The best peaches
Now that we are really into the swing of summer, some of the people on my Twitter feed are starting to exclaim over the good peaches that are starting to show up at their local stores. My personal favorite peaches come from Frog Hollow Farm, which is just outside San Francisco.
One of my Twitter friends lives down there, and she just bought her first batch of Frog Hollow Farms peaches. I am really jealous, because up here in Washington we don't usually get Frog Hollow Farms and other premium peach brands until later in the summer. Mid-July, or thereabouts.
Obviously there are plenty of crap peaches at the store all summer long. They are about the size of a racquet ball, and either rock hard or half rotten with saggy dark spots and a shabby looking fuzz. Their cousins the nectarines fare little better, but at least they have the benefit of not looking linty like the peaches.
Unfortunately the qualities that make a good peach are the very same qualities which make that peach almost impossible to ship. It should be ripened on the tree (thus has a very short shelf life). It should be high in sugar (thus more susceptible to fungal, bacterial, and insect threats). And it should have a delicate skin, not the leathery skins you find on easy-to-ship varieties.
For the most part, these factors conspire to keep good peaches local. (But not entirely: the year I lived in Atlanta, I didn't find a single decent peach at the store, despite it literally being the state's logo. Apparently all the good Georgia peaches are shipped overseas where they sell for a small fortune.)
When hunting peaches, first check for farmstands and farmer's markets in your area. Even if you don't grow peaches in your specific zone, there may be peaches from orchards elsewhere in your state that are represented at the market. Next check high-end grocery stores whose clientele are more willing to pay $4 for a piece of hand fruit. Start the hunt now: peaches are ripe from now through the end of August. And so totally worth the extra cost and trouble!
Image courtesy Flickr/Ozgurmulazimoglu