My Morning Chocolate

When I was in high school and working on my uncle’s farm during the summers, we would start many mornings by picking yellow squash. The proper way to pick this vegetable is to gently twist it free so you don’t break the scratchy vine. But I, too impatient for the twist, often snapped it loose instead.

Fast forward to last week when my Dad and I drove home from Bennett Orchards, our box of yellow freestone Glowingstar peaches tightly packed in the trunk.  After picking these peaches, I sat in the passenger’s seat reading the orchard’s pamphlet. My eyes drifted to a section called “How to Pick a Peach,” and I realized that, like the yellow squash, I had incorrectly snapped the peaches from the vine.

But even though this picking style led me to break a few squash vines, I didn’t crack one peach branch.  So I decided that peach picking is a low-maintenance activity (recreationally at least) - and a food field trip you should take before the peaches are gone in September.

I learned about Bennett Orchards after visiting Jerry the Peach Man at Ocean City’s “Shore Fresh” Farmers’ Market every week last summer. Kenny and I, in transition between New York and Baltimore, were living there for a few weeks, and we bought at least four fresh peaches – carefully checked by Jerry for bruises before turning them over to us – nearly every week.

This year, before I went to Ocean City, I looked up Jerry the Peach Man’s website. Here, I learned that you can pick  your own peaches on the orchard in Delaware’s southeastern Sussex County, about a half-an-hour outside of Ocean City. (I also realized that Jerry doesn’t own the farm – Jim and Carrie Bennett do.)

My Dad and I drove there on Friday morning. Peach trees line the farmland on both sides of Armory Road, but many of the plots were blocked off.  This is because a different variety of peach is ripe for picking each week.

It also made it hard to locate the section that was ready for picking that day.  But, after making a U-turn and realizing that the field we wanted was on the other side of the street (in that order), we eventually drove on a dirt path to the grass parking lot that sat in front of a covered stand. Trees of peaches stood in rows to our right.

From there, we took a cardboard box from the young guy on the farm, placed it in a bright green wagon, and walked a few steps toward a flag pole – and the ripe peaches.

Picking 58 peaches – about 23 pounds – doesn’t actually take that long.  Most of the peaches weren’t yet soft, so they cleanly snapped from the vine.  In just a half hour, maybe even less, we had filled our box.  

As we walked by the stand to pay for our peaches, my Dad noticed that the lower half of the trees was painted white. I took this picture…

then rolled our green wagon up a wooden ramp, placed the box of peaches on the scale, and asked the woman behind the register – Jerry’s wife, maybe? – why this is. To keep the sap out, Hon, she said. (In other words, the sap stays inside the tree.  This process also prevents insect invasions.)  As I turned to look at the painted trees, my Dad paid the woman $25 ($1.10 pound) for our load of peaches - the best fruit deal I’ve seen this summer.

On the way out, I grabbed a flyer with peach recipes – everything from cakes and pies to guacamole, salsa, and barbeque sauce – already thinking about all the things I could make with our load of fruit.

How to Pick Peaches

If you can’t get to Bennett Orchards in Delaware, visit PickYourOwn.org to find peach farms in your state. Peaches are either freestone, which means they break away cleanly from the pit, or clingstone, which, as the name suggests, means the fruit clings to the pit.

(Funny thing: I just learned that I have been cutting around the pits of freestone peaches for the majority of the summer – and wasting delicious fruit. Now I know to hold my knife against the pit, cut two intersecting circles, and then pull the quarters of fruit from the pit.)

A freestone peach pulls away from the pit easily.

Then, look for peaches that have a bright yellow color and are firm to the touch.

When you’re ready to pick, gently twist the fruit from the vine. A ripe peach should separate easily.

Now that I have all these peaches, I want to cook with them.  What’s your favorite way to eat peaches other than biting into them?