COMPLEMENTARY BAKES

If you're venturing out for produce this weekend, don't be surprised to find yourself swimming against the tide of peach seekers. The sweetest peaches won't hit their stride until later, but peach fans are impatient. They tend to jostle and elbow in their quest for the perfect clingstones, squeezing and sniffing with gusto before deciding yay or nay. One market table retaining a semblance of of order will be the table dedicated to the apricot. 

Dubbed praecocum by the Romans, it Is loosely defined as "precocious one." To be fair, apricots are temperamental; fragile, difficult to ship, too often picked before ripe and easily bruised. Apricots often get a bum rap because they don't scream summer the way peaches do. But devoted apricot lovers applaud the tart flavor and hint of almond tucked within the diminutive fruit. True, on more than one occasion apricots have broken my heart with a mealy interior and lackluster flavor. But teamed with sweet cherries, the two stone fruits complement each other, intensifying in flavor as they bake. The end result is not only jammy but bright, assertively tart in the best summer vacation kind of way.