Canadian Fruit Salad With Maple Apple Cider Reduction

I have been living in a cloud lately with the festivals that were taking place outside of the restaurant where I work. Marc works morning and I work night. Sleeping is constantly interfered with. The good news is that although I thought the owners hated me because I never get praised the way Marc does, last night I was given a promotion and a raise. I am now at the top of the line.

So I was late with the entry of fruit salad theme. I will just do a null entry to join all of the wonderful and talented friends here. "Hello everyone"

I grew up as a child in the Niagara fruit belt and the aroma of the sweet fruits were thick in the air when the orchards were all still along the small highways. Now quite a few have disappeared under cement. Niagara On The Lake near Niagara Falls still has amazing orchards with peaches, plums, cherries, berries and grapes. The grapes make some of the best wines in Canada.

The fruits I have used here were not necessarily all grown in Canada but I chose fruits that can be grown in Canada, unlike oranges and bananas.

I have chosen peaches and apricots, blueberries which some of the best come from Quebec where I live, raspberries and black berries which in this case look like boysenberries. I actually am not sure of the name. I also chose one of my favorite melons which is Honey Dew.

Most traditional fruit salads that I have had have been sauced with the juice of orange and lemon, and in some cases had sugar added. I have also had creamy fruit salad with whipped cream in it. That was back in the day when that was popular.

I chose to make a Maple syrup and cider vinegar reduction to pour over. There are many places in Canada that have apple orchards and produce apple cider and vinegar. Maple syrup is one of Canada's national foods. Of course everyone knows that maple leaf is the symbol on the Canadian flag. So I combined the two for the dressing to represent.

Some walnuts to seal the deal.

There was plenty of fruit still leftover so we devoured before the fruit flies got to it..