Fall Fruit Layflat: PawPaws, Quince, + Apples

pawpaws, quince, golden delicious apples AND our very fun pink fleshed apples

When I think of the bulk of the best sweet treats from the farm I think of summer: peaches, watermelon, berries, etc.

I wanted to show the fall a little love too by highlighting our fall fruits: apples, pawpaws, and quince.

The second two most people have never seen or eaten and the first is literally everywhere.

PawPaws are the nation's largest native fruit and are similiar to a banana in taste, and how it ripens. They also turn an appealing shade of black when they're really ripe. I said they tasted like bananas but really a cross between bananas and mangos with an avocado texture.

Quince are so beautiful. I just like the way they look! As far as taste they are tart...like a lemon tart. They are used to make quince paste, candied quince, mixed in as a companion to apples in Apple Pie and I recently saw a quince up-side down cake on pinterest. I'm intrigued and will probably be testing that recipe.

Meringue Topped Peaches

I use any excuse to top things with meringue.

 

It just never gets old to me that liquid egg whites can be turned into delicately sweet clouds. I had meringue on the mind and ripe peaches just picked from the orchard in hand so it was an easy choice to combine them. 

This is a super quick crowd pleaser of a recipe. 

Ingredients

3 ripe freestone yellow peaches, cut in half and pit removed (this recipe serves 6, if you need more than 6 you'll need additional batches of meringue)

1 1/2 tsp brown sugar, separated 1/4 tsp per peach

1 batch of meringue (use any recipe you'd like online but make sure you get the order correct or your meringue will not get those stiff peaks! egg whites and cream of tartar first with pinch of salt...then sugar)

baking sheet lined with parchment

Instructions

Simply slice your peaches, remove pit and place 1/4 tsp of brown sugar where the pit was. Place sliced peaches on the baking sheet and bake at 375 for 10 minutes. 

While they're in the oven make your meringue. 

When you bring the peaches out of the oven let them sit for 5 minutes, then use an ice cream scoop with a release or two spoons to pile that meringue sky high. Put pillow topped peaches back in the over until the meringue browns. 

Serve warm or these store pretty well in the fridge over night.  

Yellow August Vegetable Shoot

August is exhausting, mesmerizing, frantic, more humid than hell's sauna on the 4th of July, and filled with new arrivals to the tailgate table. It's when all of the really good stuff happens (at least in my book). I do my very best to have sliced peaches on hand in the fridge and a borderline hoarder pile of tomatoes on the counter for easy slicing at home.  To be honest a good cantaloupe is one of my desserts...especially those cute little personal size cantaloupes!

To celebrate August a photoshoot showcasing what we're picking from our fields this week.