Cooking Resources

sparrowgrass · 09-01-2010, 01:00 PM

I have been eating lovely orchard peaches since the middle of July--my favorite fruit. They are about gone now, but I stopped at the orchard last weekend and bought half a bushel, and. . . . they are awful.

Mealy, dry, not much flavor. (Like the ones you buy in the grocery store.)

They only cost $10--should I pitch them out to the chickens, or should I try to salvage them some way? Does anyone think that they would make a decent pie, or jam or something? Maybe with some extra flavoring, like vanilla or ginger?

Or should I just toss them out to the chickens? I know they would enjoy them.

bandonjan · 09-01-2010, 01:14 PM

You can try making peach butter or jam. Sometimes cooking brings out some flavor.

merstar · 09-01-2010, 01:54 PM

Can you return them?

4meandthem · 09-01-2010, 02:09 PM

Try grilling a couple and drizzleing with maple or vanilla syrup.

mollyanne · 09-01-2010, 02:47 PM

My vote is....toss 'em. That "mealy" texture and lack of flavor is probably due to temperatures while in the growth process. "Mealy" texture is what I call "pithy" but when I said that to the grocer, he looked at me like I was swearing with a lisp

He then let me have a taste of the California peaches he had which were grrreat. That's the nicest anyone's been to me there...maybe I should "swear" more often.

bethzaring · 09-01-2010, 03:24 PM

I'd toss them and give your chickens a treat. Food never improves when you put by. If the peaches are awful now, they will be awful after you spend more time and money fooling with them.

zfranca · 09-01-2010, 04:04 PM

Mealy, dry, not much flavor..It appears they were picked before reaching ripeness and kept for sometime in storage. Before giving them to the chickens, try a sauce (not sweet) to go with pork, chicken, or cornish hens.
I hope it works...I have the same problem with mangoes.

Uncle Bob · 09-01-2010, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bethzaring

I'd toss them and give your chickens a treat. Food never improves when you put by. If the peaches are awful now, they will be awful after you spend more time and money fooling with them.

+1

sparrowgrass · 09-02-2010, 09:12 AM

I peeled them last night--tossed nearly half of them because they were brown and icky. I did find a couple really tasty ones while I was peeling--guess what happened to those?

I found a recipe for peach butter, crockpotted them all night, and they taste pretty good. I did add some citric acid to perk up the flavor, so the butter is quite tart. I haven't canned it yet--I might add some more sugar before I do.

Taste is ok--I don't think I wasted my time. And the chix got all the peelings and brown ones, so they were happy.

vitauta · 07-03-2011, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sparrowgrass

I have been eating lovely orchard peaches since the middle of July--my favorite fruit. They are about gone now, but I stopped at the orchard last weekend and bought half a bushel, and. . . . they are awful.

Mealy, dry, not much flavor. (Like the ones you buy in the grocery store.)

They only cost $10--should I pitch them out to the chickens, or should I try to salvage them some way? Does anyone think that they would make a decent pie, or jam or something? Maybe with some extra flavoring, like vanilla or ginger?

Or should I just toss them out to the chickens? I know they would enjoy them.

remember this post? peaches are my favorite, too. i've been eating our locally grown peaches (virginia) for about two weeks now--the early varieties. i look forward to a lovely looong peach season of untold fruit gluttony i'm writing to remind everyone to take full advantage of their favorite fruits while they are in season and at their peak of flavor. "september" will be here soon enough with its sorry offerings of it's mealy, tasteless remnants.