It's unmistakable — stone fruit season is in full swing at the Hollywood Farmers' Market! Different varieties of peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, and cherries started to appear several weeks ago, but now they are really reaching prime sweetness and flavor.

We find it hard to resist all the colors, textures, and aromas, and return home from the market with several bags full of stone fruits (also known as drupes). Besides enjoying them straight from the fruit basket, we have been using stone fruits in shortcakes, tarts, salads, salsas, and popsicles.

To make popsicles, we puréed the fruit and added a little lemon juice (to help retain color), agave nectar, and herbs and spices for extra dimension: lemon verbena with nectarine, lavender with apricot, cinnamon with peach, and ginger with plum. The cherries were so full-bodied and sweet, we didn't add anything except a squeeze of lemon. (Tip: Flavors tend to mellow out after freezing, so you may want to make popsicle mixtures on the stronger, almost-too-sweet side. Agave nectar is a healthy alternative to sugar.)

Here's a roundup of other stone fruit recipes from The Kitchn archives:

Apricots:
Almond Cream Cheese Apricots
Apricot and Biscuit Crostata

Cherries:
Seasonal Spotlight: Cherries!
Bittersweet Chocolate Cherry Mini Galettes
Cherry Cream Cheese Brownies
Cherry Custard Tart

Peaches:
Seasonal Spotlight: Peaches
Virtual CSA Box: Peaches
Peach and Spice Tea Muffins
Peach and Thyme Polenta Tart

Plums:
Plum and Earl Grey Preserves
Plum Cinnamon Jam
Plum Coffeecake with Cinnamon Streusel

(Images: Gregory Han and Emily Ho)