Nursery activities

Brightly coloured fruits and vegetables are especially beneficial; the more colour, the more nutrients. Yellow fruits (apricots, peaches, nectarines) supply vitamins A and C and other nutrients. Apricots are useful source of fibre and vitamin A.

* Eat fully ripe (soft, dripping with juice). Buy in advance, as they are picked (and sold) unripe. Market stalls may have riper fruit and offer a bargain.

To serve

* Serve peeled and sliced as finger food. Try arranging as 'flower petals'

on a plate.

* Serve warmed peach slices with chicken curry.

* Make into smoothies with orange juice.

* Make apricot and coriander sauce for mackerel. It's rather sweet, as it uses sweetened, stewed apricots (or apricots canned in syrup), but is a superb way of introducing mackerel. Fry a finely chopped onion in oil-and-water until completely soft; add two teaspoons of ground coriander; stir for one minute. Puree a kilo of stewed or canned apricots with a little of the juice and heat with the onion mixture. Surround pieces of grilled, carefully boned mackerel with this golden yellow sauce.