Peaches Are Here
Jersey tomato. Georgia peach. Jersey peach?
There are 88,000 acres of peach orchards in the state, says the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council. August is the height of the season.
At Melick’s Town Farm in Oldwick, peaches are keeping co-owner John Melick busy with his crew, picking the fruit and carting it to the store that also sells the dozen or so kinds of fruits and vegetables his tenth-generation farming family grows. “Local fruit is best because it’s fresh picked and doesn’t get bruised in transport,” he says.
Jerry Frecon, agricultural agent for the Rutgers Cooperative Extension in Clayton, Gloucester County, says 80 to 85 percent of the Jersey crop consists of the yellow-flesh variety. The best are being picked now, he says.
“In the varieties that are ready in August, the stone is looser so it’s easier to remove it and eat,” he says. They also sweeter than the kinds that ripen earlier in the summer, Frecon adds.
The state’s orchards also grow white-fleshed peaches, and five percent of the crop is nectarines, a fuzz-less variety of peach, often sweeter than the standard kind.
Most highly prized, though, are “doughnut” peaches. They are flatter than the regular round kind and “the stone just pops right out,” Frecon says, leaving the fruit with a whole in the middle like a doughnut. And almost as sweet. They are low in acidity and high in sugar, with a “unique, exclusive flavor,” according to Frecon.
For August the Peach Promotion Council and the New Jersey Restaurant Association brought together about a dozen eateries for a “Jersey Fresh Peach Month,” featuring special menus focusing on the state’s peaches. Click for the list.
It’s not just peach dessert they’re serving. For instance, the appropriately named Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick (profiled in the current New Jersey Monthly as one of the state’s best restaurants) is serving poussin from Princeton’s Griggstown Quail Farm in ginger peach chutney, duck and smoked foie gras terrine.
“New Jersey has some of the best peaches on the planet this month,” says Betsy Alger, co-owner of the Frog and the Peach. “This is the fourth year we’ve done a peach tasting menu. Each course features a peach or peach as a component.”
And in case you are wondering: No, the restaurant was not named because of the fruit; it was inspired by an old comedy routine liked by Alger and her husband, co-owner Jim Black.
Tags: The Frog and the Peach | Griggstown Quail Farm | Oldwick | Best Restaurants | Alger, Betsy | Jersey peaches | Black, Jim
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