Sweet Peaches and Pie

The this week is ripe with summer peaches and nectarines. Their fruity fragrance hangs thick around the stands in the late morning heat and if you show up near the end of the market, you can usually get a great deal as farm stalls try to sell the last of their produce.

Farmers from Balakian Farms were selling five pound bags of peaches for five dollars a bag. But when you cart home a big bag of peaches, you’d better have a plan. Mine was to attempt a peach pie, which had a pretty good reception when I brought it to a barbecue over Fourth of July weekend.  

Since peaches were on my mind, so were nectarines, and I thought, why don’t people ever make nectarine pie? Nectarines, which are mistaken more often than not for being their ‘own’ fruit, are actually just peaches without the fuzz. They are bred from a recessive gene, the fuzzy peach being the dominant gene. They are sometimes known as the ‘shaved peach’ or are thought to be a cross between a peach and a plum. It seems to me that there is no reason not to make a nectarine pie. But I already had my peaches. And mine were yellow clingstones.

While there are hundreds of different peach varieties, there are basically two different types of peaches, freestone and clingstone. Freestone means that the flesh separates easily from the pit and clingstones, you guessed it, mean the flesh clings tightly to the pit. Both types come in either white or yellow flesh, the white being slightly sweeter and less acidic.

California grows 65 percent of peaches in the United States, the majority of the rest are grown in Georgia, South Carolina and Washington State. The peach harvest in California is at its peak from May through August.

Both Hidden Star Orchards, a farm we featured this year , and Balakian Farms have wonderful certified organic peaches and nectarines available right now. Balakian Farms is a family owned farm from Reedly, California. They produce peaches, as well as heirloom tomatoes, plums, pluots, grapes, pomegranates, onions and heirloom squash on land they’ve kept in the family for more than 75 years. The Ginger and John Balakian run the farm with Ginger's parents John and Stella, who inherited land from Ginger's grandfather, originally from Armenia. The great-grandkids are now active participants in the farm, especially during this time of year, harvest season.

Tips for peaches: It is best to store your peaches at room temperature, do not put them in the fridge, you will lose some of the flavor. Peaches do not ripen if left out. Choose peaches that are firm without bruises.

Summer Peach Pie

Ingredients:

• 6 fresh peaches
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 Tbs fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tbs butter
• 1/8 cup flower
• 1 recipe double pie crust

Directions:

Slice peaches and sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix sugar, butter (while cold) and flour until it forms a crumbly consistency. Arrange half of peach slices in a layer in the pie crust. Sprinkle half of sugar mixture on top. Layer again with the rest of the peaches, sprinkle the rest of sugar mixture on top. Arrange second half of crust in a criss-cross pattern on top of pie.