Steingarten on Peaches

[Beachfan]

This months Vogue has a very interesting article on peaches.  How the sugar and acid interrelate to form the best peaches. Also the results of a 3 year taste experiment on the best peaches in the US.

California won, and a few growers who ship are named.

PS The supermarket peaches in California are usually poor but the farmers market's have some excellent ones.

[Suvir Saran]

I had the best peaches of a lifetime in the farmers market in San Francisco a couple of years ago.

They had them in different stages of ripeness.  Beachfan, there is not much else in my fruit experiences that has come so close to being heavenly.

They were amazing.

I was actually preserving some Peach Jam the early morning of 9/11.  I went to bed past 4:00 AM after finishing the preserving and woke up with the noise.  We live relatively close to Ground Zero.  

I have always enjoyed peachers.  They have now even another association.

Where do you get your favorite peaches?

PS:  Edited preserving, since I had written pickling by error.

[John Whiting]

I haven't yet read Steingarten's latest Vogue article, since a US friend photocopies them and mails them to me, thus saving us the expense and the disgrace of Vogue accidentally appearing on our coffee table.   However, balance of sweetness and acidity has always been the secret of Germany's finest wines. It's what can be accomplished between these two sensations that leads Jancis Robinson to declare Riesling her favorite wine grape.

[Suvir Saran]

Do they not post this online John? I have not tried.  Shall I fax you a copy?  If you want I could willingly do that.

[John Whiting]

Suvir, thanks for the offer, but I don't have fax facilities. My technology made a quantum leap straight to broadband.   I tried to find Steingarten on the Vogue website, but it appears they're smart enough to know that if they made him available on the net they might lose half their subscribers.  

[Suvir Saran]

Aaah!  Clever they are.

[Beachfan]

.  

Where do you get your favorite peaches?

We get them at the Thousand Oaks farmers market (our hometown in So Cal).

I'm going to try getting some of Steingarten's recommendations shipped later in the summer.

[Suvir Saran]

You all are sooo lucky in CA...

There is this Japanese farm in San Diego... very famous.. I forget the name.. they have the best strawberries.

Do you know of them?  They supply to Ches Panisse.

[Beachfan]

It slips my mind, but it's in the article in Vogue.  They just started doing peaches.

[Steve Klc]

They wouldn't lose half their subscribers, Steingarten would lose the opportunity to leverage his content by repackaging the essays into a book.  It's an old school, not new media thing.

[Steve Plotnicki]

"since a US friend photocopies them and mails them to me, thus saving us the expense and the disgrace of Vogue accidentally appearing on our coffee table."

John Whiting - And I always pictured you as a guy who only wore Prada.

Beachfan - Chino's Market outside of San Diego.

[John Whiting]

And I always pictured you as a guy who only wore Prada

Steve, don't you mean the guy that only wrote for Pravda?

[John Whiting]

Steingarten would lose the opportunity to leverage his content by repackaging the essays into a book.

I imagine that Steingarten's fans (include me -- the guy can write) would shell out to have him between covers even if his essays were handed out free on the NY subways.

[Sandra Levine]

Back to peaches.  The best peach I ever had was in Italy, cut over a dish of vanilla ice cream that made me feel as if I had never eaten either a peach or vanilla ice cream before.  Neither the fruit nor the ice cream has ever been surpassed., although the white peaches that started appearing at the Greenmarket a couple of years ago, at their best,  approach Italian peaches in taste, if not texture.

[Suvir Saran]

Chinos Farm it is.

Wow.. Sandra... what part of Italy were you in?

At Ino's in the village, they make an open faced sandwich that has slices of peaches on top of the bread.  Honey drizzled over them, freshly ground black pepper and mascarpone are then garnished and then the sandwich is toasted.  Heavenly!

[Sandra Levine]

It was a very long time ago, in Florence at very simple restaurant.  The experience was a vivid demonstration to me of the importance of the quality of ingredients.  Nothing had to be done to that peach, and in fact, and anything done to it would more likely have diminished rather than enhanced it.  I feel that way only about certain foods -- Maine lobster and blue crabs spring to mind.  These are not foods that one eats raw (maybe lobster, as sushi) but any preparation should be as simple as possible.  There just is no way of making them better than they are.

[Miss J]

Sandra - your description of that peach has, in just a few words, explained the appeal of a good Bellini.

Mmmmmmmm....

[Suvir Saran]

Miss J, I do not drink alcoholic drinks for the most part.  Maybe a dozen or at the most 20 times a year I will sip something.  Bellinis, are on that very short list.  I love them.

[LaurieA-B]

We buy our peaches at Thriftway's annual Peach-o-rama, here in Seattle.  These peaches have really made me appreciate seasonal eating.  They are heavenly. Matthew wrote about the peachiest of peaches on the grubshack.  Millions of Peaches

If you want to know what it's like to be a peach farmer, the book Epitaph for a Peach takes you so close you can feel the fuzz.

[talentedone]

Do we really get good peaches in this country?

I have eaten some half way decent ones in CA, but they too are no match to the Italian or Asian varieties.

[Beachfan]

Shunning.

[Jaymes]

Texas Hill Country has fabulous peaches.  Some of the best I've ever tasted.  But they're not well-known outside of the local area.  For one thing, they are all gobbled up like candy right here.  And, there's a rather limited crop and they don't ship well.  Too much sugar.  They just rot before they get very far away.  (Like some other Texans I've known, I might add.)  

[talentedone]

Are you referring to rotten Dubya?

[JSD]

Texas Hill Country has fabulous peaches.  Some of the best I've ever tasted.  

Jaymes, you are soo right.  My inlaws had a place in The Texas Hill Country with fantastic peaches.  I think it's the cool winters or cool evenings or something.

[=Mark]

The Country

Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches

I'm movin' to the country, I'm gonna eat me a lot of peaches

I'm movin' to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches

Movin' to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches

Peaches come from a can, they were put there by a man

In a factory downtown

If I had my little way, I'd eat peaches everyday

Sun soakin bulges in the shade

Movin' to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches

Movin' to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches

I'm movin to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches

Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches

I took a little nap where the roots all twist

Squished a rotten peach in my fist

And dreamed about you woman

I poked my finger down inside, makin' a little room for a ant to hide

Nature's candy in my hand or can or a pie

Millions of peaches, peaches for me

Millions of peaches, peaches for free

Millions of peaches, peaches for me

Millions of peaches, peaches for free

Look Out!

-The Presidents of the United States

I'm surprised Mamster has not hit this thread.  Go do a Google of "Millions of peaches"