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Walnut Creek Magazine

Shop the Farmers' Markets This Weekend

This time of year, it’s the peak season for raspberries and boysenberries. If you manage to get some home without eating the whole basket, the nuanced flavor of boysenberries is best cooked into pies, cobblers, and crisps. If you can’t cook them right away, freeze the berries on a cookie sheet. Place the fruit in a single layer and, once frozen, pour the berries into a Ziploc bag and store it in the freezer until you’re ready to bake that pie.

Apricot season is short but blissful. New varieties seem to last about as long as Snapchat photos, but the true king of apricots is the Blenheim. Beloved by jammers and pastry chefs for its classic apricot flavor, the golf ball-sized fruit notoriously ripens from the inside out, which makes them hard to pick. Ripe Blenheims will be pale orange with a faint rosy blush but can turn quickly to mush. If you’re shopping ahead, don’t shy away from yellow or even greenish flesh. The fruit will continue to ripen on your counter. If you’re skilled enough to make it into jam, smear some on brioche toast. 

Berry Good Crisp
By Chef Debbie Shavar, Buttercup Grill
2 cups fresh blackberries
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons of flour
Topping 
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss blackberries, blueberries, sugar, and flour together in a medium sized bowl. Set aside. Measure out brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add butter and process until mixture looks like wet sand. Transfer to a bowl and stir in oats. Place blueberry mixture in an ungreased 9-inch pie plate. Cover berries with topping squeezing the mixture together with your hands to form some clumps. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until bubbling around edges. Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

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