WHB Giveaway #3: Tell Us Your Favorite Fruit of 2008 You Might Win a Fantastic Prize!
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More Chances to Win!
We’ve already had voting for favorite herb (Tuesday) and favorite vegetable (Wednesday) so if you missed out, visit those posts and leave more comments! Comments on all posts will close at 10:00 P.M. (MST) on Friday, October 31, and the winners will be announced in the Anniversary Edition of Weekend Herb Blogging on Sunday evening. (Duplicate entries on the same post will result in all comments from that person being deleted, so please be careful to enter only once on each post.)
Kalyn Recommends:
Of course I can’t enter to win prizes, but nothing can stop me from doing a little campaigning, can it? Favorite fruit is a tough one for me, because, as my niece Elizabeth told me when she was five and I was trying to get her to eat a banana “I’ve never been much of a fruit eater.” This isn’t a South Beach Diet thing; from an early age I preferred vegetables to fruits. Of course I could pick tomatoes, since they’re fruits and I love them, but instead I’m voting for the one fruit I couldn’t cook without: lemons! Here’s a few recipes where lemon juice made all the difference.
I was crazy over Merritt’s Cannellini Beans in Mint Marinade, and this is a dish where lemon juice really made all the difference.
It’s an easy recipe, but fresh lemon juice adds a delightful note to this Low Sugar Cocktail Sauce that’s so great with delicious shrimp.
Finally, lemon juice was really important for this Roasted Butternut Squash with Lemon, Thyme, and Parmesan.
Are You Blogging About Fruits?
Of course, Weekend Herb Blogging is really about the posts that are submitted each week, by great bloggers from all over the world, so here is information about how to submit a post if you’d like to join in for the anniversary edition.
(P.S. I can’t publish off-topic comments or respond to questions in comments on these give-away posts because it will foul up the numbering system for the random number selection.)
162 Comments on “WHB Giveaway #3: Tell Us Your Favorite Fruit of 2008 You Might Win a Fantastic Prize!”
I’ll have to say 2008 fruit was berries – blueberries, strawberries, raspberries. I made jelly, pancakes and even froze some for those cold winter days!
Big, fresh, juicy, tree-ripe PEACHES in season in the late summer. Oh man, do I miss the peaches!!
I go bananas for Bananas!
I bought a banana tree a few months ago to see if I could grow my own, but something about living in Missouri doesn’t make suitable banana growing weather.
blueberries!!! I moved away from my berry bushes for the year and only got a few, which I treasured!
This is too hard!!!
This may not be the TOP NUMBER ! EVER choice, but I just have to pick one and get it over with! =D For actual EATING, even though it *has* to be a specific kind, I say:
Mangoes
(Peaches are great too! I love pineapples! Lemons are so useful. Limes are so fragrant! Calamansi is not like the above 2 citurs fruits. The list goes on.)
Mangoes are the best- I cannot resist them- even on off-seasons when they cost way too much! Yum!
heather.austin@hotmail.com
This is the easiest one to answer. THE LEMON. Hands down. I add lemon juice to so many of my recipes, meats (chicken, lamb, veal, pork), all vegetables, and I even squeeze some onto fruit salad or melon.
carolepip (at) verizon (dot) net
My favorite fruit is strawberries. I love them frozen, fresh, whole, sliced (with a bit of sugar and whipped cream), any ole kind of way!
cseybt [at] gmail [dot] com
I love to squeeze lemon juice for the salad instead of vinegar as I love the scented smell of lemon. For grilling, I often used lemons. If any recipes calls for garnishing lemon juice, then I use it. Sweet Mangoes are my favourite when they’re in peak season. I used to make Banana bread with chcolate chip and some indian sweets with banana. I used Mango lassi when the mangoes are not in season. Lemon, Mangoes and Bananas are my favourite fruit for 2008.
Cheers
Apples have to be my favorite. They aren’t all that exciting, but they are so versatile.
Who doesn’t love Apples? My fav is the Jona Gold’s.
Ryan Blizzard
blizzard.rw (at) gmail (dot) com
I just discovered that I love figs!
My favorite would have to be blackberries. I live in Washington State, which has tons of berries and the patch I pick from is in a hidden cove off a logging road. I always pick enough to freeze for use during the winter to remind me of the summer around the corner.
I agree…I love lemons. Lemon water is so refreshing.
Mixed frozen berries in a smoothie.
Jo Anna
edjoannaaz at hotmail dot com
tomato.
I had a hard time choosing so I went with the most used in our house.
A few years ago I spent some time with friends in the Black Forest. Every morning, my job was to go out and pick raspberries for breakfast. I never seemed to get back with the full amount that I picked! They’ve been my favorite since.
Apples. They are the only fruit I’ve been craving since starting SBD. I really want one dipped in caramel this time of year…
Without a doubt…avocados! I can eat those every single day. We eat them mashed on sandwiches, chunked in salads, mashed as guac, chunked in soups. Of all the stuff I eat, this is the one thing I would love to grow because they can be so expensive, but the trees won’t survive our winters.
Strawberrys. I cant wait each spring for the strawberry patch to open. 🙂
I love LIMES! since the lemons have been so expensive this year, and I have always used limes for things such as drinks! and my cilantro pesto, I started using them more in other things, instead of lemons.
Christine
Gardnwest(at)aol(dot)come
Apples…love apples; raw, pies, sauce…
My favorite fruit would have to be….avocados! I LOVE them!
watermelon!!!
There isn’t summertime unless watermelon for me!
Mangoes for me!!!
Hehe could get all technical and say tomato but I do not think that is in the spirit.
Would have to go with the lemon. Been using it in so many dishes and in so many ways that I have developed a brand new love for them. Juiced, zest, as an acid, salt cured, candied, you name it.
my fave fruit of 2008 … plums! ^o^
I think my fave is the Nectarine. I spent weeks picking them in Australia, and still can’t get enough of them. Nothing beats a nectarine fresh off the tree!
I am passionate about the taste of the pomegranate which originated in Persia and is claimed to fight disease. How good is that?
Cheers,
Wanda
Kalyn, like you, for most of my life I’ve been raw fruit-adverse – loved veggies, but fruit? Not so much. In the last couple years, I’ve been learning to eat them more often. The fruit I use most often is lemon – so on this one, I’m voting with you!
Ever since I first tried them about 5 years ago, my absolute favorite fruit has been fresh figs (I HATE the dried ones!) This year I was also partial to apricots and cherries, though.
This is a very difficult choice!
Probably will have to go with apples, because they are so delicious both raw and cooked. But oranges and persimmons battled mightily for the top spot!
Mangoes! I ate the best ones in Senegal last april! perfectly juicy, sweet and just a little tangy.
i have so many favourite fruits: lemons, bananas, cherries, mangosteens, nectarines, limes, pineapple, mangoes and crunchy green grapes.
but my new found fruit love for 2008 has been figs. fresh or dried, i have discovered i adore them.
apples!! really, really love the honeycrisps..
saross413(at)bellsouth (dot)net
And AGAIN, Kalyn, you have almost changed my vote with your persuasive argument for lemons. Lemons are wonderful! Limes too.
But are they my favourite fruit? Almost, but not quite. My favourite:
Peaches!
-Elizabeth
It was got to be wild blueberries. Not those horrid cultivated things but those wee blue bullets bursting with flavour and vitamins.
As a child I use to pick them at my aunt’s farm. NOW I alwasy have some on hand in the freezer (except I pay $ 75 for a basket OUCH).
I have never known a fruit to give such a jolt of refreshing flavour before. You don’t need a big hunk of apple, a few wild blueberries and you’re on your way.
Fresh peaches…mmm…
Red Raspberries … love them with yogurt.
My favorite fruit this year is grapes, crisp, sweet and juicy. I have kids so grapes are always a sure bet snack for them. I grab a bag to take with us to the park, on the road or for an afternoon snack. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Blueberries are my favorite,I love it in pie,muffins,smoothies,salad ,yogurt and morning cereal
I love fruit in pretty much all shapes and sizes… however in 2008 I have been over the moon with strawberries fresh from the farmers market, they go in everything!
Ruby red grapefruit has to be it. I never cared for grapefruit until I moved to Florida. Picking them off the tree and peeling like an orange yummy.
Oranges,juicy sweet oranges… with peel on, cut into wedges that I can suck on while watching some movie 😉
My favorite fruit of 2008 is the banana. I eat one every day. I keep forgeting to leave my email. It is phallman (at) charter (dot) net
Apples, absolutely! A nice crisp apple makes my day.
This year, as well as last, my dear friends Bill and Erika sent me a box full of beautiful bright yellow, sweetly scented Meyer lemons from their backyard tree. I used them in so many ways, from savory dishes to sweet. So, although a summer-ripe peach, bursting with impossibly sweet juice is yelling pick me!, I’m going to have to say that the Meyer lemon is my favorite fruit of 2008.
Nectarines!
I adore mangoes. They are paradise with a pit.
Ohh I loved those beans with the lemon and mint. 🙂 I just started using fresh lemon juice this year, along with all my other firsts, and it really is different. And lovely.
I’m with wandering chopsticks and vicki – I say dragonfruit. That’s some yummy stuff.
It’s so difficult to chose- but I would have to say the apple.
Persimmons! Their seasonal window is short here in SoCal, so I eat as many as I can before they’re gone.
At first I loved the hachiyas, but my impatience has since swayed me to the fuyus.
My favorites are mangoes and peaches! I love them both so much that I couldn’t possible choose between them.
This is a toughie. The fruit we use most around here is lime. It’s so versatile! As far as eating-out-of-hand fruit, I’d have to go with mangoes or nectarines. Ooooh, or bing cherries.
Ooooh watermelon for sure….We ate more 40 lbs between my husband and I this summer 🙂
Mangoes – LOVE them!
My favorite fruit overall is the Nectarine…but my favorite fruit for 2008 is the fig…it was the first year I ever really used them in desserts or ate them out of hand. Love them now!
Lemon is the most useful for me, but dragonfruit has to be my favorite.
I love strawberries!
clbeth (at) hotmail (dot) com
I have to say limes….afterall a cosmo just wouldn’t be the same without them. Maybe I should say cranberries……? No, definitely limes…I like them for my tacos too!
cathy(dot)reaves(at)gmail(dot)com
Thanks! Cathy
Tomatos! Mmm…pizza and baked ziti and BLT’s, oh my!!!
I must pick lemons as I buy them by the bagful. I cook with them, squeeze on salads, pasta, and veggies. Limes are a close second. Favorite fruit to just eat….grapefruit. I guess that I am a citrus kinda gal.
I’ve recently become very fond of figs, especially when combined with delicious soft goat cheese and caramelized onions. Mmmm good!
-Deena
deena.loeffler(at)gmail(dot)com
I love lemons in cooking and desserts, I love apples in the fall and for my kids’ constant snacking, but my favorite eating fruit is mango.
Gotta have an Apple, the perfect fall fruit! Just made some apple sauce and popped it in the freezer.
Olives have been one of my fruity friends this year. Sun dried, stuffed, pips, no pips, black, green….they’re all good.
I’m glad that you said favorite fruit this year. . . It would be hard to decide my favorite fruit ever. This year, I would have to say peaches.
Strawberries and avocados all the way!
You know, I was in the grocery store and randomly started talking to this woman about fruit and how there were so many lovely gardens with all sorts of fruit tress around here (I just moved up to santa cruz for school). All of a sudden she says “I have SO many pineapple guavas, please take a few bags!” Now, I had never in my life had a pineapple guava, but WOW. I highly recommend them. Yay for meeting friendly people in new towns- especially at the grocery store 😉
jboudevin (at) yahoo (dot) com
Good ol’ apples. I put them in everything once its apple season
amy.elizc (at) gmail (dot) com
My favorite fruit is definitely Mango. I love them green dipped in something salty and/or spicy. I love them pickled. I love them ripe and dripping with juice. I love the juice/nectar! In the Phillipines you can get green mango drinks and I don’t know what they put in them besides green mango, but they have the kind of flavor you remember forever and crave. I love Mango!
I love fruit, but I’m going with Michigan grown peaches from my parents’ yard. Last year they only had a handful but this year they had a TREE full of lucious peaches. One visit I just ate and ate what my mother put out in a bowl, but what I wanted was to make off with the bags of peaches in her freezer. They were the BEST peaches I’ve ever tasted.
Hands down, my favorite fruit is figs because I can use them both for sweet and savory dishes and they have a totally unique flavor.
Blueberries. LOVE them – sweet little globes of juicy goodness!
I have to choose apples. Can’t get enough apples this year!
Peaches! Its the first time I went fruit picking – and they were amazing.
Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits. Eat them plain, dip them in yogurt or chocolate – MMmmm. Love strawberries.
This one is finally easy for me: Pomegranate. They’re horribly difficult to work with and not end up looking like you participated in the Kill Bill fight seen, but the rewards are plenty. And they’re coming into season again, so how many fruits can you say that about as winter approaches?.
floccus (at) gmail (d0t) com
I have fallen in love with mango recently. So wonderful!
It really depends on the time of year, but since it’s fall, I’d have to say Pomegranate. I love it even more now that I know how to open it under water instead of spraying that nasy juice all over myself!!
hi i’m not sure if my previous comment went through, so i’ll try again.
i’m voting for blueberries – juicy, delicicious, beautiful!
I know it goes against a government ruling but Tomatoes have to be my favorite fruit!
i’m a huge fan of grapefruits. but i would place grapefruit second to mangoes – i had never tried mangoes until recently and was pleasantly surprised:)
Mmmm, peaches. It’s a tough call, but this year the peaches win.
I love a classic – apples.
The fresh figs I picked off of trees in Greece this past summer.
pineapple for sure. juicy and sweet. nothing like a fresh pineapple.
I’m still eating watermelon if I can find it. So juicy and delicious
I would say grapes have been my favorite fruit of 2008.
My daily breakfast: apples.
One bunch, two bunch, three bunch, four. I thrive on bananas.
z at mz-pi dot com
watermelon is always my favorite summer treat!
Gala apples.
Especially this time of year. Always crispy and sweet with just the right tang. Sliced and spread with some natural peanut butter: nutritious-delicious!
Santa Rosa plums straight from the tree in the back yard in late June and July. Then in ginger plum sauce that I freeze and enjoy in the non-plum months.
johnandannie(at)yahoo(dot)com
My favorite fruit…strawberries.With fresh whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.Or stuffed with sweetened cream cheese.Or baked in muffins.Ordrizzled with balsamic vinegar.Yes,definitely strawberries.
Hands down it has to be fresh, organic raspberries (wild and straight off the vine is the best, of course!)…they remind me of my childhood every time I eat one.
I seem to have a problem leaving comments via blogger this week.
So to try again, I will say the blueberry. It can be added to salads, muffins, cakes, breads, you name it. They are also good to eat frozen when it’s hot outside.
hhenna73@yahoo.com
It’s a tie between blueberries and peaches. Both make great ice cream, cobblers and pies. Yum!!
Mangos. Runner-up goes to Meyer Lemons.
I love the soursop fruit, which is NOT the same as cherimoya. It’s more tart and not as creamy, but still delicious. Since they are extremely hard to find (I’ve only had them off my aunty’s tree), my second favorite would be apricots.
I’ve really enjoyed peaches this year. I love them with apple juice in a smoothie, and they are so yummy diced into baked oatmeal.
Favorite fruit – well, I have 2…I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE lemons. I eat them plain. Yeah, it’s crazy, but they are my favorite. Plus, they jazz up any dish or dressing.
My other favorite fruit are apples. They stay good for so long and are a perfect lunch snack.
The fruit for me for 2008 was definitely the cherry. We had gorgeous cherries this year and I put up tons of cherry preserves, made lots of cherry desserts and ate bushels of plain cherries.
Fruit? Probably mango, but only if it’s good and ripe.
Definitely berries. And topping that list is huckleberries. I live in the Northwest and pick every year…this year was a bumper crop for some reason. So we had huckleberry pie, made huckleberry jam, made huckleberry infused vinegar and infused vodka, and have plenty more in the freezer for the winter!
Apples, especially honeycrisp apples!
tinkerbellx2 (at) sbcglobal (dot) net
Well, its got to be cherries, but they seem like a distant memory! I am currently enjoying the fact that persimmons seem to be coming into season. mmm
Apples are my current favorite. Mainly because I don’t get to the store as often these days and they keep for ages. Also, they are so versatile . . . good all by themselves, or in a salad, with cheese, as dippers . . .
Love the contest and all the posts. Thanks for years of great food and ideas!
I am all about peaches but they must be either the White ones or the little Saturn / donut looking ones!!
I’m not a fan of fruit but I do have a hard time passing up a really good orange.
mango!!!
jyasyin (at) yahoo (dot) com
Peaches – from Chilton County in Alabama. Close second is a peach from the Hill country in Texas!
Pineapple! It’s awesome in savory dishes, like on a Hawaiian pizza, or in a classic dessert – pineapple upside down cake. Mmmm all I need to do is throw it on a grill or in a hot pan and get it nice and caramelized and put it over some ice cream and I’m set!
A perfectly ripe, firm fleshed peach, straight from the orchard. Sublime simplicity!
I actually had some grapes this year that were unbelievably plump and sweet…the best grapes I’ve ever had in my life!
365moose (at) gmail (dot) com
Fresh peaches–warm from the tree.
lostinabook4 (at) yahoo (dot) com
I love granny smith apples. LOVELOVELOVE them with all of my heart & soul.
I agree with Kalyn – lemons rock my socks.
I’m going to have to go with lychees, which I had never tried fresh before moving to Oakland. They’re amazing!
Peaches would probably be my top fave this year. Hubers in IN is where I picked all of mine – and I love fresh peaches! Canned I don’t think will cut it anymore!
Mango
persimmons! tried them for the first time 🙂
definitely Mangoes!
Last choice, last chance!
And this is very hard, too…
I really love all fruits, except tangerines…I love very much strawberries, you can “arrange” them in so many ways, and cherries, a sweet souvenir when I was a child climbing on trees to pick them!
But also I couldn’t stay without lime, for my best and coolest gin tonic!
But most of all I should say…Raspberries!!! …when I see a dessert with raspberries on restaurants menus, that will be mine!…and raspberries jam is the best!
It’s a pity here in Italy they are so expensive, but what a joy in summer when we go for a walk on the mountains and we found raspberries palnts: no more time for walking, but plenty for eating!!!
The wonderful strawberry. Shortcake, ice cream, sauce, on its on. It was fabulous each time.
My favorite fruit of 2008 is… blueberries! They are full of anti-aging antioxidants and they are super yummy! I loved them in blueberry pie, the blueberry scones on my blog, and Dorie Greenspan’s Chocolate Blueberry ice cream! Thank you for this oppertunity!
Fresh, tart Macintosh apples from Ulster County, NY!
I love most of the tropical fruits: mangoes, custard apples, dorians, etc. Can’t fit the whole list in this comment. And then there’s the famous blueberries
Cantaloupe 🙂 I love it… with salt. Yes indeed.
Red grapes, the take any where, eat anywhere fruit. Washed and bagged it does not need to be peeled, refrigerated or cut. Simply pop one in your mouth and enjoy.
1) cucumbers. however. In yogurt, on a sandwich drizzled in dressing, pickled… whatever. SO fresh!
2) Mangoes. drippy juicy right off the tree.
3) The Tomato.
I have to say that since I discovered pomegranates I just adore them and seek out any chance to have some! I don’t even use them in recipes–just eat ’em as is. Juicy, tart, red, YUM.
Fuji Apples! I love them on their own, with PB, with PB and chocolate, Nutella. They are just so crisp and delicious!
This is a tough one! Mangoes and papaya, for the memories of growing up in Hawaii, nectarines and strawberries because they remind me of my grandmother, pears because I grew my first this year, and the versatile lemon!!
Oh apples. It has to be apples. Nothing like a classic apple pie.
Before I did South Beach, it was Pineapple…
But now, I love cherries, and strawberries, and pears, and bananas, and…
but honestly, my favorite is a really good large crunchy flavor-packed apple.
I love tomatoes. Debbie
dandrews(at)chcb(dot)org
It has to be strawberries, especially this year our own home grown from our patch. Last fall we put out 98 plants and this spring we picked 28 gallons of beautiful juicy berries! It’s inspired us to plan boysenberry, raspberry and blackberry plants for next year. . . I can’t wait!
Hmmm, This year all in all I probably ate more peaches than I ever had. I discovered farmer’s market peaches.
Runner up: apples. I bought a crate of them and I’m still cooking apples. Good thing they keep well.
It must be mangoes, the ultimate decadent fruit. With its golden succulent flesh lush with its sweet sticky juice, good grief, I can’t resist.
It has to be the apple. Yummmmm!
I’ll agree: LEMONS! I love anything lemon flavored, and I cook with them almost daily. Totally indispensable.
Runner up: grapefruit. I bought so many in Florida this year while vacationing….and they were amazing to cook with.
Strawberries! It was my first, and still my all time favorite fruit!
An easy one. Tomato. I took the easy road as there is no way of splitting Peach, Apricot, Mango, Paw Paw, Custard Apple, Apple, Grape…….
Yep, I have a sweet tooth.
In my kitchen, the coconut rules!
I’m very fond of apples!
d(dot)maier(at)gmail(dot)com
I love a lot of fruits and it’s really difficult to choose. However, I have to choose only one and that will be FIGGGGGGGGGGGS!!!!!
It’s tough to choose just 1, I LOVE fruit!
I love to eat apples but the fruit I seem to grab the most is the Lime.
I have been cooking a lot of things that always seems to list Lime as an ingredient.
One of my favorites is a Honey, Lime, Cilantro Vinaigrette that I pulled out of the local newspaper!
I guess lemons are the unsung hero. I always have a bunch on hand because they certainly bring other foods to life…but the one fruit I wait for eagerly for its too-short visit is the cherry. Purple stained fingers, lips and tongue are my badge of honor.
Tempting to say pomegranate which I have discovered this year but I think I have to stick to one of my favourite fruits nectarines because I am just so looking forward to them being in season (not too long in our neck of the woods).
Not really commenting to win but wanted to join in the WHB celebrations because it is such a great event – am hoping to get something in for the anniversary but will just have to see how I go – the spirit is willing …
Congratulations on 3 years
wow I am first!!!Fruit is hard for me because I like it cooked, so put me down for grapefruit since that is the one i like raw. Oh yeah it is my favorite flavor of vodka too! food(at)Stephaniesells(dot)com
I think my favorite fruit is the tomato (I know many people think it’s a veggie). I love big yellow beefsteak tomatoes. We’ve been eating one almost every meal since they started coming ripe in the garden.
My most favorite fruit definitely is lime (closely followed by strawberries I must admit) :o)
Fruits are good food! I love bananas. They’re healthy, portable, and even when they get overripe you can make banana bread (with chocolate!). And banana milkshakes are the best.
Thanks for the giveaway! And your great blog.
Tis one is hard for me! But if I had to choose, it would be banana! Don’t know why, other than the taste!
Have a good day!
I personally spend the year dreaming of mangoes – can’t go past them, although lemons are handy.
Quince! I made my first quince tart this year, and I was blown away. Apples turn to mush when you bake them, but the quince held it shape and tasted so much better.
capt_kris(at)hotmail(dot)com
I totally want to say Michael Jackson, but I wont.
And then I want to say Fruit Salad. But I won’t.
Strawberries. In a smoothie. Covered in chocolate. Stirred through icecream. Macerated. Frozen. Fresh.
Mmmmmmmm….
Definitely, the yummy, sweet, golden yellow, succulent, juicy, MANGOES! Doesn’t the description make you drool already? Our family favorite fruit for all seasons! 🙂
My favorite fruit has to be dragonfruit. Fuchsia skin with green scales. Can’t get prettier than that.
Nothing beats Minnola Tangelos! I am simply addicted to them!!!
Peaches. Love peaches.