THIS YEAR’S PEACH CROP MAY BE BEST IN 40 YEARS
This year’s Colorado peach harvest may be the best in 40 years — but the season is short, so get cooking
Thousands of pounds of Colorado peaches are finding their way into Front Range kitchens from the Western Slope, rolling in by the bag and the box from farmers’ markets, grocery stores and charity sales. Some are gifted by generous friends driving hours from farm stands and orchards, patiently resisting the tempting once-a-year fragrance perfuming their cars during the long trip home.
No spring freezes stung tender blossoms in 2,600 acres of orchard land planted with peaches in and near Palisade, so this year’s crop is especially abundant — growers told Colorado Department of Agriculture marketing specialist Wendy White last week that it may be the best in 40 years. The peaches are large and juicy, their brilliant-orange flesh consistently silky. Colorado is at peak peach. Though the season technically lasts until early September, the window of perfect ripeness is short, White says, which means home cooks must move quickly in their hunt for creative ways to serve what is, perhaps, the summer’s most treasured bounty in Colorado.
“You have to do something with them,” said White, noting that six peaches from the case she brought back from Palisade went into a simple free-form baked dessert, topped with a crumbly topping made from flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon. “Jam, desserts, put them up. But you gotta do something fast.”
Peaches have a unique favor profile, with both sweetness and a vibrant acidity, which makes them an excellent base to build on – beyond the traditional pies, crisps and preserves, explained chef Jeff Miller, Colorado State University’s hospitality management program coordinator and associate professor of food science and human nutrition.
“Some naturally occurring flavors in peaches are the same as those of dairy products.
They are very subtle, but they are what make peaches such a natural complement to ice cream,” he said. “In Europe, peaches and blue cheese are a popular latesummer dessert.”
Similarly, the sweet acidity partners well with oily foods, like almonds, Italian prosciutto and Spanish jamon Ibérico, Miller said. “Peaches have a better sugar/acid balance for ham than some things it is paired with, like honeydew or cantaloupe melons.”
Anne Keller, co-owner of The Hot Tomato restaurant in Fruita, proves Miller’s thesis sometimes 100 times a night with The Palisade Peach, a late-summer-only pizza created five years ago after an orchardwoman dropped off four flats of peaches. Keller ate the fruit for breakfast, lunch and dinner until she could eat no more.
With the clock ticking toward having to toss the gifted peaches, she started thinking about the savory flavors that would complement their sweet acid flavor on a pizza. She started with mozzarella and added Canadian bacon, rosemary and a little gorgonzola cheese.
“I think the reason it works is that it’s so simple,” Keller said. “The nutty tang of gorgonzola balances the sweet, then you have the salt of the bacon and the flavor of rosemary, which I think goes great with everything.”
But really it is the peach that goes great with everything. It can take the heat in fresh salsa, and stands up to fragrant baking spices, like clove and cinnamon, and to the tang of fresh berries and soft cheeses. The peach is a side to grilled meats, or a little acid kick in a salad. And if you feel overwhelmed by all that potential, it might be time to crack open a bottle of wine and sip a glass while contemplating the options.
Miller observed that some varieties have “distinct vinous notes,” leading them to be sometimes poached in Sauterne wines, or consumed fresh with sweeter whites, like Riesling, and, of course, with sparklers.
“Eating peaches and drinking prosecco,” he said, “probably led to the creation of the famous Bellini cocktail.”