Wanna Bite a Peach?

In the between of the hilly area connecting Wapato to Moxee, Washington, lies a spot known as Konnowac Pass.  It is an area inside the hills, with fertile and willing ground showing an almost vain representation of agriculture.  The contrast of the arid yellow of the hills and the cool orchard greens is more striking than usual as the hills are part of the terrain, and not just a backdrop to it.  I’m here now looking for a harvest.  Finding my side road, I turn and see tractors, bins, and cars so I pull over. Nope, those are pears, I need to keep going.  After passing several different apple varieties and more pears, I see the unmistakable lean and slender leaved peach trees.  Jackpot!  Today it’s all about this orange, fuzzy, fragrant, fruit.

As I step over to the orchard, I see a group of men giving some help to a tractor when I see one of the arms go up and wave to me.  Rob Valicoff has offered to walk me around his peach orchard today while they’re picking.  Tractor issue remedied, he comes over to chat.  He tells me that these are Elegant Lady peaches, and almost immediately finds a good one for me to try.  Glory be!  Soft, sweet, juicy.

My face is covered in peachy detritus before I know it.  It feels so gluttonous, but it’s only one peach. As I wipe my face off and utter monosyllabic exclamations like “wow!” Rob explains that you can’t over water peaches or it will actually dilute their distinctive taste.  Slight water stress helps concentrate the flavor of the fruit better.  He cuts one in half for me and it truly glimmers in the sunshine.  He says that when ripe, the attached pit should pull away from the flesh easily.  He hands a half to me and I eat again.

One of the things that is immediately apparent is that the bins are filled with buckets full of fruit.  As each bucket is filled up by a picker, it is placed into a bin with two layers of buckets to a bin.  Rob says that this is more gentle on the fruit and results in less surface marking.  These peaches will not go through the rigorous judgment of a packing line camera as we have seen with apples and cherries, so anything that can be done to preserve the quality of the fruit is helpful.

On this day, the temperature is a mild summertime-just-right with a light breeze.  Trees are loaded with fruit and the sugar is in the air—no matter where we wander it smells amazing.   A Spanish music station is playing lively tunes on a radio hung in a tree.  The clacking of three legged ladders being moved again and again, can be heard as men and women disappear up those ladders into the trees and reappear again with a full load of peaches strapped to their torso.  Seeing the full bins all lined up together is satisfying.  It seems an almost ostentatious display of the virility in a harvest bounty.

Many of these peaches will end up at Whole Foods and other big city markets.  Because peaches don’t store for long periods of time, they are a very seasonal crop.  Canned*, cobblered, grilled or raw, it’s the impermanence that makes each mouthful special.  Peach harvest goes on between June and September.  It’s golden, succulent flesh like the essence of summer itself.

*Check out Shelley’s peach canning experience this week and try your hand at it!

Many thanks to Rob Valicoff for taking the time to show me around the orchard!