The wonderful variety of fresh fruits available at the Farmers Markets in the summer and fall are a distant memory now but that is no excuse for eating less fruit during the winter months.

To get enough fruit in your daily diet without breaking your food budget requires some changes in the fruits you buy when local fruits are not available.

Fresh fruits such as bananas, apples and kiwis are a good buy any time of year. (Be aware that local apples still are available from orchards with cold storage facilities). Citrus fruits usually are reasonably priced during the winter months although they will cost more this winter due to the recent freeze in southern California, which has affected much of the citrus crops. Most other fresh fruits are more expensive right now because they are shipped from south of the equator.

During the winter you may want to add variety to your fruit selection with frozen, dried and canned fruits (preferably with no added sugar or in light syrup). Dried and canned fruits have these advantages over fresh fruit:

€ Easy to carry in a backpack or keep in a drawer at work for a quick snack

€ Do not spoil or get overripe the way fresh fruit does

€ Do not require peeling or other preparation before eating

With a combination of fresh, frozen, canned and dried fruits, you should be able to get the recommended two cups of fruit a day. The following plan shows how:

Breakfast:

Slice banana on dry cereal or add raisins or frozen berries to cooked cereal

Lunch:

Eat an apple, orange, tangerine or banana

Snack:

Open up a single serving container of canned fruit or apple sauce or a package of raisins or dried plums

Dinner:

Add mandarin oranges or dried cranberries to a salad or have a baked apple or ambrosia for dessert

The accompanying crockpot recipe is another way to get a serving of fruit with dinner, along with a serving of meat and vegetables.

For more nutrition information, visit www.cce.cornell.edu/cayuga.

Christine Gutelius, MA, RD , CDN,

is a nutrition resource educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County