Forest Girl Farm

Mid-July is peak stone fruit season here in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and if you’ve got even one peach or plum tree tucked into a sunny corner of the yard, you know the feeling: a few days of nothing, then suddenly more ripe fruit than you know what to do with. It’s a good problem to have, and it doesn’t take much fuss to turn a bowl of peaches and plums into something the whole family will actually finish before it goes soft.

Know When It’s Really Ready

Stone fruit doesn’t ripen much more once it’s off the branch, so the trick is catching it at the right moment rather than trying to fix an underripe peach later. A ripe peach or plum should give slightly under gentle pressure near the stem and smell sweet even before you cut into it. If it’s still hard and green-tinged, let it sit a couple more days on the tree or on the counter out of direct sun. Fruit that drops on its own is usually fully ripe and best used the same day, since bruised spots turn soft fast in our warm afternoons.

Easy Ways to Use a Full Bowl

When the bowl on the counter is overflowing, I try to split the fruit a few different ways so nothing goes to waste and we’re not eating the exact same thing three days in a row.

• Eat fresh, sliced into breakfast — over yogurt, oatmeal, or just plain with a little cinnamon. This is where the ripest, most perfect fruit should go, since cooking hides the difference between a good peach and a great one.
• Quick skillet compote — sliced fruit, a splash of water, a spoonful of honey or sugar, simmered ten minutes until it breaks down. Spoon it over pancakes, pound cake, or ice cream.
• Grilled halves — cut in half, pit removed, cut side down on a hot grill for two or three minutes. The sugars caramelize and it barely needs anything else, maybe a little cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
• Simple galette — no need for a perfect pie crust; a rough round of dough folded up around sliced fruit and baked until the edges are golden is forgiving and always looks impressive for how little effort it takes.

Saving Some for Later

If you’re getting more fruit than you can eat fresh this week, stone fruit freezes well with almost no prep. Slice peaches or plums, toss with a little lemon juice to keep the color, spread them on a baking sheet so the pieces don’t clump, and freeze until solid before transferring to a bag. Frozen this way, they’re ready to drop straight into smoothies or a compote all winter without any extra thawing and draining. Plums also make a wonderful quick jam, since their skins have enough natural pectin that you often don’t need to add any.

A Note on Trees in a Forest Garden

Stone fruit trees want more sun than most of our redwood-shaded property offers, so ours live in the brightest open patch we’ve got. Even there, the trees appreciate a deep watering during dry stretches like this one, especially in the weeks before harvest when the fruit is sizing up. If your tree is dropping fruit early or the peaches are staying small, it’s often a sign the tree is stressed for water rather than anything more serious. A slow soak once a week during a dry summer usually solves it.