The question is…what do you do with all these wonderful farm fresh ingredients? The answer is…not much. Simple preparation is all it takes to heighten the flavors of your fruit, produce and even farm fresh milk and cream.

We are thrilled to bring you some great ideas from two talented heroes: this year’s Best of Boston Personal Chef JJ Gonson as well as Veteran Personal Chef and Nutritionist Polly Crowninshield.

JJ helps you get started by walking you through the Farmers’ Market and showing you what to look for when Buying Squash and when Selecting Your Stone Fruits (plums, peaches, etc.). She then treats you to some recipes and techniques you’ll carry with you from here on out – Kosher Dill Pickles, Simple Squash Sauté, a lesson on How to Freeze Blueberries (so you can make heavenly blueberry pancakes in the middle of winter), and Roasted Tomatoes for your pizzas, pastas, or whatever!

In the dairy category, we are proud to bring you Polly Crowninshield who shows you how easy it is to make your own Yogurt and Creme Fraiche. If you’ve never tried Creme Fraiche, you are truly missing out on something special. And since it only takes 2 ingredients to make, we suggest you get thee to a dairy or the supermarket to get yourself some quality cream and buttermilk so you can make and experience your first heavenly batch. Thanks to Polly for her hospitality, for teaching us something new and healthy, and for showing us her wonderful backyard goldfish pond.

We would like to thank our new best friend, Chris Crandall, from In Season for introducing us to Polly. Chris is working with farms all over New England to bring their produce, eggs, dairy and pastas to city folk like ourselves. To us, it’s like Christmas getting a delivery from In Season. Doorbell rings, you run down, nothing there but a bag of goodies. You can expect to see some more great hook-ups from Chris. We don’t want to give anything away but make sure you come back to the site often to see what we bring you from the farms!

We would also like to thank the Central Square Farmers’ Market for all the farms who let us bother them with our endless questions. We encourage you to support your local farmers! Doesn’t get any fresher than what they bring you – unless you grow your own.

Savor the summer and all its sun-kissed fruit and produce, my friends!