their love of things lemony, why not try the recipe that follows. From a culinary perspective, it may send you along another kind of yellow-brick road, one promising happy eating adventures well into the future.

Lemon Velvet
(From the Oregon Dairy Council)
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 8-ounce carton low-fat lemon yogurt
1 6-ounce can orange juice concentrate
2½ cups skim (fat-free) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Procedure:
Put all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. Divide among six glasses and serve. If desired, garnish each with a mint leaf.

What’s Your Take on This, Julie?

Besides being quick and easy to make, Lemon Velvet is tasty and nutritious. A serving (one-sixth of the recipe) contains about 120 calories, less than 1 gram of fat, 75 percent of the daily recommendation for vitamin C and 20 percent of the daily calcium recommendation for adults.

Calcium has been named a "super nutrient" by scientists as a result of 25 years of research showing its importance for maintaining our bone density throughout life. Osteoporosis is a condition where bones become brittle and susceptible to breaks. Scientists also have shown that adequate calcium can reduce our risk for high blood pressure, colon cancer, breast cancer, lead toxicity and kidney stones.

Calcium also may play some role in weight loss or maintenance. A study at Purdue University showed that women consuming less than 1,900 calories per day and at least 780 milligrams (mg) of calcium either lost body fat or maintained their current levels. Another group of women in the Purdue study consumed the same number of calories--but less calcium--and they actually gained weight.

Despite its importance in health, calcium is the nutrient most likely to be deficient in the American diet. The current recommendations are 500 mg daily for children age 1 to 3, 800 mg for children 4 to 8, 1,300 mg for children 9 to 18, 1,000 mg for adults 19 to 50 and 1,200 mg for adults older than 50.

Calcium intake is at crisis levels among teenagers. Surveys have shown that about 85 percent of teenage girls and 65 percent of teenage boys fall short of the 1,300 mg recommendation for adolescents. By the end of the teen years, about 90 percent of adult bone structure has developed. While milk consumption has declined, daily soda pop consumption has reached levels of at least 3 cups daily for teenage boys and 2.5 cups for teenage girls--or about twice their milk intake. In addition to soda pop replacing milk in the diet, a recent study points to phosphoric acid, a soda pop ingredient, as potentially weakening bones.

Whether low-fat, fat-free, whole or flavored, milk contains about 300 mg of calcium per cup along with protein, vitamin D, potassium and magnesium. There are good reasons for almost everyone to wear a milk mustache (with the exception of those who are lactose intolerant). But even those who lack the intestinal enzyme lactase and experience bloating and gas after drinking milk are able to drink some milk according to some research, plus there are tablets that contain the enzyme that can be taken before consuming milk.

Add up your calcium intake. If you just don’t like fluid milk, there are other options to reach the daily recommendation. Some other calcium sources are yogurt (about 400 mg per cup), cheddar cheese (200 mg per ounce), broccoli (135 mg per cup) and calcium-fortified orange juice (300 or more mg per cup). Many cereals and other foods also contain calcium, so read the Nutrition Facts labels to learn more. Dietary supplements are another possibility to consider.

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NDSU Agriculture Communication

Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136
Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187