But even beyond that, flowering plants produce drupes like olives, coconuts, and dates.
Clingstone peaches are delicious for eating but dont hold up to freezing or canning.
How To Choose The Best Stone Fruit
The best test for ripeness is the scent.
Credit:Caitlin Bensel; Food Stylist: Torie Cox
Bring the fruit to your face, and breathe in the aroma.
It should give off a delicate sweet smell.
Also look for fruit that is soft but not overly squishy.
If you observe wrinkles near the stem, thats a good sign of sweetness.
Stay away from fruit with bruising, dents, or off-color spots.
Aggregates pose a different issue because of their small delicate nature.
Be on the lookout for mold as they are very susceptible to spoiling.
Peaches
The queens of stone fruit, peaches come in yellow and white varieties.
Gobble them up May through late September.
Nectarines
Similar to peaches, nectarines are their smooth cousin.
They also come in yellow and white varieties and lack the fuzzy skin of peaches.
Plums
The tart skin coupled with sweet flesh, make plums a satisfying snack.
When plums are dried, theyre called prunes.
Apricots
These diminutive pale orange treasures have fuzzy skinslike a peachwith bright orange interiors.
They tend to be tart but, if dried, turn into a sweet snack.
They also make a wonderful choice forsconesor as a sauce base for savory preparations likeApricot Chicken.
Cherries
Early bloomers, cherries make their appearance in late spring to early summer.
Queen Annes are the ones found in chocolate-covered cherries and the Shirley Temples best friend, maraschino cherries.
Mangoes
Way down South, the sultry heat helps this tropical fruit flourish.
Theirtangy sweetnesspairs well with salty and spicy flavors found insalsas,ceviche, or blended in a coolingsmoothie.
Olives
You might not have known olives were a fruit, but they are.
Like other stone fruits, they have the typical central pit.
Mostly associated with savory preparations, olives come in a wide variety of colors and flavors.
Kalamatas fold into bread andGreek saladswell.
Cerignolas are large enough to stuff with favorite ingredients like blue cheese or feta.
Mission olives, commonly known as black olives, are a coveted pizza ingredient.
Manzanillas are the typical green olives you see with or without pimento stuffing.
These briny bites also finish a drymartiniand provide a tangy kick tomuffuletta sandwiches.
They come in red, black, and pale yellow.
Blackberries tend to be a bit larger than raspberries and slightly sweeter.
They work well in jams andjellies, added to yogurt or salads, or starring in aneasy summer cobbler.
Mulberries grow on trees rather than bushes like blackberries and raspberries.
They come in red, white, and black varieties and are the smallest of the drupelets.
Mulberries sweetness makes them tasty snacks fresh or dried and used in pastry preparations like scones.
Coconuts
You might think these tropical icons are nuts, but they are actually stone fruit.
What we see in stores and at farmers' markets are the pits of the fruit.
The white flesh weuse for coladasis the interior of that pit.
Mature coconuts (the brown ones we see everywhere) need to be cracked open.
Dates
Another product of palm trees, dates are much smaller than coconuts.
Usually found dried throughout the year, occasionally fresh dates show up in the fall.
Once pitted, they make great additions to morning granola,quick breads, and scones.
Each of these are hybrids of plums and apricots with varying ratios of each fruit.
Almonds
Surprise!
Almonds belong to the stone fruit family.
