Fruit Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing

This Winter Fruit Salad post is sponsored by California Grown. All opinions are my own. 

A winter fruit salad may, at face value, seem like an oxymoron. Winter, in most places, does not equal fresh fruit but January and February in Southern California comes with glorious sweet treasures that are at their peek this time of the year.

I am absolutely thrilled to be partnering with California Grown whose mission is to connect people with the California farmers who grow their food. With the help of California Grown us Friends Who Fete gals (Meg from This Mess Is Ours and Aida from Salt and Wind and myself) threw a gorgeous SoCal winter brunch to celebrate all the beautiful California produce grown this time of year. My fruity contribution to our brunch was this colorful salad with thin slices of crisp fennel, juicy strawberries, and floral wedges of clementines; all of which I picked up at my local Farmer’s market.

As a matter of fact, everything that went into this salad was either from a local farm or my own neighborhood. In our neck of the woods, overflowing boxes of lemons, oranges, grapefruit, and tangerines dot the sidewalks from neighbors whose trees are weighed heavy with the fruit. I picked up a few lemons to make this dressing, whisking the zest and juice with the local Ojai Pixie honey.

Tips for a Winter Fruit Salad

• The clementines in this recipe are supremed. If you have no idea what that means, check out this video for a play-by-play. Supreme the clementines over a small bowl to catch any juices then squeeze any remaining juice that’s left into the bowl as well. Use this juice to make the dressing.
• Play around with whatever fruit/veggie combination is lucious and lovely where you live. For example, winter isn’t all about citrus, tropical fruits are also really sweet this time of year, mangos, pineapple, and papaya are other good options.
• The lavender buds (picked from my front yard) on top are completely optional but are absolutely gorgeous and make the salad feel special and surprising.

Many thanks to Salt & Wind and This Mess Is Ours for all the gorgeous photography.

One More Thing

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