The other day a friend asked me why the peaches she bought were so mealy. I had to stop and think about it. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that problem, but her question brought up memories of beautiful peaches with amazing fragrance that tasted awful; like peach-colored sawdust, fit only for compost.
And I haven’t had one of those mealy peaches in ages.
I realized it’s because, for the past six years, I’ve been driving to the Atlanta State Farmers Market in Forest Park to buy my peaches. When I get there, I head directly to the sheds where Georgia farmers sell their produce. Box after box of whatever’s in season, direct from the farmer. Right now, the sheds are full of Vidalia onions, peaches, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon and peppers.
The peaches I purchase in the afternoon have either come off the tree that morning or the day before. They went directly from tree to packing shed to box to the market. No stop for refrigeration; no days in transit.
And that’s what keeps me from having mealy peaches. Peaches that are destined for shipment to faraway markets have to be picked before they’re completely ripe so they will stand the trip. Somewhere along the way, they’re likely to get refrigerated. Refrigerate an unripe peach and no matter how well it’s treated before or after, the result is likely to be a mealy peach.
In our house, the smell of summer is the smell of peaches slowly ripening on the kitchen counter, laid out on vintage wire racks so they have air circulating between them. That lessens the chance they’ll rot or that one bad peach will spoil the rest. My goal is to use them up so I never have to refrigerate a single one. We eat them standing over the sink so the juice drips into the sink instead of onto our clothes. And we eat them prepared every possible way from scone to pie to salad to soup.
To find out more about peaches, I talked to Kay Carroll Barnes of Carroll Farms in Woodbury, which is 50 miles south of Atlanta. It’s her peaches I buy every year; one 25-pound box just about every two weeks all through the summer, from her trees to my kitchen within 24 hours. Of course, you don’t have to buy them 25 pounds at a time. David Watts, who sells fruit to Barnes, will let you buy a little basket of a half-dozen peaches if that’s all you need.
Barnes knows pretty much everything there is to know about peaches since, as she said, “I grew up in the packing shed.” Her daddy is the one who started the business in the 1950s. She went to work in the shed when she was 5, and she’s been working there since. Her son Hynes has now taken over as the grower.
Barnes told me Carroll Farms is growing enough different varieties these days that I can have fresh peaches from mid-May to early September. She describes peach-growing as a precarious occupation. “We thought we would have a great year but a hail storm towards the end of June wiped out 100 acres of fruit,” she said. That’s 100 of the 600 acres they have in peaches.
There are usually two or three varieties getting ripe at any particular time. “I have some customers who know every variety,” she said. “If you ask me for my favorite, I’ll tell you it’s the one I’m eating at the moment.” Although Barnes obviously has every peach she could want at her disposal, she says her favorite way to eat them is to just to slice one up and enjoy it fresh.
Back when Carroll Farms had 2,200 acres in peaches, the packing operation was mechanized. Now the peaches are hand-picked, hand-graded and hand-packed. They pack 700 to 800 boxes of peaches every day and have turned the packing shed into an attraction for the folks who drive to the farm to get their peaches. Rocking chairs provide a place to enjoy the homemade peach ice cream and to recover from a visit to the shop where they sell everything peachy, from salsa to preserves and cider. Some customers come every week and some come once a year to buy 15 boxes for everybody in their family.
If you want to buy your peaches a little closer to home, look no further than your local farmers market. Pearson Farm in Fort Valley sells at nearly every market in Atlanta. Check out its Facebook page for the list of the 20 metro area markets they visit each week. Will McGehee, a fifth-generation Pearson, told me they started selling at farmers markets about three years ago. “It’s a hard thing to grow and harvest peaches when it’s 100 degrees with 90-percent humidity. We love the feedback we get when we meet our customers at the markets,” he said.
Just remember that early peaches are clingstones, with a flesh that true to its name clings to the pit. Six or eight weeks into the season, the freestone varieties begin to ripen. From now until the end of peach season it’s freestones we’ll be enjoying.
With freshly picked local peaches available all around you, there’s no excuse for a mealy peach in your fruit bowl ever again.
RECIPES
With peaches, the big question seems to be, “Peeled? Not peeled?” I love peach skin and wouldn’t dream of peeling my peaches. I have friends who are horrified at the thought of eating the peel. Each of these recipes can be prepared skin on or skin off. It’s up to you.
Peach Gazpacho
Hands on: 15 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes
Makes 6 cups
Gazpacho is not just for tomatoes any more. Watermelon, strawberries and now peaches are all becoming featured players. Peaches play nicely with the traditional components of tomato gazpacho, but give the cold soup a pleasant underlying sweetness. The riper the peaches, the sweeter the soup. This gazpacho will keep up to two days in the refrigerator.
1/2 cup orange juice, plus more if needed
8 ripe peaches (about 3 pounds), pitted, divided
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
1 garlic clove, minced, optional
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 avocado, diced
In the jar of a blender, combine orange juice, seven peaches, cucumber and garlic, if using. Puree. Add vinegar and olive oil, and puree again. Taste for seasoning, adding more vinegar if needed. Thin with more orange juice if needed. Chill at least four hours. When ready to serve, dice the remaining peach and garnish soup with diced avocado and peaches.
Per 1-cup serving: 182 calories (percent of calories from fat, 45), 2 grams protein, 25 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams fiber, 10 grams fat (1 gram saturated), no cholesterol, 4 milligrams sodium.
Peach-stuffed Pork Loin with Peach Sauce
Hands on: 40 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Serves: 6
You can do all your preparation -- butterflying the pork loin and making the stuffing -- ahead of time and then assemble everything just before ready to cook.
1 (2-1/2 pounds) boneless pork loin roast, trimmed of extra fat
Salt and pepper
1/2 pound mild pork sausage
2 shallots, chopped
2 peaches, diced
3 tablespoons cognac
1 slice whole wheat bread
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease a small roasting pan.
Butterfly the pork loin. Arrange pork loin with short side facing you. Starting one-third of the way down from the top, make a long horizontal cut into side, slicing through meat in short strokes and leaving about one inch intact at outer edge. Unfold meat (as if opening a book). Cut a vertical slit 3/4-inch deep at the end of your first cut and then slice back towards the opposite direction, ending one inch before outer edge. Open the meat like a book, and pound to an even thickness with a meat mallet if needed. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, make stuffing by cooking sausage until almost done, about five minutes. Add shallots, peaches and cognac and cook until shallots are translucent, about five minutes. Remove from heat.
In the bowl of a food processor, pulse bread until you have fine crumbs. Stir crumbs into sausage mixture.
Spread stuffing evenly over inside of pork loin. Roll loin up from the long side. Tie roast with kitchen twine to maintain the shape and hold in the stuffing. Place pork seam side down in prepared roasting pan. Roast pork 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reaches 145 degrees, about 20 minutes. Remove pork from oven, cover with foil and allow to rest 10 minutes before carving. Remove string, slice roast into six pieces and serve with peach sauce.
Per serving (with 2 tablespoons sauce): 387 calories (percent of calories from fat, 63), 28 grams protein, 5 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 26 grams fat (9 grams saturated), 77 milligrams cholesterol, 329 milligrams sodium.
Peach Sauce
Hands on: 5 minutes
Total time: 5 minutes
Makes 1 cup
You can make this up to two days ahead of time.
1 pound peaches, pitted
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, more if needed
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons cognac
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle powder
In the jar of a blender, combine peaches, sugar, vinegar, cognac and chipotle powder. Process until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Per 2-tablespoon serving: 58 calories (percent of calories from fat, 2), 1 gram protein, 13 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, trace fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 2 milligrams sodium.
Peach and Creme Fraiche Pie
Hands on: 20 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes, plus resting time
Serves: 8
Because this isn’t a very sweet pie, I used pate sucree, a sweet pastry crust with a crispy texture, for my pie shell. Generally used for tarts, it can slump a little in the pan so it may not be the prettiest crust for a pie but it’s absolutely delicious, and a nice foil for the fragrance of the peaches and the richness of the creme fraiche.
6 ripe medium peaches, pitted and cut into sixths
1/4 cup granulated sugar plus 2 tablespoons
1/8 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold
4 ounces crème fraiche
1 9-inch pie shell, prebaked for 15 minutes or just until lightly golden
In a medium bowl, combine peaches with 2 tablespoons sugar and half the salt. Mix thoroughly and let sit for 30 minutes. After resting period, drain juices into a small saucepan and boil over high heat three minutes or until reduced to about 1 tablespoon. Pour reduced juice back over peaches.
While peaches are resting, in a small bowl make streusel by combining remaining sugar with flour, butter and remaining salt. Use a pastry blender or forks to cut butter into flour and sugar until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
When peaches are ready, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, combine creme fraiche with remaining sugar. Spread over bottom of prebaked pie shell. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons streusel. Overlap peach slices around perimeter of pie pan, then fill in middle with remaining peaches. Sprinkle the rest of the streusel over the peaches. Bake for 45 minutes or until streusel is golden brown and juices are bubbling. If edge of pie crust browns too quickly, cover with the edge with foil. Serve pie warm or at room temperature.
Per serving: 273 calories (percent of calories from fat, 52), 3 grams protein, 31 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 16 grams fat (8 grams saturated), 28 milligrams cholesterol, 186 milligrams sodium.
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