Growing up, peaches were luxury fruit beyond my family's budget. Not grown in Indonesia, we used to ogle these huge fuzzy pink-yellow balls imported from China, stack neatly behind a glass case inside the upscale grocery stores in bigger cities than my hometown. In my tiny hometown, we never saw peaches. The most expensive imported fruit we'd drool over would be Sunkist oranges. Sometimes, Red (not)Delicious apples.
In our family, we consume copious quantities of oh-so-generic mangoes, bananas, soursops, guavas, jackfruit, tangerines, star fruit, that Mom bought at the open air market stalls. I used to daydream about how those peaches must have tasted: crisp, crunchy, juicy, sweet tart - all the characteristics of tropical fruit I was used to consuming.
When I finally sank my teeth into my first peach (yes, here in the USA, about 12 yrs ago) I was surprised at how soft the peach flesh was. The heady scent, the sweet juice, so unlike what I'd imagined. It was love at first bite!
The past few years, hubby and I have been enjoying ripe local peaches every summer. We buy quarts of peaches at the Farmers' Market every week from AgriBerry, Schepp's produce stand, Thistledown Farms, or pre-order Henley's Orchard peaches from the Victory Farms. At home and at the restaurant, we're so peachy for a few weeks. We eat them fresh, slice and toss them into salad with pecans and goat cheese, make jams, bake them into an upside down cake, blend in smoothies, slice and smother it in Greek yogurt and drizzle with Alfredo Honey, or on a lazy morning I'd make crepes and stuff them with fresh peaches. Life is peachy good...
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