I strolled through the Wednesday Greenmarket at Union Square today. The only good thing about this heat was the fragrance emanating from the warm peaches. They smelled amazing!
So I picked out six peaches from overflowing table at the Kernan Farms tent and brought them home. The photo above is my very first peach of the summer!
If this one is any indication of how the 2014 Peach Season is going to be, then we are very lucky indeed. My peach was sweet and so juicy that I had to eat it over the sink. James had one too, and his was equally delicious. Peaches are my very favorite non-tropical fruit, and I’m angling for James t0 make me a peach pie this holiday weekend. (Speaking of pies, have you entered my First Prize Pies cookbook giveaway? Get to it!)
I tend to think of peaches as being a North American fruit, but they were originally cultivated in China, and then Persia, and finally on to Europe, all at relatively similar latitudes. According to our friends at Wikipedia, the Spaniards brought peaches to North America in the 1600’s, where we promptly turned them into pies and preserves (I made up that last historical tidbit, but it only makes sense. Am I right, Georgia?)
The other thing I love about peaches, in addition to their flavor and multiple textures — you have to bite through the fuzzy skin to get to the soft peachy part — is the fact that they look beautiful in any bowl in your kitchen.
Sun-warmed peaches, a glass of iced mint tea, and I’m in summertime heaven!
~Karen Seiger, Markets of New York City
Kernan Farms Peaches at the Union Square Greenmarket
Piles of Sweet Peaches from Kernan Farms