by Dena Bless
Jun 23, 2025
We are so blessed in California to have access to good produce all year round. (From those who have lived out of state, can I get an “Amen!”?) But “Ahhhh!” the sweet taste of summer - as more fruits are available and affordable during these few months (May – September). Here is a wide variety of ideas for your family to enjoy the bounty of California! Watermelon Have you heard the myth that if you swallow a watermelon seed, it will grow in your stomach? Why is it not true? Have a seed spitting contest. (This can be a fun geometry and/or physics lab!) What’s the truth about watermelon seeds? Are they nutritious in any way? Play with your food! Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes in slices of watermelon. Depending on your skill level and patience, make a watermelon fruit bowl, basket, or turtle basket. Smoothies Anyone can create a nutritional smoothie, but one that is nutritional AND is delicious – that can take some doing! Experiment with different recipes throughout the summer to try and find the magic combination. Create simple score cards and have every family member rate each new combo/flavor. See who came up with the winning combination by the end of the summer. A fun way to practice fractions, ratios, and measurements! If adding yogurt, do different yogurts make a difference in nutrition and/or taste? If so, is one or both different and is it a huge difference or barely noticeable? To help keep costs down, you can buy big bags of various frozen fruits at stores like Costco and Smart & Final. And make small batches when experimenting until you know people like that particular recipe. Can be a great way to beat the heat and get kids who fight you on eating fruits or vegetables to actually ask for them! Economics When is peak season for each fruit? Try to buy during that time as that is when it will most likely be on sale. For those who like facts and figures, track the price of different fruits over the summer to see the law of supply and demand in action. Did the cost of a particular fruit go down when it was the peak of its season, or were there other factors that had a greater impact? Family Activities and History Go to a Farmer’s Market. Many towns have them during these months, even if they don’t have them year round. Compare prices of similar products from different vendors. Who has the best deal? (Here is where you get to teach about a “per ounce” price versus a “total price” to truly determine the best deal.) But if you have to buy so much to get the better deal that half will go bad before your family can consume them, is it really the best deal? Or is there a way to store them that you can use them throughout the summer? Visit a “You Pick” fruit orchard. Go early and pick while it’s cooler and take a lunch to make a day of it. Some orchards have some kind of store on the property. See the many other products they produce with their fruit. Did your grandparents or great-grandparents grow up in California? Did they pick fruit to earn money for themselves or their family? The San Jose Bay Area – now all concrete and glass and metal – used to be orchards for miles and miles, as did many other parts of the state. Look at old maps to see where orchards used to be. I have a relative who picked apricots in the ‘50s and was paid $0.65 a tray. Hard workers could do five trays a day. How would that actual wage work for your children’s summer plans? What would that be in today’s money (figuring in inflation)? Talk to older family or church members and get to hear some great stories about their experiences. We hope you and your family find some new ways to appreciate all our summer fruits!
