Readers from around Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana are celebrating a fuzzy fruitful bounty of peaches, ready for late summer picking paradise.
Growing up, from the 1970s through the 1980s, a dedicated peach tree at our farm grew from a discarded peach pit along the concrete wall of our outdoor root cellar and it always yielded a sweet and delicious harvest.
This summer, my oldest sister Carol, with the help her grandsons and her neighbors, have shared what seems like countless bushels of ripe and ready peaches, which will be transformed in peach preserves, as well as cobbler and baked peach crisp.
Reader Anita Pedersen Warren of Park Ridge, Illinois, has also found herself with an over-abundance of peaches from her trees, the heirloom variety “Elberta,” and she asked me to share our peach preserve recipe, which we preserved in our farm files from our late First Lady of the White House, Lady Bird Johnson, a dedicated Texan and advocate of our highway wildflowers before her passing at age 94 in July 2007.
Lady Bird’s recipe for “table peach preserves” includes a hint of vanilla extract, and the recipe is found in my latest published cookbook from 2019 “Back From the Farm: Family Recipes and Memories of a Lifetime” (Pediment Press $34.95).
Reader Kerry Gremp of Lansing, Illinois, said his peach trees are so laden with fruit, he has had to use poles and beams to prop up the branches, all heavy with fruit, to protect the soft tree limbs for cracking.
Fruit basket claim-to-fame shipment company Harry and David rank peaches, always carefully wrapped in tissue, as a treasured fruit favorite and they have the following fuzzy “fun facts” to share as gathered by Brian Good:
* Peaches are excellent source of a very wide range of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, including “copious amounts” of vitamins A, C, E, K, B1, B2, B3, B6, beta-carotene, and folate, as well as minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc
* The peach originated in China and has been cultivated since at least 1000 B.C. It gradually moved to Persia, where it was discovered by Alexander the Great, who in turn brought peach trees home with him to Greece. The scientific name for the peach, Prunus persica, literally means “Persian plum,” and the Romans called the peach a “Persian apple.” The French translated that name to “pêche,” which ultimately led to the English name for the peach today.
* When people first began cultivating their own peach trees in Europe centuries ago, it was common to share abundant crops with family and neighbors who didn’t have them. According to many linguists, receiving this generous gift, combined with the happy, rosy glow people get on their cheeks when they eat the tasty fruit, led to the expression of feeling “peachy” or “peachy keen.” The person giving away the fruit earned the nickname of being “a real peach.”
* The distinct fuzz on a peach is designed to do more than just tickle. It’s there to help protect the fruit from anything that might weaken the tree on which it grows, including insects, animals, diseases, and even blight and blemishes from sun exposure or bad weather.
* In China, the peach is a symbol of good luck, protection, and longevity; in fact, some Chinese brides decorate their hair with peach flowers for their wedding ceremonies. In Korea, the peach is considered a source of “good energy” that can help to drive away evil spirits. And in Hungary, peaches are considered a symbol of calmness and are believed to contain a natural sedative that can help to relieve stress and anxiety and promote high-quality sleep.
When chatting last week with my former newspaper food editor Heather Cygan, who now lives in South Carolina, she said the peaches have been just as plentiful down south.
“You know, South Carolina produces the most peaches in all of the United States,” Heather explained.
Heather lives not far from Savannah, Georgia, with the latter being known as “the peach state.”
Savannah is also home to my food friend Paula Deen, who was kind even to autograph and gift a copy of her latest cooking for me when I paid a visit to her flagship The Lady & Sons Savannah restaurant in October 2020. The inside of her “Paula Deen’s Southern Baking: 125 Favorite Recipes from My Savannah Kitchen” (2019 Eighty-Three Press $29.95? is inscribed: “Phil — Please enjoy your visit with us! Best wishes and Love — Paula”
Paula also shared a favorite highlighted recipe from her baking bible for a decadent and densely moist peach pound cake which does not disappoint and features a glaze made from heated peach preserves.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, P.O. Box 68, San Pierre, IN 46374.
Paula Deen’s Peach Pound Cake
Makes 10 serving slices
Vegetable shortening, as needed
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar 2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 cup whole buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 1/2 cups peeled and diced peaches, divided use
1 cup peach preserves, heated
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees and use shortening to grease a 10-inch tube cake pan.
2. In large bowl, beat flour, sugar, butter, buttermilk, eggs and extracts with a mixer set to low speed for 1 minute, scrape sides and bottom of bowl and increase mixer speed and beat for 2 minutes. Fold in 2 1/2 cups of the prepared peaches. Spread batter in prepared cake pan.
3. Bake cake until a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Allow cake to cool on a rack for 20 minutes before removing from pan and allowing to cook completely.
4. In a medium bowl, stir together remaining fresh peaches with the heated peach preserves to create a glaze and spoon over cake just before serving.
