Who can resist a perfectly ripe piece of fruit? Tender, blushing peaches; rosy slices of watermelon; mahogany plums dripping with garnet-colored juice; crisp, crunchy apples; luscious, sunny oranges; sweet, mellow bananas; succulent berries in a rainbow of hues. Few things are more pleasurable than eating really good fruit.

Fruits are full of great nutrition. So let’s look at this wonderful fruits:

PEARS

Known throughout the Mediterranean for centuries, pears are second only to apples as the favored baked fruit. Baked pears are far less common in this country, although we aren’t sure why. A fresh baked pear is a mouth-watering, sweet, buttery treat, and easy to prepare. Ripe pears are tasty, too-juicy, sweet, fragrant, and tender.

Most pears purchased from the supermarket aren’t yet ready for eating, however. Pears are far more edible when they ripen off the tree, so green pears are picked and shipped (convenient, since the unripe pears are harder and sturdier, so they travel better).

Unripe pears are long-lived, and rival apples when it comes to long-term storage potential. Chill them and they’ll last and last (the harder varieties like Bosc and Comice can keep for up to seven months). A week or so before you are ready to eat them, bring them to room temperature and ripen in a brown paper bag.

When purchasing pears, look for firm fruit without cuts, bruises, or blemishes. Superficial nicks are fine if you plan to eat the pears that week. Bruises and soft spots should be avoided. Pears need to sit for a few days to soften sufficiently for eating once you bring them home. A ripe pear yields slightly to pressure on the stem end, and spoils quickly. Keep it in the refrigerator for a couple of days at most.

Pears are generally available all year in the United States, but their peak season is August through October. Sample the different pear varieties in most supermarkets: Anjou, Bartlett, and Bosc are among the most widely available, but you’ll often see other types. Asian pears are crisper and are best in the fall.

Pears may not sport the orange color that distinguishes carotenoid-heavy fruit, but they have plenty of other nutritional properties to recommend them. Pears are full of vitamin C, and fresh raw pears are particularly high in fiber.

They also contain many other vitamins and minerals. Dried pears are great for snacking and are a more concentrated source of nutrients.

PLUMS

Plums are no strangers to the traditional Mediterranean diet. Spiced plums cooked with sugar, cinnamon, and cloves is a French specialty, served chilled. Many types of plums are available in the United States, including the juicy Japanese plums perfect for snacking and the drier European plums best suited for cooking. Plums are available from May through October.

Plums range in color from yellow to blue-black, with every shade of red, purple, and blue in between. Plums are best when tree-ripened, but because plums soften (without developing additional sweetness) after picking, ripe and unripe plums can both feel soft and ripe in the store.

If your market allows it, you will be better off taste-testing the store’s plums before buying. Plums are a nutritious and complexly flavored dessert.

Let us not forget plums in their dried form! Super nutritious prunes have a reputation for promoting regularity, but they do far more than provide fiber for our bodies.

Prunes are a concentrated source of many vitamins and minerals, and have high levels of caffeic and ferulic acid, phenolic acids demonstrated to have potent anticancer effects in animal studies.

Here are some interesting ways to include fruit in your diet:

• Freeze green grapes and watermelon cubes to use as ice cubes in beverages or to eat on a hot summer day instead of sugary Popsicles or high-fat ice cream.
• Toss dried fruit into a stir-fry.
• To jazz up plain brown rice, add a few raisins, chopped dried apricots, currants, and walnuts.
• Whenever possible, add fresh fruit to your bowl of cereal. Use dried fruit to add texture and flavor to hot cooked cereal. Also try stirring fresh blueberries into oatmeal.
• Whenever possible, add fresh fruit to your yogurt.
• Stir dried fruit, chopped apples, or chopped cherries into your next batch of homemade bread.
• Tired of peanut butter and jelly? Peanut butter and pear or even date sandwiches are more nutritious and far more delicious.
• As long as we are on the subject of peanut butter, don’t miss the ultimate kid-friendly treat: peanut butter and ripe banana sandwiches!
• Add crisp apple slices to your turkey sandwich instead of cheese.
• Add dried cherries to provide tang and interest to salads.
• Cranberry sauce isn’t just for Thanksgiving. Make it with apple juice concentrate instead of sugar and serve alongside any meat or as a spread for bread or toast.