"peach" news and stories

Happy National Peach Pie Day!

There's nothing more American than pie -- or anything as timeless as these rustic peach pies by blogger Brown Eyed Baker, who praises their imperfect appearance for their comfort qualities: "Rustic is a great adjective for any type of food that looks a little disheveled but that keeps taunting you to take another bite until you have polished off waaaay more than your fair share."

Try out this cinnamon-and-nutmeg-scented peach pie recipe here but beware -- this sort of edible perfection, rustic as it may look, takes practice.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

Happy National Peach Ice Cream Day!

There's no better way to capture the essence of fresh summer produce than freezing it into delicious frozen concoctions, especially at the height of July, when peaches are at their juiciest and positively bursting with flavor. As pictured above, food blogger Elana bottled up some peaches into a vegan peach and almond ice cream. "To increase the peach factor, I diced up more fresh peaches and mooshed them into the ice cream after it came out of the ice cream maker," wrote Elana.

Follow her lead and take advantage of the time-capsule properties of your freezers by filling them up with fresh ice creams and sorbets while fresh summer fruits are at their tastiest peak! And do us a favor: Share your favorite peach ice cream ingredients in the comments.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

There are some people who it is just plain good to know. When you're in college, for example, the guy with a truck is incredibly helpful, and when you go in to business, the understanding accountant and the slightly unethical lawyer are almost necessities.

A few years ago, my friend John became one of these fabulously helpful people. A lifelong resident of southwest Virginia and a trained chemist, John had a skill set that was uniquely wonderful: he knew how to get hold of moonshine, and he knew how to test it for impurities. While the grain liquor (or "likker," if you prefer) that I got from John wasn't all that cheap, it was completely flavorless, and I soon discovered that it made the perfect carrier for various fruits. Within a couple of months, I had a collection of incredibly delicious infused cordials that I would mix with seltzer or tonic water to produce light, moderately alcoholic spritzers with insanely pure tastes.

Are you an avid tea drinker looking for a different way to enjoy your tea this summer? A lot of tea drinkers go iced in the warm summer months, some even adding lemonade to their iced tea, but there is an even colder way to enjoy your tea in the summer months if you enjoy green tea: smoothies!

Below you will find the recipe for my personal summer tea concoction, which will require matcha (powdered green tea). Matcha is high in caffeine content compared to regular steeped tea, so you may not want to indulge in one of these smoothies too late in the day.

INGREDIENTS
1 tsp matcha (powdered green tea)
4 oz. cup of fruit-flavored yogurt (Light 'n Fit works well, low in sugar)
frozen strawberries (or other desired fruit)
frozen peach slices (or other desired fruit)
apple juice

A peach farmer in New Zealand has been growing a new variety of peaches for a couple of seasons now. Well, the variety is new to the English speaking world, I guess.

The flatto peach has been growing in China and across Asia for thousands of years. In fact it is supposedly one of the oldest varieties of the fruit. It has a flat bottom and flat top, so it's not round like to variety of peach that I'm used to. The flatto also is said to have a superior flavor and juiciness. That sounds great!

The grower, Kevin Paulin, says he's never had this much interest before. Apparently people have been been seeking him out to ask about his new crop. No word yet if this will reach American markets. The peaches have barely begun appearing in New Zealand stores. It's still pretty new outside of Asia, so it may take a while. Does anyone know about this variety of peach, and if it is available outside of China and New Zealand?