Palisade peaches are at peak season right now. Go out and buy some immediately. The window of opportunity so brief you'll be sorry ignoring this wisdom. Don't wait. Right now. Next week they very well might revert to hard mealy and useless.
So soft, so juicy, so full of intense flavor it's amazing. And only a week or so maximum. This is nature's way of saying, "pay attention." So do.
I feel this so strongly I must spread this peach joy. It's not about me, it's about peaches. The garden tomatoes are fine right now too. I've made three trips to nearby Tony's, an upscale market for snobs like myself. The boxes they've stacked are now nearly empty. Loaded my backpack and stopped at the bottle shop downstairs and offered Lurch two for himself and his boss. Then to more to the office downstairs. And encountered my neighbor entering his apartment the same time as myself. He refused.
"Come on!" I insisted. Why the hesitation? I don't understand that. "This is the peak of their season. Would you like one too?" I offered his guest. "Sure."
"Ew, soft."
Now this was fun. Having people reach into my backpack and remove peaches. More fun than I thought it would be. But now I only have a couple of peaches. Make that one left, I ate one in two seconds flat. They're too good to describe. Just go out and buy some. And do this right now. Before the peach joy is over.
I discovered the soft ones stay arrested quite nicely stored cold. So buy a some extra for when next week when the peach joy come its sudden end. And you'll have to wait another whole year.
26 comments:
Peach cobbler and pie are delicious.
Peaches!
Do I dare eat a peach?
Who wrote that?
Hint: his umbrella was tightly furled.
OK - I will do it!
here's a hint: Take a whole perfectly ripe unwashed peach, and stick it in the freezer.
Thaw as needed for peach vodka mojito.
ripic: T.S. Eliot
Eating peaches over the sink is a true summer treat.
This is us right now with the Bartlett Pear tree. It went nuts and we have boxes and boxes. Pounds and pounds of pears. The shelf life of a Bartlett pear is about 30 minutes. (I exaggerate....a bit) They go from hard and greenish to soft yellow and mushy in no time.
Unfortunately we can't foist the pears off on our friends or neighbors because they are also overwhelmed with fruit: pears, plums, apples. Even the Quince tree is loaded this year. No peaches or apricots though. They are actually pretty poor performers here.
The pears are sooooo delicious, but the over abundance is making me nuts. I've made pear butter. Dehydrated the pear slices. Pear tarts. The best that I have discovered this year is to make a syrup 1 cup sugar, 1 cup Karo syrup, two cups water and some vanilla. Peel and poach the pear halves or quarters in the syrup for 10 minutes and let steep in the hot syrup for 30 to 40 minutes. THEN put them in the dehydrator for 8 to 10 hours on medium. Candied pears!!!! Bright yellow, sticky, sweet and just a bit of that grainy texture that they have. Yum.
The apples aren't ready yet but I guess I'll make and freeze apple pie fillings and cobbler fillings. There is no way I'll be able to foist those apples off because every tree in the valley has a bumper crop. Maybe I'll candy dry some apples too. Those might be good.
We are going to prune the hell out of the trees this fall and stop the madness of hundreds of pounds of fruit for two people! Well, for a year or two anyway.
Peach BBQ Sauce
* Blend the peaches with the skin?
Eh, why not?
* Lime
* Muddled mint, smash with back of wooden spoon if no proper muddler, I'm assuming.
* Sugar. I'd consider omitting
* Club soda
* Rum dingy dum dum dum dingy rum rum dum dum dum Jeeze, looks like I'm drunk already.
You know, I bet this would be great blended as well, for rum dinger smoothie.
Ah heck, just do whatever you want. This is AMERICA! We make shit up here.
Muddled, pfffft, just blend it.
[I think my camera is catching some pretty good lightning. But it missed some fantastic strikes too. And that's a BUMMER! I saw the best strike ever and the camera just sat there and did nothing.
It's taken like 500 pictures already tonight.
Also, my sourdough is making the best sandwiches ever and I mean it. They're so delicious it's freaking me out.
But I have to plan in advance. Tomorrow is the 3rd day of fermenting.
I already reactivated the dry frozen bits that languished for two years in the freezer. that took 3 days.
Made one loaf.
Saved some activated starter and refrigerated that too.
Sunday I brought the reactivated starter back to life. It appeared to be responding slowly, about 1/3 cup of that was added to regular dough.
It produced a wet ball.
All recipes instruct you to place the ball in a new bowl for it rise, but I ignored that and left it in the messy bowl, on account of being lazy and despising washing dishes.
And for several hours it did not rise very well. And that was discouraging.
But the starter is so powerful that the refrigerator hardly slows it at all.
It continued rising, the ball disappeared and flattened out in the bowl and kept growing and growing and growing until now it's near the rim of the bowl.
All this runs counter to instructions you read everywhere, in books, online, on packages, in hieroglyphs.
Maybe I made up that last part.
This starter is AWESOME!
And my mouth is still watering from the lingering tastes of two roast beef sandwiches on toasted sourdough with provolone cheese.
I'd like to teach the world to deli in perfect harmony and add some beef and other things and possibly some cheese. Grow trees of peach and honey bees and snow white natural bread. And hold it in my hands and sing, "Have some Sue and Fred."
KNOCK IT OFF UP THERE I'M TRYING TO SLEEP.
pfft.
You got it, Evi.
DBQ: Don't you have deer that will eat those pears?
And do you have a cellar to store the apples? They should keep a month or two at least.
True Confession: I ate a peach with skin on for the first time in my life last week. They arrived in a farm box from somewhere in Amish country in the heart of Ohio, and the woman sitting next to me at the conference we were attending cut up two of them during break, brought them back to the table in slices with the skin on along with two forks, and set the plate between us. Together we forked up and shared the most delicious bites of peaches I've ever eaten. They tasted of cinnamon. And sunshine. With skin so tender it seemed like part of the peach.
DBQ, at what point do you pick the pears? If I wait til they are fully ripe, the wasps get them. If I grab them early, they take forever to ripen. And they bring the gnats like crazy. The university extension sites say to grab them early but that just doesn't work for me. This year I let the wasps feast.
Peak peaches were a couple of weeks ago here in East Tennessee. Tomatoes have been frustrating this year. It's been so hot they haven't ripened until some fell off during a storm and I brought them inside. Who knew tomatoes don't ripen in +90°?
Chip - you got it.
I like a little sugar. I also prefer vodka instead of rum. although with a traditional mojito, I prefer rum. But yes - and you can muddle the peach with the skin. I prefer to then strain it all. I don't like bits in my cocktail.
Peach juice (fresh)
lime juice
simple syrup or sugar
mint
vodka
(no fizzy required)
btw- frozen peach is an idea for when you have too many ripe peaches, and you panic because they might over-ripen before consumption. I'm hoping for a peach surprise sometime after peach season is over.
Drink requires a fresh peach. One peach/glass.
When is the best time to harvest apples? It's been a good year for apples around here. I picked a few off a tree on open-space the other day. There are so many apple trees around and no one is picking. Is it too early yet?
Peaches can well. I know it is old school, but canning peaches works. Throw in some herbs like rosemary or basil to mix it up a bit.
AA, the best time to pick apples varies from tree to tree. local to local. You try the apples and when they are crisp and tasty it is time to pick them.
Ah. That makes sense.
My mother used to can peaches. Canning is a lost art. I'd probably give everyone botulism.
DBQ: Don't you have deer that will eat those pears?
And do you have a cellar to store the apples? They should keep a month or two at least.
@ Evi. Yes. Deer eat the downed pears, apples and other fruit. But...to discourage the deer from also eating the rose bushes and everything else, we take the downed fruit and throw it over the bank down to the river and let the deer and raccoons and other critters eat them there. We used to have a friend who had donkeys and they loved! the fruit. Unfortunately, they moved.
Yes. The apples will stay for several months if stored properly. We have a pump house made of concrete blocks (10 x 12 ft) that stays relatively cool in the summer from the cool air coming up from the water in the well and it doesn't freeze (much) in the winter with just a small pump house heater. Some varieties of the apples will last, like the Pippens and Granny Smiths some won't. The Golden Delicious apples, you'd better eat or process.
@ Christy. The Bartlett pears (those are the only kind we have) are better if picked before they begin to turn yellow and let them ripen for eating, in a cold environment. If they are yellow on the tree it is too late. Because I'm going to poach and dehydrate I just go for it while they are still just turning yellow.
We make a joke the when the Zombie Apocalypse happens and food runs short, at least we will remain "regular" with all this fruit.
The cool environment to ripen the Bartletts are the problem around here. No one will let me bring them inside due to the inevitable gnats. How do I dig a root cellar in three inches of soil atop a ridge of shale? Although now you mention it we have a small block pump house out back. The block is six inches outside a marble housing. How weird is that? But it may provide some cooling.
Thirty or so years ago I gave Mom a fruit tree every Mother's Day until Daddy pitched a fit about having to mow around them. (This is how I know crepe myrtles can survive being cut down and regularly mowed over.)
It's nice to have MamaM commenting w/o scolding one of us.
I wonder why you couldn't make pear sauce just like applesauce, and then freeze it? I like homemade applesauce and think I might like pear sauce even more.
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