Living in Colorado, I've succumbed to the idea that our choices of fruit during the winter months consists mainly of apples, bananas and oranges-lots and lots of apples, bananas and oranges. So when summer hits, we gorge ourselves on everything from fresh peaches, juicy plums, and nectarines, to melons and plump berries of every kind.

During my childhood, my siblings and I would pick bright red cherries by the bucketful from a tree just over the neighbor's fence. We would spend summer afternoons at the patio table removing the pits from our harvest, the sticky juices running down our arms. In the days that followed, jellies, jams and pies would overflow from Mom's kitchen. Pure heaven!