Wednesday, August 11, 2021

The Perfect Peach


If you prefer your fruit cold or canned, I can’t help you, and there’s nothing for you to see here, so click or scroll away to something more satisfying. But before you go, in the name of the goddess Pomona and all that is botanically holy, take those bananas out of the refrigerator—and the tomatoes, for crying out loud, if you’ve stashed them there. No tomatoes in the fridge. Ever.

Where was I?

Peaches. I have a peach tree. I didn’t plant it. It was here when I moved in. How lucky am I? And I dare say, on far more than one occasion, I have been blessed to find the perfect peach.

When I’m picking, I search only for ripeness. If the fruit, ever so gently impressed by my thumb, gives way, the globe is plucked.


During a brief shower for each peach individually (just to rinse the dust off—no chemical sprays to be concerned with here), if a single peach (or perhaps two…probably three) is discovered that may fit all my criteria, it is placed to the side to be consumed immediately, while it is still fully infused with the sweet warmth of the sun, its color alone a reflection of the sunrise in its perfect balance of rose and gold hues.



A sharp knife will glide through such a peach, the two halves falling away from each other as if relieved at their release. A slight tug, and the skin, thin as a gossamer veil, will lift away, leaving the pale flesh exposed and inviting.


To have such a peace in hand, to bite into a season’s worth of good health and joy and pleasure, unencumbered by bowl or utensil, the nectar sliding through one's fingers, is a sublime experience indeed.

 

4 comments:

  1. Oh, man! Nothing like fresh fruit. We used to have a wolf river apple tree in back that would produce good apples (albeit, better for pies.) We have a couple apple trees now but the apples they bare are better pie apples. :/ BUT! My favorite story about fresh fruit is this. The summer after I was in fourth grade, we took a big western driving trip. We went to a lot of awesome places, the Badlands, the Columbia river gorge, the Pacific ocean, boulder hot springs, etc. We also went to a woman's house who used to work with my dad at the station. She lived in the shadow of mount rainier... Well, when we got there all her Mount Rainier cherry trees were coming ripe. She had a ladder so that we could go up and pick them right off the tree. OMG... The best fruit ever! They were bursting with flavor, so juicy and sweet! I could have eaten those until they were coming out my ears!
    So, yes, fresh fruit is the best. MMMMMMMM
    Thanks for the post, and reminding me of those cherries!
    Love you! :) <3
    Scott

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Scott, I couldn't agree more heartily about Mt. Rainier cherries! They're the best! I had never heard of them until a couple summers ago. A friend bought a bag and shared them with me. Oh my goodness! She said, "Once you've had a Rainier cherry, nothing else will be good enough." Well, I don't know about all that--I do love fresh cherries. But those Mt. Rainier cherries will always be the best. Thanks for sharing!
      Love you!

      Delete
  2. Lovely, Kay. We have an old peach planted before we lived here, by Kath's dad. It gave us chin-dripping peached for a long time, but now the tree is so old the peaches never ripen, are hard as rocks when they should be rips. So I'll have to imagine eating from your tree, if I can sneak one from the counter or from a branch into my imagination.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Art, that's the trouble with fruit trees; they only last 20-30 years, and then they slowly diminish. Most people become so sentimentally attached to their old trees (as I would), they don't remove them and start over. Starting over is always challenging, isn't it? In all things....

      Delete