Peach heaven

June 10, 2009 - 8:01 AM by Jessica

peaches We’ve reached a major milestone in our garden; the peach tree — we thought it was a nectarine tree, but it’s actually a peach tree — is bearing fruit and we can finally eat these miniature peaches, because our orla period has passed.

Having never had my very own fruit tree, except for the ant-ridden crabapple tree in my childhood backyard, I’m feeling positively overwhelmed by this experience. The branches of the tree are literally laden with fruit, and we finally took some time to pick as much of the fruit as we could reach, before the birds and bugs preempted us.

Now we’re laden with these fuzzy, rosy orbs, chopping and freezing the ripe ones and ripening the green ones, and planning on a whole load of peach-related desserts, from ice cream and frozen yogurt to crumbles, brown betties and shortcakes. (I use two different cookbooks for my crumble and brown betty recipes, Molly Katzen’s Still Life With Menu and Cook’s Illustrated, which makes a happy science out of figuring out the best way to make anything.)

We’ve left one branch kind of hanging over the fence that is passed by several neighbors, letting them benefit from our bounty. We benefit from their lemon tree, they pick from our passionfruit vine and now peach tree. It’s a kind of a suburban version of pe’ah, the biblical exhortation to leave agricultural gifts.

Now we’re just waiting for the limes.

Share with others