A Peach of a Dessert

See that yellow dot on the left lip of the bowl? Peach juice. We have been eating juicy, fresh peaches for dessert for weeks. Our peach tree, which has spent nearly 10 quiet years producing a very few small and pretty tart peaches, has all of a sudden decided that this is its year!

The branches were so full with ripening fruit that they were literally weighed to the ground, the fruit itself was much larger than we have grown used to and sweet! Clearly, a banner peach year in our neck of the woods.

Having been picked the same day (some were so ripe that they picked themselves and I'd find them nestled among the ivy leaves at the base of the tree) and never refrigerated, the peach perfume hits you from across the room. Because they are so ripe, they peel easily and because they are "freestone" peaches, the pit pops out without a struggle. I'd love them for the rich yellow and red colors alone, but the taste and the scent are irresistible, too.

So. nearly every evening, as I'm cooking dinner, I peel and slice some of these lovely peaches for dessert. When the juice runs over my fingers and drops onto the lip of the bowl, it's testament to how lovely our late summer dessert will be.