Fortunately, I have developed coping mechanisms for countering this anxiety, and at the top of that list is buying summer fruit. All of the summer fruit. Possibly too much of the summer fruit.

Watching me at a farmers’ market from Aug. 1 to 31 is like watching a contestant on “Supermarket Sweep,” a wild woman whirling through the stands, fueled by her fear of impending scarcity. I can’t know peace until I have grabbed every last basket of berries, filled several paper bags with peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, apriums and plumcots, and plopped more melons than one person should reasonably be allowed to carry on the subway into totes. I do not have to tell you that the fruit is an obvious metaphor for the last days of summer I am desperately trying to hoard and enjoy.

This is great, because fresh fruit, in its most pure and unadulterated state, is one of the few things in life that is perfect as is. It also presents a problem, because one person just can’t eat that much fresh fruit before it bruises, molds or goes bad .

So what to do with the excess? Sure, you could freeze some of it, but there’s no fun in that . It’s too hot to make jam (I said it!), so that’s out. But what’s in are desserts that allow you to use a ton of fruit at once, require almost no time or skill to prep, bake in under 45 minutes (yes, I’d argue that turning the oven on produces less heat in the kitchen than making jam), or better yet, don’t bake at all.

While it may seem counterintuitive, I spend more time indoors making desserts during the month of August than any other time of year. Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to spend my time.