Photo: Alison Gootee

Photo: Alison Gootee

When I was a kid in North Carolina, our backyard was a landscape of fruit. We had peach and apple trees, a fig shrub, thickets of blackberries and blueberry bushes planted by my Aunt Pluma. I remember wearing a swimsuit and a bucket hung with twine around my neck and standing under the canopy of branches, picking and eating berries until my bucket and belly were full.

These fruits came into season at slightly different moments over the summer: the blueberries first, then blackberries, peaches, figs, and, finally, apples. When each made its debut, my mom topped a panful of fruit with biscuit dough and baked a simple, bubbly dessert that my sisters and I gobbled down hot, in bowls swimming with melted vanilla ice cream. That memory inspired my blueberry crisp, which I top with something akin to a sugar cookie—better than biscuits, in my book.

As I grew up and started cooking professionally, I thought it strange that fruit is so often underused in savory dishes, and I wanted to incorporate the heady taste of my childhood in my food. At my restaurant, Chef & the Farmer, I wrap peaches in country ham, a decidedly Southern take on the classic Italian pairing of melon and prosciutto. I lay grilled shrimp, seasoned with zingy citrus zest, across a bed of bursting figs. Fruits still evoke summer so strongly to me—and take me right back to those hot days in the brambles, picking berries at the height of this sweet season.

Get the recipe: Country Ham-Wrapped Peaches with Goat Cheese Sauce
Photo: Alison Gootee

Photo: Alison Gootee

Shrimp Skewers With Lemon-Honey Figs
The combination of fruit and seafood is perfect for a backyard BBQ.

Get the recipe: Shrimp Skewers With Lemon-Honey Figs
Photo: Alison Gootee

Photo: Alison Gootee

Blueberry Sugar-Cookie Crisp
This blueberry fruit dessert is perfect with ice cream on a hot summer night.

Get the recipe: Blueberry Sugar-Cookie Crisp