Stonefruit season

Follow your nose when it comes to choosing the best

It was at a produce market in Sicily that my nose caught the whiff of the most arresting, voluptuous peachy scent. I must have looked like a bloodhound as I scurried, nose high, through the market, scouring row after row of stalls in search of the source.

Finally I came across a dirty plastic chair with a tiny withered man draped in it like an old rag. In front of him on the ground was a tattered box, filled with motley-looking white peaches. They looked so unassuming, but the scent coming from that box was almost indecent, a velvety suppleness that enveloped everything around it in a dreamy haze. He reached down from his chair and offered me one to taste, telling me in rough Southern Italian that he had picked the tree that morning and this — pointing to the box — was it, the whole harvest.

The juices poured down my cheeks and all over my dress, but I didn’t care, I was lost in the epiphany of a perfect peach, a sublimely sensual taste experience. I bought the entire box — probably a good 10kg — for less than five euros. When we got back to the place we were staying, I sequestered the box next to my computer in a far-away room with the door firmly shut and, over the next few days, I gorged myself on these sweetest, juiciest most outrageously flagrant peaches. No one else even got a look-in.

Seeing the big piles of luscious peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines at the market right now, I’m reminded that summer is on the wane and autumn is approaching. In the face of such abundance, it’s hard to believe that soon it will all be over for another year. Grab them while you can but before you buy, pick them up and smell them — you want at least a glimmer of the beautiful aroma that so defines a good peach, nectarine, or apricot (cherries and plums don’t produce the same scent).

Once harvested, provided they are ripe, stonefruits will continue to mature, developing both flavour and aroma. Peaches and nectarines will become creamier, with coconut undertones and apricots will gain an increased acid balance and richer flavour.

To hasten ripening, pop them in a paper bag with an apple or banana — the ethylene these fruit produce speeds up the process.