fresh ginger peach butter. homemade preserved.

More peaches please! I am so inspired by summer fruits, and here is yet another peach rendition that incorporates fresh ginger for a surprising zing! Making peach butter is very simple, and only takes time for the fruity puree to thicken into a magical, spreadable, incomprehensible treat. Spread it on toast with chevre or topped on morning yogurt.

For the peaches, choose ripe fruit that is soft but not squishy, and a little firm. 'Freestone' varieties are easier to pit, since they do not cling to the flesh of the fruit like 'clingstone' varieties do, though you can use either. You can peel the peaches if you like, though I am an avid peel activist and almost always leave it on. Once the peaches cook down and you blend it into a puree, the skins almost disappear. Peel at your own discretion. You can cook the peach butter down as long as you like to get a thicker consistency. The longer you cook, the thicker the butter.

lavender peach cornmeal cake. homemade sweets.

Is there a more succulent symbol of summertime than the over-juicy peach ripening in the August heat? Sticky sweet juice runs down chins so much that it makes you hunch over crooked to eat them on the grass. This is the peak of summer, when the grass is golden and crisp and the fruit hangs low and juicy. Fruit is the savior of summer, as the temperature runs high. For me, there is no exception for making a dessert without this abundant fruit. 

And here in my house, we have boxes of fresh peaches from a local and organic U-Pick farm. When we aren't growing much of our own fruit, u-pick is the next best thing. Yes, you may throw down $40-80 on buckets of cherries, or boxes of peaches, but when you store them correctly, it is so worth it. When we gather pounds and pounds of this fruit, all other projects stop, and we focus on freezing, canning, and gorging on the fresh, perishable fruit. This fruit is not like the fruit at the store that travels far and sits on the shelf without bruising or browning. This is picked when it is ripe, and needs to be dealt with quickly. I like to make many different types of food with the fresh fruit while we have it, from sweet to savory versions. 

With the peaches, I love making pie of course, as well as peach salsa, ginger peach butter, and peach cobbler. This recipe for lavender peach cornmeal cake adds some fun texture and herbal flavor to a fruit dessert. It was tough to decide between using lavender or rosemary to accompany the peaches in this dessert, and I think both are delicious. This recipe utilizes lavender, but you could omit the herbs all together, or try using other herbs or spices like thyme or cinnamon. Serve it for dessert with ice cream, and then eat it for breakfast with morning coffee or tea, and with another fresh peach of course. Savor the flavor of summer and gorge on some juicy peaches.