By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

The current issue of Edible San Diego has some very sophisticated cocktail recipes you can make from fruit available in farmer's markets right now.  Or maybe, if you're lucky, you have these fruit in your own backyard orchard.  The inventor of the recipes is Maria Hunt, aka The Bubbly Girl.  She is the author of The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion whcich Clarkson-Potter will release next year.

My favorite of Hunt's receipes is the Pomegrante Gimlet.  Maybe because the color is so appropriate for the season. 

POMEGRANTE GIMLET

Makes 1 cocktail

2 ounces pomegrante seeds (which should produce about 1 ounce of juice)
2 ounces Martin Miller's gin
juice of 1 Mexican lime or 1/2 Bears' lime 1/2 ounce agave nectar
3 pomegrante seeds for garnish
1 lime slice for garnish

Muddle the pomegrante seeds in a metal cocktail shaker until you've squished them all and released their juice.  Add gin, lime juice, and agave nectar.  Fill shaker with ice and shake vigorously until mixture is well chilled.  Strain into a small Martini glass or a Champagne coupe.  Garnish with the lime wheel and the pomegrante seeds.

Agave nectar is available from natural food stores, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods, per Maria.  Bartenders love it, she says, because it dissolves easily in cold liquids.  Agave nectar is also easier to digest than regular sugar, so a better choice for diabetics, she adds.  For more information about agave nectar, she suggest this link.