Sooo Many Peaches!!

As summer comes to an end, and we look forward to the crisp air of fall and all of the flavors that come with the season, my family likes to take advantage of the cooler temps to get out and about and enjoy what our area has to offer. Maryland summers can be oppressively hot and humid causing us to keep our time spent outside in the heat to a minimum. So as soon as the temperature starts to fall, we emerge from our air conditioned lair and head out to local farms, orchards, and farmers markets. Covid-19 has made me appreciate these trips in a whole new way. My boys are growing up so quickly, and being able to share times together like this is what I hope they remember as they move through their lives. One of our favorite spots is Larriland Farm in Woodbine, MD. This farm half way between Baltimore, and Frederick, Md offers multiple seasons of pick your own fruit. Whether its wild flowers, blue berries, raspberries, peaches, apples, or pumpkins you and your family can head out to the field, or orchard, and pick straight from the source. We have gone to Larriland several times in the past, but this August we were there for peaches. Sweet, delectable peaches. It only took us about a half an hour to pick way too many peaches, but we had a row of peach trees all to ourselves, allowing my wife to take an abundance of family pictures. Each tree was bursting with fruit for the picking. We filled one medium container, I believe it was a peck of peaches, and one small pint sized container. Once back to the car, we realized that we had picked with our eyes, and not with our stomachs. For under $30 we had enough peaches to last us months. It didn’t take long for us all to realize we had entered the Cobbler Zone. If we didn’t want to let these sweet round balls of goodness go to waste, I had more than one cobbler in my future. That afternoon was spent blanching, peeling, slicing, flavoring, and baking three cobblers. Having never made a cobbler before, I did some research and took parts of several recipes to put together what turned out to be a pretty good first set of cobblers, served, of course, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Like Chicken Pallooza from my previous post, cobbler was delivered to a number of friends, and neighbors. Apparently the Vergis family is on a mission to fatten up Maryland.

Cobbler Recipe:

4lbs Fresh Peaches

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp cornstarch

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup boiling water

Topping:

3 Tbs white sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Step #1. Preheat oven to 425

Step#2. Bring 3 qts of water to boil in large pot. On bottom of each peach cut a small x to aid in peeling. Place peaches in boiling water for 2 – 3 minutes. Remove peaches, and place them in ice bath.

Step#3. Peel peaches using earlier cut x to help with peeling. Cut peaches in half removing the pit. Slice peaches approximately 1/8 of inch in thickness. Don’t worry about being exact you just want to avoid uneven slices so that peaches all cook evenly.

Step#4. In a large bowl combine peaches, 1/4 cup of white sugar, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Make sure mixture coats all peaches evenly. Pour mixture into 2 qt baking dish, and bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Step#5. In a separate bowl combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in Butter until mixture is like a damp sand. Add water, and combine.

Step#6. Remove peaches from oven, and using a metal teaspoon to scoop the flour mixture drop spoon fulls on top of now hot peaches making sure to distribute mixture evenly. Sprinkle entire cobbler with sugar, and cinnamon topping mix. Place in oven and bake until golden brown. Should take about a half an hour.

Serve hot for best results, and of course with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!!!!