["Open Mike" is the often off-topic Editorial page of TOP, in which Yr. Hmbl. Ed. wanders in fields not his own. It's supposed to appear on Wednesdays.]
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Dave Standish picking "Standish Selects"
They say you learn something new every day. And boy is that true. Here I am, 62 years old, and, until recently, I never even knew what peaches taste like.
True, I have long been glancingly familiar with those dissected corpses of long-dead peaches embalmed in syrup, entombed in cans on the shelves of supermarkets. All along, in fact, I thought that's what a peach was. And that produce-section peaches were what peaches tasted like.
Is that ever wrong.
A few weeks ago I got a bag of small yellow just-picked peaches in a paper bag from a neighbor, and I confess I did not appreciate the significance of the gift at first. They turned out to be entirely unlike anything I was previously familiar with: loaded with juice, melt-in-your-mouth, with a heavenly texture and a chorus of light, complex, delicate flavors. Heavenly. I ate one after another after another. I've never cared for peaches much, but that's because I never had peaches like those.
Then I read about white peaches. In her essential book Eating on the Wild Side (a must-have for those who eat), Jo Robinson says, "choose peaches and nectarines by their background color, not their blush. When white-fleshed peaches and nectarines are ripe, they have a creamy white background with little or no trace of green.
"There are also ways to choose some of the most nutritious peaches and nectarines in the store, even when the varietal names are not mentioned. Simply choose white-fleshed varieties rather than yellow-fleshed varieties—another exception to the shop-by-color rule[*]. Lab studies show that you would have to eat six yellow-fleshed Flavorcrest peaches to get the same antioxidant benefits as in one white-fleshed Snow King. The same is true for nectarines. The white-fleshed nectarine Bright Pearl has six times more antioxidants than the yellow May Glo. The white varieties are sweeter as well. (The added sugar in the sweeter peaches is not enough to cause a significant rise in blood sugar.) If you do nothing more than choose white peaches and nectarines over the yellow varieties, you will gain a nutritional edge" [page 280].
Honey too
I've told you before about my friend Dave up the hill. My many-times great-grandfather, William Bradford, and Dave's many-times great-grandfather, Myles Standish, came across the ocean together, from England, in a leaky old merchant ship called the Mayflower. Now he and I are neighbors and friends, and frankly I think I get the better end of that deal.
This past weekend was a mournful time of year...the end of green-bean season. I love green beans. Sad-face emoji. The broccoli and Brussels sprouts are still going strong, so there is consolation.
I've learned that the end of green bean season is generally the end of peach season too, so I stopped by Dave's yesterday to see if he had any more peaches, and I asked him if he knew about white peaches.
Know about them? He grows them. There's a fruit-tree orchard out in the fields behind his house. Years ago he gifted a friend in New Jersey a bundle of white peach saplings, and later the same friend came to visit him here in New York and repaid him with a gift of twenty saplings of the same varietal, descendants of the earlier gift. It's an old heirloom white peach called Iron Mountain. Dave grows them completely organically. Not only have these peaches not been sprayed this year, but the trees have never been sprayed in their lifetimes. "I've been incredibly lucky," Dave said. I gather that means that he would spray if he had to to save the trees, but he has never had to.
To fight off deer, Dave takes the bag from the household vacuum cleaner and scatters the contents in the field around his orchard. The deer catch the scent of Chester, Dave's enormous and now ancient chocolate Labrador, and will not come across the line. He also has old Compact Disks on strings here and there—deer don't like fluttery, flashing things. He says they also don't like the color blue.
Jo Robinson says of heirloom peaches, "At the turn of the nineteenth century, Americans could choose from hundreds of varieties of peaches. Most of them are now extinct; all that is left is their glowing descriptions...." Farmers like Dave, committed to diversity, help keep rare varieties viable.
Anyway, when I asked Dave if he had any peaches left, he didn't go into the house—we went right out to the orchard, and Dave got up on a stepladder and started picking peaches. When he found a particularly nice one, he set it aside for me, joking that those ones were "Standish Selects." The rest went into a basket. He picked me a combination of ripe and not-quite ripe ones so I could feast on peaches for days. Which I have been happily doing. Several will go into my morning smoothie as soon as I finish writing this, too. (I have a bagful of peaches.)
The same goes for honey. Dave is also a beekeeper (among some of his friends, he is known by the nickname "Honeybee Dave"), and on another recent visit he greeted me by saying "want some honey?" as he thrust a jar of honey into my outstretched hand. Big deal, right?
But oh boy. When I finally got around to trying it, I was amazed. Again, I thought I knew what "honey" is and what it tastes like—it comes in little plastic containers shaped like a bear, it's clear, and it's bland. Dave's honey is another thing altogether. It has a distinctive, complex flavor that is absolutely wonderful. (I already used the word "heavenly.") Of course—typically—Dave makes sure the adjacent fields have plenty of the wild plants the bees (and he) favor, in this case a local trefoil, a kind of clover. As I was leaving with my peaches, he disappeared into the house and emerged with another jar of honey, saying, "this will taste different. Fall honey has different nectar sources, aster and goldenrod."
Dave's beehives
So anyway, my opinion is that people should beware of being fooled by canned peaches in the supermarket. Nothing wrong with those—eating them is much better than eating bready things laden with sugary goo that come in boxes—but they do not fairly display the manifold felicities of the fruit known as the peach. I think everyone should start eating organically-grown heirloom white peaches, picked ripe right off the tree by their neighbor up the road; I'm telling you, the popularity of peaches would soar.
Could be I'm just lucky.
Mike
(Thanks to Dave)
*Generally, darker-colored and stronger-colored fruits and vegetables are better for you.
Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
John Krumm: "Good fresh fruit like that is a little like a religious experience. Everyone just kind of nods and files you away as a zealot as you try to explain how delicious it was. I spent the first ten years of my childhood in a rented farmhouse in California's central valley. We had an amazing peach tree that produced more than we could eat. Our neighbors had pomegranate trees. Never found pomegranate fruit in stores that tasted as good. In late summer my dad would head out with a friend to 'glean' the leftover ripe cantaloupe in the fields (those were truly amazing). So I share your enthusiasm, and you are indeed lucky."
Eamon Hickey: "I demand a picture of Chester."
Mike replies:
Chester has been in a bad way for most of the past year, but somehow he keeps bouncing back. He's very old for such a large dog—I think he's 15? I think Dave said he weighed 110 lbs. when he was young. (I'll have to check these numbers.) Dave said he was the ideal farm dog, patrolling the territory, chasing the deer, keeping watch, protecting the chickens. The last time I saw him he didn't lift his head when I greeted him, but he recognized me. This is a recent pic.
Keith: "As a child visiting my grandparents, we got milk, cream, and butter essentially straight from the cow. Honey from bees visiting clover. Home baked bread. Fresh veggies from the garden in season. Apples and pears from the orchard. I didn't know how good we had it.
"Honey can be anything from a pale off white, to dark amber, with the liquid consistency varying from thin and runny to thick, and then we get into the best of it, when it's mostly crystallized but still has a bit of liquid in it. The different flavours are amazing."
Jan Steinman: "Thank you for this topic! I am a small non-certified organic grower. We specialize in the 'weird and wonderful,' and have some 37 different varieties of tomatoes, two dozen varieties of peppers, about 40 varieties of apples, five varieties of pears…you get the idea. We mix tiny bags of uniquely coloured heritage cherry tomatoes for our local market, and many people say, 'I never tasted anything like this before!' It is so sad that food has become a commodity, developed mainly for the ability to withstand long-distance shipping, when it should be a local delightful treat. Keep seeking out local farmers who grow open-pollinated 'heritage' varieties!"
As to peaches, we are blessed here in florida by a ridiculously long peach season. First the local ones, then the Georgia ones and then the South Carolina ones...my favorites, all at a farmer's market just down the road.
As to bees, there is an added benefit from local honey as it helps you fight plant/pollen allergies from local plants. A true win-win.
Posted by: James Weekes | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 12:34 PM
"Could be I'm just lucky"
You certainly are. What a wonderful place where you live.
I'm about your age, Mike, and your description of the flavour of white peaches reminded me of my childhood. I was very lucky in those days and remember peaches, honey and milk. Oh the milk! Unfortunately that's all gone now. Maybe I should consider moving to the Finger Lakes when I am pensioned?
Posted by: Andrew J. | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 01:14 PM
It's not just canned fruit that is flavor deprived. The so-called "fresh fruit" in the supermarkets has been generally lousy---with local exceptions---for decades.
Fully ripe yellow peaches have been unavailable in supermarkets here in Southern California for at least 40 years. Same with apricots.
The last full-flavored apricot I had was about 1969. It came from a former back yard tree in a vacant lot in L.A.
Posted by: Keith B. | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 01:51 PM
Just an observation: it appears your image of Dave on the ladder was taken from a much closer position than was the image of Dave’s bees. Can’t argue with that logic.
Posted by: John Edinburgh | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 02:14 PM
For me, fresh peaches are a summertime weakness. Thanks to a thriving locavore movement, our farmer's market is outstanding in the variety and quality of produce available. Unfortunately, the local peach crop was stilted because of weather. Peaches disappeared several weeks ago.
Still we have plenty of fresh-picked pears and apples, and a lone vendor was still selling green beans last Saturday.
Posted by: William Schneider | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 02:37 PM
Sorry, Mike, I know that as a non-native-speaker I'm not in the best place to do that, but may I propose you a slight sentence reformulation?
In "people should beware of being fooled by canned peaches in the supermarket", you might get rid of "canned peaches in".
(Oh, sorry for the french quotes)
Posted by: Nikojorj | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 02:41 PM
I have the same feeling about real, fresh, in-season stone fruit; it's not the same thing at all as ones bought off-season at a store.
I remember Neil Gaiman saying some years ago that he had never had a strawberry until he tried one fresh from the plant; all the ones he had previously were clearly a completely different thing.
Posted by: Nick | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 02:42 PM
Farmers Markets with local produce have similar wonderful discoveries. And it's always nice to know the farmer and understand his/her allegiance to plant diversity and wellness. I had a bumper crop of peppers from my garden this year and it was fun trading with local farmers for other produce and local farm eggs. For many years I've been buying local honey directly from bee keepers. They can explain a lot about honey and its uniqueness to the time of year and the local flowers.
Posted by: David L. | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 02:44 PM
We got a peach plant from a neighbour a few years ago. This year we had our first peaches. Never had such a juicy peach. Totally ruined my shirt. But the taste made it worth it.
Posted by: Christer Almqvist | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 03:05 PM
Dude, you're so far removed from actual, real food I thought you were going to write that cows only come in Milka violet color. Or that chocolate milk comes from brown cows and low fat from skinny white ones.
Posted by: Jernej | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 03:06 PM
I sorely miss the days when New Jersey farmers came over to row-house Philly, to sell us their truly fresh and tasty fruits and vegetables. As they drove through our block's driveway, they would holler out what they had available, in a voice that carried all the way to the next block. Supermarket fruits and vegetables are selected for "durability." What's good for long-haul transportation is diametrically opposed to flavor and nutrition. That's why I grow my own tomatoes and greens, and patronize a local small farmer who promises his vegetables are chemical-free. (He doesn't say "organic." Having to meet organic standards would mean lowering his.)
Posted by: MikeR | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 03:10 PM
Tomatoes have this nature too.
Posted by: psu | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 03:41 PM
Canned peaches are to peaches as canned tuna is to fresh off the boat tuna. This is true of any canned "food".
Always try for fresh veges and fruit in season.
Joe
Posted by: SLOjoe | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 03:48 PM
Puree enough fresh peaches for two cups, add them to two cups of plain yogurt along with a teaspoon of good vanilla, blend it and throw it into a Cuisinart ice cream maker and stand by for a treat.
If you need it sweeter add sugar but that sort of defeats the purpose of using quality peaches. It drowns out some of their flavor.
Posted by: Mike Plews | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 04:15 PM
Mike, fwiw, canning your own fruit for the off-season will give you a preserved fruit flavour unlike any you’ve bought in a supermarket. In our small orchard we’ve way more pears and apples than we can eat fresh, but cored and peeled and “cold-canned” with half a bean or stick of vanilla or cinnamon reveals a flavour that’ll surprise the whole off-season.
Posted by: Marc Lawrence-Howe | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 04:41 PM
I've mostly given up on fruit, sadly. My mother was from southern California, so she knew how to recognize a lot of kinds of fruit when it was ripe, and I got pretty good fruit at home, and even better fruit when we visited around where she grew up. It's been a lot more of a mixed bag, and I've been disappointed too often, since then.
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 04:47 PM
Reminds me of the Jerry Seinfeld episode about the Macinaw peaches....
Posted by: kirk tuck | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 04:48 PM
Funny you should mention that! My own "many-times great-grandfather, William Bradford, and Dave's many-times great-grandfather, Myles Standish, came across the ocean together, from England, in a leaky old merchant ship called the Mayflower. Now he and I are neighbors and friends, and frankly I think I get the better end of that deal."
The only thing is that "my" Mark Standish, though he also grows and shares his own pesticide free vegetables, is an accomplished aircraft engine and airframe specialist. For three years he had the final say on whether or not a just-refurbished commercial airliner was fit to carry passengers again. That was a while back, but just seven weeks ago he was Crew Chief for the team that took Jet Gold at the annual Reno National Championship Air Races, making them (once again) the absolute fastest airplane in that competition! He earns his living keeping BMWs and Mercedes automobiles in tip-top condition and does the same for my (cough) 17 year old Subaru.
Thanks for the tips on peaches, Mike, I can hardly wait!
Thomas Turnbull
Posted by: Thomas Turnbull | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 04:53 PM
Sadly, I've forgotten where I read or heard a perfect-looking yet flavorless fruit--typical of a certain upscale grocery store chain--described as "notional", but the adjective is so apt that I think of it every time I'm in a supermarket produce section.
Posted by: robert e | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 05:04 PM
Mid-October is still peach season in upstate New York? Weird. I was hoping for an article about apples. Ancient apple trees on derelict farms in Ontario have some of the best, if possibly forgotten, flavors in them.
Posted by: Mark | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 05:48 PM
Aah, Mike, peaches...
I'm happy for your peach, and honey, experience!
( I live in Sweden, so our (imported) varieties are probably different.)
The very tasty peaches, slightly greenish in the flesh, of my childhood are sadly gone, today's slightly yellowish ones are sweeter but have less aroma.
But, of course, a fruit picked ripe from the tree is ways more aromatic!
Honey...
Try honey from heather.
- * -
Brussels sprouts - my favourite:
Melt a little butter (only enough to whet the sprouts),
Roll the sprouts in it,
Add a little salt and crushed rosemary while rolling,
Add just a little water and steam until al dente - 10-15 min depending on size.
Enjoy!
( Or, just put them fresh in the micro oven on half power until ready - gives a very fresh taste.)
Posted by: Kristian Wannebo | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 05:50 PM
Here in the southwest we look forward to getting Palisade Peaches from western Colorado. Oh, so good! Yeah, really, Colorado.
Posted by: DavidB | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 06:24 PM
Mike:
Until you have had a Georgia-grown, yellow-orange to red varietal known as the "Elberta", you have not had the penultimate peach. You normally won't find them in the stores, because their shelf life is very short. I promise, they are the very best!
Posted by: Dennis Mullis | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 07:39 PM
Living in major farm country it is nice to drive by a field of peas and pick a batch to eat like candy - sweet right from the vine. Neighbors grow them and we are OK to do so. How much damage can one guy do to a 600 acre field? A lot of bee keepers with hives all over the place for the crop pollination.
Fresh beans, sunflowers and corn along with wheat and soybeans and flax and such. Our own garden with berries and vegetables supplemented by what we fill out at the local Farmers Markets. Nice to get fresh food - our meat from neighbors who ranch and butcher their own. Then, the moose, elk, deer, ducks and geese. Not bad at all.
Peaches, cherrie and Avocados? Have to have that stuff brought in as our area along the Canadian border it just doesn't grow.
Posted by: Daniel | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 09:05 PM
I prefer lemons to honey. Here's a green lemon.
Someday soon it will be yellow. And very sour— great with Matcha green tea or baked fish.
Both shot in someones backyard. The first with an iPhone SE, and the second with an iPhone Xs.
Both cropped in Photos, then processed with Pixelmator Pro.
Posted by: c.d.embrey | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 10:04 PM
For years I thought I hated pineapple, but the only pineapple I'd ever eaten was on banana splits, and I could never figure out why they bothered with the canned pineapple goo when they could have given more chocolate syrup. Anyway, one day when I was in my 20s I had fresh pineapple. Oh wow.
I love peaches, but I'm allergic. I can't tell you how much this upsets me.
I'm 66 and have never gone more than a day or two without multiple fresh fruit, most often cantaloupe and apples. I know people who never eat fresh fruit, boggles my mind.
Posted by: Robert Roaldi | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 10:44 PM
Peach pie with crumb topping is an August favorite in our household, some years even shared with neighbors. This morning, though, I had a Braeburn apple from a 4 in 1 tree (4 different varieties grafted on one root stock) I planted a few years ago. There was a freshness, complexity, and just a touch of sweetness to the taste, miles away from anything purchased in the supermarket or health food store. So I know whereof you speak.
Posted by: Anthony Reczek | Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at 11:30 PM
I was expecting an exegesis on the album of the same name by the Allman Brothers Band.
[Never heard it, believe it or not! Although I've probably heard songs from it on the radio. --Mike]
Posted by: Chuck Albertson | Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 01:49 AM
Good story, glad you are enjoying fresh and natural produce. Here in Portugal, my favourite honey is sold in the farmers market of Vila Nova de Milfontes, in the Alentejo coast. It is a "bitter honey" coming from the Arbutus tree. Which reminds me, the Arbutus fruit (medronho in Portuguese) is about be in season!
Posted by: Paulo Bizarro | Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 04:04 AM
I hope you get your eggs from the chickens Chester is protecting. There is no comparison between supermarket eggs and real free range ones. I’m an ex-beekeeper, duck ex-keeper and chicken ex-keeper, can’t beat home-grown!
As a child we never had ‘bought’ fruit except bananas since we had apples, pears, plums, cherries in the not so very large garden. Apples (Cox’s Orange Pippin’s) were stored through the winter wrapped in newspaper in the loft (roof space) and though they got softer the flavour intensified.
[Dave's chickens are pampered indeed. They have a coop and an outdoor pen and Dave goes to great lengths to feed them extremely well. I don't eat eggs any more but I used to get eggs from Dave and you're right, they were very good. --Mike]
Posted by: Richard Parkin | Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 05:08 AM
Hi Mike,
From the photos I've seen of your house, it looks like you have enough space to plant one or two of those peach saplings yourself. But then, I know nothing about maintaining trees or saplings. Still, just wondering.
Glad to see you enjoying some good fruit. :-)
Regards,
Aashish
[I'm not sure I have time to grow my own trees just to eat peaches! --Mike]
Posted by: Aashish Sharma | Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 07:22 AM
Reminds me the album by Allman Brothers Band :-)
Posted by: Marcelo Guarini | Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 08:14 AM
I grew up in NYC and lived in the NY suburbs until two years ago when we moved to NW Connecticut. This area, although only 80 miles from NYC is surprisingly rural with many small farms - dairy and vegetable - and a surprising variety of fresh produce. I have become addicted to all of the fresh fruit that is grown locally after being indifferent to same for many (I'm 77) years. It's nice to make new discoveries, no matter how small, at my age
Posted by: Peter | Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 09:14 AM
Atrue story on this theme:
Like Mike, I was never into peaches, nectarines, or similar fruit. A few years ago, while visiting Seattle, I went to the incredible Pike Place Public Market which has vendors with legendary displays of fresh fruit and vegetables from Eastern Washington. There was a vendor handing out samples of fresh nectarines the size of softballs. A truly beautiful young businesswoman in her 30's bought a nectarine and took a large bite out of it while standing there. The juice from the nectarine overflowed her mouth, ran down her chin, and dripped onto her blouse. Then she started moaning, "Oh my GOD! Oh my GOD!! This is sooooo incredible!!"
So, of course, I said......wait for it.....wait for it...."I'll have what she's having"!! 😜
Posted by: Steve Rosenblum | Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 09:59 AM
In my fifties, I tried growing fruit trees in our Long Island backyard. I bought a peach and a plum tree from a finger lakes nursery. I worked hard, I thought, at maintaining them. I sprayed and fertilized, but never got a peach. Squirrels and birds always got there first. We’re I smart, I would have got netting.
But I did succeed at tomatoes, for the most part.
I love string beans, tried to find the French cut, but failed. And those I did grow we’re plentiful but not very good, growing large lumpy, and tough.
This year, our neighbor gave us beans from her backyard, an Asian variety much like the French cut that I love, only quite long, up to seven to eight inches. She also instructed us to cook them for two minutes, then plunge them into cold water. They were delicious! It’s nice to have neighbors who know what they’re doing.
Fred
Posted by: Fred Haynes | Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 02:31 PM
We grow heirloom tomatoes (my wife is the tomato mistress) a bunch of herbs and a fair amount of garlic. (Two years ago I grew about 1000 garlic sets on a friend’s farm ... I’ve since scaled back due to aging body.) Heirloom tomatoes make store bought tomatoes seem like ... canned, syrupy peaches. OK, not the flavour profile, but the difference. And even better, there seems to be no end of heirloom varieties. I just discovered a new one this Summer, grown by my good friend Vicki Emlaw of Vicki’s Veggies (https://vickisveggies.weebly.com/) in Prince Edward County, Ontario, that blew my mind.
And now I want to plant some peach trees.
Posted by: Earl Dunbar | Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 08:10 PM
I can't believe that you've missed out for so long! Please do yourself a favour, and try apricots, nectarines, all the varieties of plums that you can get your hands on, and of course cherries. Summer fruit is some of the best eating that you'll ever have. There's nothing like it!
Posted by: Dillan | Friday, 18 October 2019 at 09:42 AM
Looks like I'm late to the peach party, but my grandmothers farm in Virginia had many peach trees, and grabbing them off the tree (or the ones that had just dropped to the ground) were delicious. I'd eat several in one sitting.
And Mike, you have these amazing black raspberries in your neck of the woods (literally)---I can't remember what they're called, but it's completely worth finding a nice large patch and bringing a bucket to pick. I've had many fresh (wild) berries across the country, and these are my favorites (Virginia huckleberries and New England wild blueberries come in second).
Good eating! (BTW, my Hawaiian friends tell me I've never had a pineapple...).
Posted by: Jim K | Friday, 18 October 2019 at 09:53 AM