Sometimes — like right now — it’s simply too hot to cook.

What we’re hoping for is a break in the heat, perhaps a day of soaking rain, a couple of pleasant hours to get outside and do the yardwork, then a big salad and a tall, cool drink for supper, and a terrific frozen treat to finish off the evening.

I’ve been inspired by the weather this July (and likely August, as well), to keep it simple; we’re making lots of salads now — Greek salad with feta and cucumbers, Mexican black bean salad with cilantro and peppers, and lots of different cold pasta salads with poached salmon, grilled chicken or hard-boiled eggs. It’s just too hot to cook.

With that in mind, what I present to you this week is some ideas for wonderful cool, sweet fruit treats using seasonal fresh and local fruits available from all your favorite markets. I’ve pulled out our ice cream maker, and we’re enjoying the rich bounty of what Lancaster County does best: sweet fruits for hot summer evenings. Watermelon and peaches are at the peak of perfection now, and if you’ve prepared ahead, you’ll likely have some frozen blueberries from last month’s harvest.

Additionally, making fruit sherbets and ices are a fun way to get the kids involved in food planning and preparation. Nothing is likely to pull them into the kitchen faster than the anticipation of homemade frozen dessert treats. Also, if you want to skip the ice cream maker entirely, simply freeze the fruit purees and then shave the icy result into bowls for an intensely flavored granita.

And if these recipes don’t get your attention, keep in mind that any of them can be altered to suit your taste. You can use strawberries, raspberries, nectarines or plums, mangoes and melons of all sorts. Even oranges, lemons and limes make wonderful frozen desserts. Try these recipes or adapt any one of them to your favorite fruits.

WATERMELON SHERBET
8 cups seeded, chopped watermelon

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

1 cup milk

In a large bowl, combine watermelon, sugar and lemon juice. Chill for 30 minutes; place half in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a large bowl and repeat with the remaining watermelon mixture.

In a saucepan, dissolve the gelatin into the water; add to watermelon mixture. Stir in the milk until all the ingredients are well-blended. Chill the mixture for 2 hours. Freeze in two batches in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. Serve immediately or freeze overnight and defrost for 10 minutes before serving.

TASTY PEACH SHERBET
1 pound fresh peaches, peeled, pitted, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups whole milk

2 cups sugar

Place the peaches (reserving 1/2 cup), lemon juice and salt in a blender and whiz until smooth.

Warm 1 1/2 cups of the milk in a saucepan over low heat, add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Pour into the blender with the peach mixture and add the remaining milk. Blend thoroughly and refrigerate four to 24 hours. Whisk again and freeze in an ice cream maker, adding the reserved peach pieces in the last minute. Serve immediately, or transfer to a tightly sealed container and freeze overnight for a better, ripe ice cream product. For a tangier product, replace 1 cup of milk with crème fraiche or plain yogurt.

SIMPLE BLUEBERRY SHERBET
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Process the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour into an 8×8 baking pan; cover and freeze 4 hours or until firm. Process the frozen mixture, in batches, in a blender until smooth; turn into a tightly sealing plastic freezer container and freeze another four to 24 hours. Defrost 10 minutes before serving.

Email Jeff Thal at talking.fresh@yahoo.com or visit his blog, talkingfresh.typepad.com/blog.

Have you ever had a meal that stayed with you? And stayed and stayed and stayed? I had one of those, and I want to share the experience as best I can.

To do this, close your eyes and travel with me to The 1829 House, a wonderful old inn — it’s as old as its name, and was once a haunt of the dread pirate Blackbeard — dug into a hillside above Charlotte Amalie and the harbor of St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It is there, on my honeymoon, that I first experienced a fresh fruit salsa, and I remember it to this day. The sun was sinking over the hills to the west and the sky was ablaze with reds and oranges and purples unlike any I’ve seen anywhere else. It being my honeymoon, I was, of course, dazzled by the company, the setting, the steel-drum music plunking gently in the background, and the bittersweet knowledge that it was our last night on the island, a last romantic dinner before heading back to Pennsylvania and reality.

It was there that I dined on the most wonderful meal of grilled pork chops with a fresh peach and mango salsa. Made entirely with fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs, this brilliantly colorful, sweet-yet-spicy salsa brought to the brink of perfection two tender, herb-encrusted loin-cut pork chops that were sublimely cooked, moist and tender. The salsa was the special element of the meal that I like to call “zing.”

Every meal should have some zing, and it turns out, a fruity, tangy salsa is a perfect complement to grilled pork or chicken. It is a flavor marriage that, while not everyone’s idea of what a summer barbecue ought to look like, stands out in my mind as perhaps the best restaurant meal I’ve ever eaten. Served with a lightly dressed mesclun salad and a tall, cold, locally featured rum drink, this meal actually distracted me from my honeymoon for perhaps a moment or two. This is one that deserves to be served to company.

I have strived mightily to reproduce that special salsa, and the result is a worthy challenger. Not being the biggest fan of mangoes, I opt to leave them out of my recipe, but you don’t have to. They will make the salsa sweeter, and will add a tropical flavor and texture.

And while I believe that this salsa is best served with grilled pork or chicken, one of my best friends and wisest critics — one who chooses to remain meat free — suggests that you eat the salsa with chips. Try the dish with some blue corn or plantain chips. Fortunately for all of us, the locally grown peaches are right here, right now. Go get some and try this recipe.

FRESH PEACH SALSA
3-4 firm, not quite soft, peaches (about 1 pound)

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 almost ripe Roma tomatoes

6 large green onions (green parts only)

1/2 red onion

1/2 to 1 (to taste) seeded jalapeno pepper, chopped fine, or 3 dashes of Tabasco sauce

2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

6 tablespoons cider vinegar

Dip the peaches into boiling water for 30 seconds, plunge into ice water, and let them cool. Then peel the skins. Cut the peaches in half, discard the pits, then cut the halves into thin slices. Toss with lime juice.

Using the same boiling and ice water, repeat the skinning process with the tomatoes. Seed them, quarter them, and then cut the quarters into slices. Combine the peaches and tomatoes; add the onions, peppers, cilantro and ginger. Mix well.

Whisk together the oil and vinegar. Pour over the other ingredients and toss gently.

Allow the mixture to marry about 1 hour. If serving within several hours, no need to refrigerate. Otherwise, cover with plastic wrap and chill until serving.

Email Jeff Thal at talking.fresh@yahoo.com or visit his blog, talkingfresh.typepad.com/blog.

Saturday mornings in downtown Lancaster are magical. The sun is up, but the heat of the day hasn’t yet assumed its place in our consciousness. The streets and sidewalks are alive but not yet crowded. There is a gentle breeze rolling down Prince Street.

At 7, I step into the alley in front of Central Market, and all around are pleasing sights and sounds: happy shoppers heading to and from the market in all directions; stand holders and their children unloading trucks full of freshly picked goods, chatting about the morning and their week; a young blond-haired girl plunking out a tune on one of the Music for Everyone pianos, stationed just outside the market; someone hawking fliers in the alley.

All in all, a serene Saturday morning in Lancaster.

I was going to write about my garden and the beautiful bunches of chard, red Swiss and yellow rainbow stalks, big green leaves still glistening from the overnight rain, and then I got distracted by this wonderful Lancaster morning.

When we moved here eight summers ago, my family and I wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. It was an OK place to live, work and raise kids, but it was quiet, conservative and very slow-moving. Now I can’t imagine living anyplace else.

What a terrific place Lancaster has become. It is alive with the pulse of a city in love — with the artists and galleries up and down the streets and alleyways; fabulous events virtually every weekend and many more during the week; the Barnstormers and their family-centric baseball, fireworks and fun; more than a dozen small coffee roasters and numerous excellent breweries and wineries; cool museums, lively parks and a busy new convention center and YMCA; great restaurants and hotels; and the centerpiece of this thrilling renaissance, the beautifully renovated Central Market.

What a great time to be living in Lancaster.

This amazing place is the way it is, I suppose, because for more than 200 years, the people here have been making their way off the land, off the deep, rich earth that is Lancaster County; and here in my small corner my family is, like so many others, growing food in our backyard—peas, tomatoes, peppers, chard, squashes, grapes, pumpkins—crops we will be able to keep and use all year.

Here’s a recipe we tried just today, after cutting some of that beautiful chard from our garden. What will you make from your garden, or from one of the fabulous Lancaster County growers?

SOBA NOODLES WITH BACON AND SWISS CHARD
6 ounces soba noodles

4 ounces bacon, cut into 1/2-inch slices

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

1 bunch Swiss chard, stems and leaves chopped and separated, about 3 cups

1 tablespoon tamari or light soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped scallions to garnish

Cook the soba noodles according to the directions on the package; reserve about 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Rinse well with cold water, drain and set aside.

In a large heavy pan, cook the bacon until crisp, about 6 minutes (we used turkey bacon; if you do so, add 1 tablespoon peanut or canola oil to the pan, as turkey bacon is much leaner than pork bacon). Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Add the garlic, onion and chard stems, and sauté over medium heat for about 6 minutes, until soft. Then add the chard leaves and season with salt and pepper; continue to stir and sauté until the chard wilts; add the reserved noodle liquid and stir until the chard is completely wilted and tender. Add the tamari or soy sauce and cook for one more minute.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the cooked noodles, the bacon, vinegar and toasted sesame oil and toss to coat. Garnish with chopped scallions and serve immediately. Serves 6.

Out in the backyard garden, the sugar peas are as tall as I am, and we’re picking like crazy. They are the result of a grand experiment of three or four years ago, when the girls indicated that they wanted some investment in the family garden.

They chose peas for several reasons: They’re reasonably simple to grow, they sprout early and grow quickly (kids are all about instant gratification, after all), they’re showy, easy to pick and edible right off the vine.

Peas are one of those crops that, if you’re new to food gardening at home, will most likely give you a positive experience, make you want to continue growing them and even expand your garden horizons. All it takes is about 5 square feet of garden space and something on which the peas can climb. I built a trellis out of 1/2-inch aluminum electrical conduit and some rabbit fence strung between the vertical poles. It cost me about $10 and about 20 minutes of my time. (You can find complete instructions at motherearthnews.com. Search on “growing peas” and click the link “All About Growing Peas.”)

Try planting peas this fall, or next spring, as early in the season as you can get a garden fork 10 inches into the ground. Peas love cool weather. You’ll be tempted to eat them right from the vine in your garden. Bring some ranch dressing to the harvest.

But don’t eat all the peas outside. Make sure some of them get to the kitchen. Then you’ll be able to use them to make one of my all-time favorite one-pan, quick-fix meals, Gnocchi With Shrimp and Peas. This dish can be made, start to finish, in less than a half-hour if you use frozen or dried gnocchi.

Or, if you have some time, try making your own from scratch. Making gnocchi is a bit time consuming, but the result is well worth the effort.

All it takes are two baked and peeled russet potatoes, 2 lightly beaten eggs and 3/4 cup of sifted flour. Cube, then rice the potatoes with a fork. Gently fold the potatoes, eggs and flour together on a large cutting board until you have a moist ball of dough. Add a bit more flour if the dough is sticky to the touch, but don’t add so much that it gets dry. Cut the dough into 1/4-cup-size pieces and roll each piece into 1/2- to 3/4-inch diameter snakes (about the thickness of your thumb).

Cut the snakes into 3/4-inch slices, place a dinner fork in the middle of each piece and gently push down about halfway to create ridges. Then boil them in small batches (20 to 25 pieces) in salted water until they float, and then about 10 seconds longer. Remove with a strainer to a colander.

POTATO GNOCCHI WITH SHRIMP AND PEAS
3/4 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 30 pieces)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 package frozen or dried potato gnocchi, or 3 cups homemade

1/4 cup fresh shelled peas

1 tablespoon thinly chopped green onion

Toss shrimp with 1 tablespoon olive oil, the rosemary, parsley, red pepper flakes and garlic. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Bring 8 cups well-salted water to a boil; add gnocchi, stir gently and continuously until all the gnocchi float, about 5 minutes. (If you’ve made your own gnocchi, skip the preceding step.) Remove from the pot and drain, reserving the pasta liquid.

Combine the remaining olive oil with shrimp, peas and green onions in a large sauté pan over high heat. Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

Add the gnocchi and 1/4 cup pasta water to the pan and cook until the shrimp are pink and just cooked through, about 5 minutes.

Serve immediately. Serves 6.

Email Jeff Thal at talking.fresh@yahoo.com or visit his blog, talkingfresh.typepad.com/blog.

John wore a suit to work every day.

Right after high school, he had gotten a job as an office boy and went to college at night. He ended up in sales, working in buildings full of offices five days a week for the next 40 years.

He married at 22, was a father at 24 and had three children by age 30. He supported a family — a wife and three daughters — working hard and long, traveling often and being moved around by employers every three years or so: to Long Island, N.Y; New Hampshire; Syracuse, N.Y. (twice); Schenectady, N.Y; and Hummelstown. He put his three daughters through fine colleges.

When you look at photographs of this sales executive when he was young, images of the TV show “Mad Men” come to mind. But unlike the glamorous hijinks in the world according to Hollywood, John’s life was much more normal. On the weekends, he spent his time with family. He did chores around the house. And he baked. Sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, coffee cakes, cookies, fruit crisps. After all, what could be better than fresh baked goods made with butter and brown sugar?

So when John gave me a recipe for fresh rhubarb cake and told me that it was a wonderful, light, sweet confection, perfect for breakfast or dessert, I sat up and listened. After all, John knows cake. And now, retired in Landisville, John has been growing his own rhubarb almost from the time he and wife Barbara moved here in 1999.

And he’s still baking, almost every weekend. He makes cookies and brownies with his grandchildren, cakes and breads for family events and a large batch of Christmas stollen that is worthy of a story of its own.

Three years ago John gave me two rhubarb plants that he divided out of his own patch. They have been growing profusely in my garden ever since, one of my favorite harbingers of the new season. When the rhubarb pokes up through the ground, I know it’s time to get my vegetable garden ready.

Now it’s May, and on the tables at Central Market fresh rhubarb abounds, great piles of it at all the local fruit and vegetable stands. It’s at its peak for the next month or so, until it gets hot, so I’m constantly on the lookout for wonderful new ways to cook with rhubarb. (Got any great recipes? I’ll try ’em!)

Last season I ran one of my favorite rhubarb recipes, grilled pork tenderloin with rhubarb chutney (email me, and I’ll send it to you). So this year I’m baking a cake. But not just any cake. This is a fresh rhubarb cake that no less an authority than John — my father-in-law —calls “the best cake I’ve ever made.” We made one this weekend. We agree.

FRESH RHUBARB CAKE
1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 cups coarsely chopped fresh rhubarb

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cream the butter until light, then add the brown sugar slowly until the mixture is well-blended and fluffy. Beat the egg and vanilla into the mixture until well-blended.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Sift again.

In a separate container, combine the milk and lemon juice.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk mixture to the creamed butter, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat after each addition just enough to blend.

Gently fold the rhubarb into the batter. Pour into a buttered and floured 9-by-13-inch pan.

In a small bowl, combine the pecans, granulated sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle evenly over the batter. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes (325 degrees for a glass baking pan).

Cool 30 minutes before serving.

Email Jeff Thal at talking.fresh@yahoo.com or visit his blog, talkingfresh.typepad.com/blog.

I have a weakness for cold pasta salads.

The really cool thing about cold pasta salads is that there are so many different pastas, veggies and salad dressings that one can literally invent a delicious cold pasta salad on the spur of the moment. Simply throw together your favorites, or boil up noodles, empty out your vegetable bin, add a dressing and voilà! Cold pasta salad. Your way.

There is no end to the variations of combinations one can try. The only limitation is finding what’s in season. Do you like cheese? Tacos? Peanut butter? (We’ve already been down this road.) Asian-influenced flavors? Anchovies? Asparagus? Doesn’t matter. If you like any of these, or if you have your own favorite flavors, simply whack them together, add your favorite dressing and go for it.

For fun, I Googled “cold pasta salad,” and the search came back with more than 1.3 million hits. In 1.5 seconds. I browsed through about 10 pages of the returns, and I have to admit that I couldn’t find a single one I didn’t want to taste. Try it yourself.

But before you do, set yourself some parameters for what you’re looking for and what you’re willing to add or leave out. I believe that the best way to judge a really good pasta salad is to determine how many of the major food groups you can stuff into a single bowl. Greens, proteins, fats and carbs, all in one bowl, is certainly the Holy Grail. Imagine a nice spinach and bacon salad with parmesan cheese and sweet vinaigrette. Or perhaps a grilled-chicken Caesar salad with croutons and a homemade dressing. Yum. Great for guests, great for families, great any time of the year.

On the other hand, they’ve been done so many times that, while certainly classic, something different and a little bit tangy with assertive flavors might be really interesting. Try this salad, using spinach greens, feta and cheese or spinach tortellini. It goes well with grilled steak, chicken or sausages, or it can stand alone as a cold dinner salad. I often take this salad when we are invited to an outing where someone says “bring a dish.” And maybe the best part is how easy it is to make. I am actually making the salad for supper tonight as I write this.

Local spinach is at peak season right now and is available at all your favorite markets. I buy mine at Elmer Stoltzfus’s (formerly John Stoner’s) vegetable stand at Central Market, but it’s available across the county. Right now the spinach is about the best it’s going to be all year. If you can find freshly made tortellini and feta cheese, even better. But any way you make it, this one will be a hit.

COLD SPINACH, TORTELLINI AND FETA SALAD
1 package fresh, frozen or dried tortellini

3/4 pound fresh spinach

4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

3-4 peperoncini peppers in vinegar brine

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Place tortellini in 4 quarts of boiling salted water and stir gently until the tortellini all float. Drain quickly and immediately plunge into ice water. Allow to cool completely.

Remove the stems from the spinach leaves and clean the spinach well in a large bowl of cold water, to remove any sand. You might need to rinse more than once. Then allow to drain and dry completely.

About two hours before serving, place the spinach, tortellini and feta cheese into a large bowl and toss. Add the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and toss to coat the ingredients completely.

Mince the peperoncinis, separate the seeds and place the minced peppers in the salad and toss to mix well.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving.

Strolling through Central Market the other day, I noticed a common thing in almost every fruit and vegetable stand —the fresh, locally grown vegetables are arriving. Rhubarb, spinach, scallions and spring onions, watercress and other herbs are beginning to appear at most of the farm stands, along with my personal favorite spring vegetable, asparagus.

Asparagus’ popularity goes back to the earliest times in recorded history. There is a recipe for asparagus in the oldest surviving recipe book, from the third century, and the vegetable is seen on an Egyptian frieze dating to 3,000 B.C.

Asparagus is low in calories and sodium and high in potassium, protein, fiber and vitamins A, C and E. There are studies linking asparagus to important health benefits. It is high in antioxidants and folate, which is critical for pregnant women and in the prevention of heart disease, and has been proven to help reduce the loss of calcium, which is important as people age.

So why is asparagus the ugly stepsister in the vegetable garden? Its appearance in the dining room has been known to send kids running and screaming in fits of apoplexy. One of my daughters worked herself into such a frenzy over asparagus on her plate that she sat crying at the dinner table, accusing us of child abuse, treason, sedition, even of a personal vendetta against her. And those were the nicer things she said.

If only she would try it — just one taste. I’ve grilled it over hot coals; roasted it with pine nuts and olive oil; steamed it with lemon juice and served it with Hollandaise sauce (what could be better than a sauce made from butter and eggs?); and stir-fried it with carrots, water chestnuts, sesame seeds and sesame oil. Yet all I get at dinnertime is crocodile tears. But I forge ahead, looking for the recipe that will create the “light bulb” moment when she realizes — and she will, some day — how wonderful asparagus really is.

I like asparagus so much that I have endured the years it takes to make an asparagus plant productive. However, since it isn’t quite ready yet at home, I picked up a couple of beautiful bunches from the Stoners at market, and I’m going to be a little adventurous with this wonderful delicacy. I’ve adapted this recipe from one I learned from my chef-mentor. Enjoy.

GINGER CRAB AND ASPARAGUS SOUP
1 pound fresh, young asparagus, half green, half white, reserving 6-8 tips for garnish

1 tablespoon peanut oil

2 scallions, roots removed, chopped diagonally into 1/2-inch slices

1-inch section fresh ginger, minced very fine

4 cups vegetable stock

4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon hot chili oil

1/2 pound fresh crab meat or 1 can

3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

2 tablespoon cornstarch

4 tablespoons cold water

1 tablespoon toasted sesame-seed oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

Holding the spears by the ends, gently break the asparagus and discard the stem end. Wash thoroughly and cut into 2-inch pieces. Plunge into boiling water for 3 minutes, then immediately into cold water and ice cubes. Allow them to cool completely, then drain.

Heat the peanut oil in a heavy enamel soup pot. Add the scallion and ginger and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the stock, vinegar, chile oil, asparagus, crab, soy sauce, 2 tablespoons cilantro, and pepper and bring to boil. Reduce heat to lowest setting and simmer for 10 minutes.

Dissolve cornstarch in cold water, add slowly to the soup, stir until boiling, reduce heat to low-medium, and simmer 3-4 minutes, until soup begins to thicken.

Remove from heat. Add toasted sesame oil and stir well. Then gently stir while adding the egg very slowly, to get the beautiful egg threads that only restaurants seem to get right.

Garnish with cilantro and asparagus tips, and serve hot.