Peachy News: It’s Stone Fruit Season!

Yes, it’s true – It’s that wonderful time of the year when stone fruits make their appearance at the Chico Certified Farmers’ Market! A stone fruit, in case you were wondering, is any fruit with a soft flesh and a hard pit in the center. The pit (or stone) isn’t actually the seed – it’s the hard shell protecting the seed inside.

Whatever you want to call them (drupes are yet another name for stone fruits), don’t over think it, just enjoy it! From the plump and fuzzy to smooth and shiny, the gang’s all here! Nothing feels more like the start of summer than sinking your teeth into a sweet and juicy peach or other summer stone fruit sweet treat from your local farmer! White peaches, yellow peaches, apricots, apriums, plums, white or yellow nectarines, and so much more await you at the Chico Certified Farmers’ Market!

Tips and Suggestions

So what do I do with them? One of the beautiful things about stone fruit is how versatile they are! Obviously stone fruits are delicious when ripe and raw, but if you need ideas, start here:

• Roast, poach, saute, or grill them!
• Bake into a pie, crumble, cobbler, or galette.
• Toss into most any salad!
• Make a sauce for both sweet and savory dishes!
• Make a jam or jelly, or can them so you can still get a hint of stone fruit goodness when they’re out of season!

Stone fruit can be quite delicate, so make sure to store them correctly!

• Never put them in the fridge before they’re ripe – they get wrinkly and weird, and won’t continue to ripen.
• Be gentle getting them home! They bruise easily.
• Keep fully ripe fruit in the fridge, but only for a few days.
• Need to ripen a bit more? Store a room temp, stem side down.