Peaches

Peaches originate from China, centuries ago, and are mentioned in Chinese texts from the 10th century. They were called “Persian apples” and regarded as one of the favourite fruits of the emperors. 

This fruit needs warm temperatures, and for this reason was grown widely in many European countries in the Mediterranean area. 

There are two types that are eaten in our country: “aigua” and “vinya”. 

Ordal peaches enjoy considerable prestige in our country. They even have their own peach fair. 

  • The best time for eating peaches is between May and August.

  • We can store them at room temperature, but if we put them in a fridge we can lengthen their shelf-life by several days.

  • We can eat this fruit in many ways, although it is always advisable to eat it fresh so that it preserves all its nutritional and organoleptic properties.  Even so, we can process it to make various products:

    • Puré: mashing it to make a coulis, a mousse, etc.
    • Compote: cooking it with a syrup and eating it in pieces or mashed once cooked.
    • Jam: cooking it with sugar and reducing it until it achieves a dense texture from the caramelisation of its sugar, evaporation of its water and gelling of its pectin with the help of the acid contained in the fruit itself.
    • Oven baked: as part of a pastry recipe, as a peach coca, tarte tatin, crumble or pie.

     

  • When at their optimum point of maturity they are a delicacy in their own right, with very clean skin. They can be added to cakes or cocas, as with apricots and/or plums. We can make a variety of marmalades from them, mixed with other fruit, such as orange or lemon, to give it an acidic touch. If they are very ripe, they can be made into a coulis or sauce for accompanying fromage frais or ice creams, adding a little water, sugar and some liquor and leaving it to reduce a bit over a flame. We can mash them on their own or accompanied with other fruit and make an ice cream from them.