It’s still summer (despite the weather some days), and the markets have been overflowing with berries of all kinds, nectarines and peaches, fragrant melons and sweet cherries. The first plums have already grabbed my attention, the small greengage variety from France, called Reine Claude are fabulous. I never seem to buy enough at the market. Nor can I ever get too many punnets of raspberries, my favorite fruit. I may have come close though when I brought home a kilo of them (as well as a kilo each of blackberries and blueberries), each and every one picked from their stems by Olivier and myself.

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Medjool dates. Dark chocolate with salt. Meringue. Nougat. Chocolate chip cookies. There are certain foods that make my eyes grow large and the corners of my mouth go up. Any recipe making mention of those above sweets goes right into my “to bake” file. Rhubarb is another favorite of mine and I love its name in German: Rhabarber. When the season was in full swing here in Zürich last May, I was buying fresh bundles of vibrant rhubarb almost weekly at the market. Baked into tarts, cakes, jams and even rhubarb roll-ups! That peak season hasn’t quite arrived yet, but the first stalks are here. Strawberries too, from Spain rather than the local Swiss variety (small and softer) that will come in later summer months. Armed with rhubarb and strawberries,… it was time to get baking.

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I suppose all of you who read the blog last week expected me to go to the market and buy a dozen carrots to make Rose Bakery’s carrot cake.  Well, I did go to the market. And I did buy those carrots.  And they were awfully good roasted as a side dish with my dinner this evening.  They didn’t make it to the dessert table after all.  Only because a beautiful selection of apples and pears did.  Long tables at the market with a dozen varieties of apples and pears distracted me, and had me thinking crumble, not carrot. Despite the absence of bright, ripe summer berries, there is still great fruit to be had at this time of year, and a crumble is a super fast and easy way to use it all.

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