stevez wrote:

Marija wrote:I bought a box of peaches today but am unsure how to proceed since they are quite hard. Do you just ripen them all on the counter?

Yes. A couple days on the counter and things will be "peachy" in more ways then one.

Although I've never tried this myself (maybe someone can confirm or deny this), but you may be able to keep some of them refrigerated, and ripen as needed.

I think you're right. It's my understanding and limited experience that for fruits that continue ripening after picking (climacteric fruits; I forgot the term and had to look it up again), refrigeration slows (but does not completely stop) ripening, so if you have a lot of them, you can ripen some on the counter and hold the others in the fridge, taking them out in stages. You just have to guard against them drying out if they're in the fridge too long.

The Tree-Ripe brochure and the website and the guys on the truck recommend letting the peaches "get soft" for a couple of days on the counter and then moving them to the fridge to retard quick spoilage.

Once the peaches are ready to eat, it is surprising how they just seem to disappear so quickly. Magic peaches.

Marija wrote:I bought a box of peaches today but am unsure how to proceed since they are quite hard. Do you just ripen them all on the counter?

the suggested directions IIRC were
to place the peaches on a towel covered table in a dark and cool room. be sure they are not touching each other.

In the past, refrigerating first proved to be a mistake. As posted above, fully ripen on the counter, then refrigerate. In previous years, I’ve been able to keep fully ripe peaches in the fridge for over a week with no loss of quality.

By the way, for some reason this year’s haul took longer to ripen than in the past: 3-4 days, at least. YMMV

OK. Out of the refrigerator. Thanks.

I was hoping to find a smaller amount at the truck but it looks like I'd have to get up to Wisconsin to get the smaller bags. In any event, I'm going to try and hit the Clyborn stop on 8/3 and wondering if anyone has any ideas on what two people can do with 25lbs of peaches?

I'm thinking we'd eat a bunch of course, take some to the office to share, grilling some, maybe some quick pies or cobblers in ramekins, peach preserves, but was also thinking about pickling a bunch. Anyone have a great pickling recipe for these things? I don't want any to go to waste but it is just two of us.

j0emv wrote:I was hoping to find a smaller amount at the truck but it looks like I'd have to get up to Wisconsin to get the smaller bags. In any event, I'm going to try and hit the Clyborn stop on 8/3 and wondering if anyone has any ideas on what two people can do with 25lbs of peaches?

1. Split the box with a friend or two
2. Take some to your Mama or other family members
3. Can or freeze what you don’t immediately use.

Juice and ferment to make a perry.

@j0emv: I'd happily split a case of peaches with you. PM if interested.

@anyone who visited the truck on 7/13: their website lists current availability as 25lbs of peaches for $40, 5lbs of blueberries for $18, and 1lb of shelled pecans for $12. Does this sound accurate?

And if so. . .anyone want 2.5lbs of blueberries?

I've never heard of pickled peaches. I would freeze them. Here's a link with instructions. There are also instructions for canning on the same page.

Katie wrote:I've never heard of pickled peaches.

Pickled peaches are available in Chicago area supermarkets, especially around Thanksgiving. They are typically labeled "spiced" peaches and are more sweet than piquant. Walmart carries the Margaret Holmes brand.

There's just two of us and we manage to make it through a box with no problem. We eat *a lot* of them over the sink. There might be some muffins made. Ice cream for sure. Maybe pie or cobbler. Some will be frozen.

@ Bok Choy Jr. - we also have no problem with the blueberries. They freeze very well!

Last year I froze a lot - some I did peeled and mixed with sugar for pie filling, in a freezer bag, others I did sliced and un-speeled on trays. After they partially froze, I popped them into a bag as well (tossing it around a bit after they all froze thoroughly to discourage sticking together). The chunks with skin were just fine in smoothies and on overnight oats.

You can do small amounts of jam - one year I did a tremendous spiced peach butter, which I will likely do again (I was planning to just eat them, but the dog counter surfed and chewed on them, so I had about a dozen with bites I had to cut out and do something with quickly).

The fresh ones are yummy grilled - just wash and cut in 1/2, remove the pit. I start them skin-side down, then flip them.

I tried one I picked up on Friday. I don't think they are quite ready yet.

nr706 wrote:Juice and ferment to make a perry.

Or macerate and make peach shrub (sometimes known as "drinking vinegar"

gastro gnome wrote:I tried one I picked up on Friday. I don't think they are quite ready yet.

I had one last night, also procured on Friday. It was soft enough and had that telltale peach skin aroma but it lacked sweetness.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

gastro gnome wrote:I tried one I picked up on Friday. I don't think they are quite ready yet.

I had one last night, also procured on Friday. It was soft enough and had that telltale peach skin aroma but it lacked sweetness.

=R=

Exactly, I'm hoping another day or two brings the sweetness. If this is as sweet as they get then it will be a real disappointment in comparison to previous years.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

gastro gnome wrote:I tried one I picked up on Friday. I don't think they are quite ready yet.

I had one last night, also procured on Friday. It was soft enough and had that telltale peach skin aroma but it lacked sweetness.

=R=

Mine was sweet and a bit of acid today. It was very good.

Four days of ripening on the counter, soft but not close to sweet. Disappointing.

I would say this year's crop was not as good as last year's on average, but I have eaten some very good peaches from this batch. It's still a good price and way better than supermarket peaches.

My understanding is peaches don't get any sweeter as they ripen, just softer which will contribute to a better eating experience.

My sample size is small, but I have found the couple of peaches I've eaten so far to be sufficiently sweet and delicious.

You can get really good peaches at my sisters fruit stand and upick for less than $40. She starts picking her best varieties usually the beginning of August. This summer they might be a few days later because of the cold Spring we had. I just checked her Facebook page, and she does not have peaches yet, and she is done upicking cherries. Red Havens are the most commonly grown in Michigan, and they usually start the beginning of August. Even Red Havens taste better if you don't get the first ones off the tree, but wait a few days. This summer if you wait until August 11th or there about you will probably get fantastic Red Havens. My sister also is a peach breeder, and she has some later varieties that are just as good as Red Haven, such as Allstar, Glowing Star, and a few other varieties. When I went home for a family reunion the middle of August last year, she was selling her peaches at the fruit stand for $32 a half bushel, which is approximately 25 pounds. My sister's fruit stand is called Fruit Acres, and is located at exit 39 off of I-94 in Coloma, Michigan. Her upick is right down the road, and Chocolate Gardens which has wonderful chocolate truffles is also right down the road.

You can also get really good Michigan peaches at the farmer's market starting in a few weeks. Most farmer's will give you a free sample. Please support the local farmers. Hope this helps, Nancy

Marija wrote:Four days of ripening on the counter, soft but not close to sweet. Disappointing.

Sadly, I agree. I've had several from my box and none have been sweet.

botd wrote:My understanding is peaches don't get any sweeter as they ripen, just softer which will contribute to a better eating experience.

This is correct. Here's a passage from From Russ Parsons' How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table, which is a great read, btw . . .

in How To Pick A Peach, Russ Parsons wrote:Maturity is another matter entirely. Although peaches and nectarines do soften and become juicier and more aromatic after harvest, they don’t get any sweeter.

=R=

I've had 4 peaches this morning and they've all had the perfect balance of sweet/acid and a heady aroma -- the Platonic ideal of peach. That said, I'm looking forward to adding some sugar to them in a cobbler tonight.

I'll wait until tomorrow to call it, but the ones I have had have not lived up to previous Georgia peach shipments. Obviously tastes vary and boxes vary. But I'm not too thrilled as I can get this average quality peach locally.

The eating experience of a rock hard peach is sub-optimal in my view. So even if they are not sweetening any on the counter, the eating experience is improving as they soften.

Also, in their email communication, they said that these peaches to be some of the finest they've had in years which heightened my expectations a bit. These could be outliers, but there are at least a few reports here that some of this batch are so-so.

Are they particularly large this year? A couple years ago, the peaches were abnormally small, so there were more in the case. The guy on the truck told me that small ones tended to be sweeter than large ones because all of the "ripening energy", for lack of a better term, has less mass to ripen. That proved to be the case, as the peaches that year were extremely sweet.

stevez wrote:Are they particularly large this year? A couple years ago, the peaches were abnormally small, so there were more in the case. The guy on the truck told me that small ones tended to be sweeter than large ones because all of the "ripening energy", for lack of a better term, has less mass to ripen. That proved to be the case, as the peaches that year were extremely sweet.

Some of them are quite large so that could be part of it.

Most of mine are large. They are also sweet. Just moved them to the fridge and blanched 4 for jam. The one I ate yesterday weighed a smidge over half a pound.

I feel like it is almost a shame to process these versus eating them to hand.

I am already making plans for the next round and hope I can also remember to grab some white peaches from the market, not the truck, for a special preserve also this season that I have not made in years.


—YMMV

gastro gnome wrote:Also, in their email communication, they said that these peaches to be some of the finest they've had in years which heightened my expectations a bit. These could be outliers, but there are at least a few reports here that some of this batch are so-so.

While I — along with everyone I shared with — was very happy with the ones I got in Gurnee in late June, I also saw this claim and expected something monumental. Instead, the peaches were pretty much like always (with a few duds). The only difference I could discern from previous years is the abnormally long ripening time.

I tried one of the smaller peaches from my box today and while it's certainly a bit sweeter than the larger ones I tried, I wouldn't describe it as exceptional, just fine. I'm looking forward to grabbing some Michigan peaches at local farmers markets in the upcoming weeks.

=R=