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Cottage Life

Blueberry-peach crisp is a summer classic

Photo by Oleksandra Naumenko/Shutterstock

If you’re going to your local blueberry patch, or making a stop road-side stand for blueberries and peaches on your way to the cottage, pick up some of the season’s best for this classic blueberry-peach crisp. It just may become an essential August tradition.

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Blueberry-peach crisp

Jane Rodmell

This is an absolute favourite cottage dessert, and the only chore is peeling the peaches (but you can make that simple too with the Tip, below). Serve hot or warm with a generous dollop of whipped cream, ice cream, or crème fraîche. Serves 6 (4 in some families).

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Print Recipe

Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine classic, Cottage

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

  

  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 3 cups peaches peeled and sliced (see Tip below)
  • rind of ½ lemon grated
  • 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ cup sugar

Pecan Crisp Topping

  • ½ cup flour
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • pinch salt
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • ½ cup chilled butter
  • 1 cup pecans chopped

Instructions

 

  • Toss all ingredients except those for the Pecan Crisp Topping, and place in a lightly buttered 6-cup baking dish, about 8” square.
  • To make the topping, combine flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl and cut in the butter until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Add pecans to mixture and toss together.
  • Cover prepared crisp with topping and bake at 375°F for about 40 minutes.

Notes

 TIP  To easily peel ripe peaches, cut an X in the bottom of each fruit, and drop them, one at a time, into boiling water for 30 seconds. Then immediately plunge them into chilled water for a few seconds and slip off skins.

Recipe originally published in the July/August 1994 issue of Cottage Life. 

Keyword blueberry, crisp, peach, pecan
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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Guava healthier than an apple?

An apple a day may keep you the doctor away, however guava, mango, or pomegranate may be healthier choices, reports Medic-Magic.net.

Tests show that the tropical fruit guava has the highest concentration of antioxidants, which may help protect against cancer and heart disease.

Guavas contain both carotenoids and polyphenols – the major classes of antioxidant pigments – giving them relatively high potential antioxidant value among plant foods.

According to researchers from the National Institute of India, guava contains 500 mg of antioxidants per 100 g, however the apple contains only a quarter of that amount. Mango, although it contains a lot of fructose, has 170 mg of antioxidants per 100 g.

Guavas are often considered a superfruit, being rich in dietary fiber, vitamins A and C, folic acid, and the dietary minerals, potassium, copper and manganese.

With a low-calorie profile of essential nutrients, a single common guava fruit contains about four times the amount of vitamin C as an orange.

 

Photo credit: wiangya / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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School lunches often lack fruit and vegetables

Two-fifths of U.K. schoolchildren who bring a packed lunch to school aren’t getting any fresh fruit or vegetables in their lunchbox, according to a study conducted by the World Cancer Research Fund.

Only 58 percent of packed lunches contain at least one fresh fruit or serving of vegetables, compared to 90 percent of meals served in school cafeterias, reports the Daily Mail.

"It can sometimes be difficult for parents to control what their children eat, particularly if they are passing shops on the way home from school or visiting their friends," noted Kate Mendoza, head of education at the WCRF. "But parents can influence what is in their packed lunches and the fact that not all of them are doing so is a missed opportunity."

Mendoza recommends including a piece of fruit or using a portion of salad to top off a sandwich, as easy and affordable ways to give kids the nutrition they need at lunch.

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Children more likely to eat healthy if mom does

Mothers who have good dietary habits and do not view their children as "picky eaters" have children who are more likely to eat well, finds a study from Michigan State University’s College of Nursing.

The study followed almost 400 low-income women with toddlers aged 1-3 enrolled in Early Head Start programs. The children whose mothers ate four or more servings of fruits and vegetables a week were more likely to do the same. The children also tended to consume more fruits and vegetables if their mothers did not consider them to be picky eaters.

"Mothers who viewed their children as picky eaters may be more lax in encouraging the consumption of fruits and vegetables," suggested Mildred Horodynski, the lead author of the study, published in Public Health Nursing.

In looking at mothers in 28 different Michigan counties, researchers found that race also made a difference, but that the majority of all subjects failed to consume the minimum recommended servings.

"Special attention must be given to family-based approaches to incorporating fruits and vegetables into daily eating habits," recommended Horodynski.

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Dislike of fruits and vegetables increases risk of constipation in children

School-aged children who don’t like to eat fruits and vegetables are 13 times as likely to be affected by functional constipation, finds a study in the December Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Researchers from Hong Kong Polytechnic University observed 383 children between the ages of eight and ten for their bathroom and dietary habits. They found that functional constipation – constipation caused by diet, environment and psychological factors instead of an underlying medical condition – was 13 times as prevalent in those children who said they did not like to eat fruits and vegetables, and the risk was significantly increased in those who drank less than 400 mL a day.

In total, seven percent of the children suffered from functional constipation, with girls more likely to develop the condition than their male counterparts. Ninety percent of the children refused to use school bathrooms for bowel movements, due to lack of toilet paper, privacy and cleanliness.

The study recommends that both parents and children be educated about the effects and health implications of functional constipation, and that schools should offer more high-fibre snacks, permission to drink water during class, and improved washroom facilities.
 

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Fruits and veggies eaten in childhood linked to healthier arteries

Recent research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association showed that eating fruits and vegetables at a young age is a major factor in preventing heart disease.

For 27 years, researchers at University Hospital of Tampere, Finland, tracked 1,622 patients aged 3 to 18, measuring pulse wave velocity (PWV) to determine arterial stiffness – a stiffening of the arterial wall that plays a major role in the development of cardiovascular disease.

Eating lots of fruits and vegetables as a child is associated with a healthier high pulse wave velocity as an adult. The association remained significant even when adjusted for traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

“These findings suggest that a lifetime pattern of low consumption of fruits and vegetables is related to arterial stiffness in young adulthood," said senior study author Professor Mika Kähönen, M.D., Ph.D."Parents and pediatricians have yet another reason to encourage children to consume high amounts of fruits and vegetables."

The study concluded that although there were study limitations in that the diet was self-reported and participants were mostly white Europeans, this is the first time that a link has been established between childhood diet and cardiovascular health.

 

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Consuming Fruits and Veggies for a Healthy Pregnancy

Researchers at the University of Boston Medical School have discovered that pregnant women who consumed at least seven portions of fruits and vegetables per day moderately reduced their risk of developing an upper respiratory tract infection, reports the Science Daily.

Upper respiratory tract infections could be either the flu or a sinus infection, which could lead to problems in the lower respiratory tracts, such as asthma or pneumonia.

Despite the fact that the majority of infections turn out to be the common cold, identifying the means of prevention is important, since colds are most frequently related to school or work absences.

Eating nutritional foods, especially fruits and vegetables, helps to strengthen the immune system, and according to this study, pregnant women in particular reap the benefits as well.

 

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Modifying Diet for Prostate Cancer Prevention

According to a new publication in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, a diet low in fat and red meat that is rich in fruits and vegetables serves as a great benefit for prostate cancer prevention.

The study recommended these nutritional changes for prevention, but cancer patients can also profit from the diet, since it is believed that the diet helps treat the disease as well.

In another study, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, green tea, selenium, and essential vitamins, such as vitamin E, lowered the risk of developing prostate cancer.

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Adopt a Mediterranean Diet for Healthy Bones

According to a study by Harokopio University in Athens, a Mediterranean diet, including a large consumption of fish and olive oil and less red meat, contributes to preserving bone density in women.

We know that the essential nutrients for our skeleton are calcium and phosphorus, which make up 80% to 90% of our bones. The next essential components are proteins, minerals and vitamins.

Adopting a Mediterranean diet as suggested by the study reportedly has a significant impact on the health of bones for adult women.

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The Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet

A diet rich in fruits and vegetables, fish and olive oil can not only be beneficial for the heart, but also for the brain, says Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas of New York’s Columbia University.

The researcher claims that the Mediterranean diet reduced risks of cognitive disorders, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease by 48%.

Dr. Scarmeas, however, is wary of these results. "This is not a clinical trial, it is only an observational study. We cannot, therefore, say that the Mediterranean diet is definitely useful for neurological conditions such as mild cognitive impairment," he warned.

Several earlier studies suggest that this diet reduces one’s levels of bad cholesterol, reduces inflammation, and lowers the risks of cardiovascular disease.