It's just a bunch of stuff that happened - Part 1: Peaches Deliver Joy

How it started:

In April, I ordered 12 pounds of peaches from The Peach Truck, on a whim. Because the four Peach Truck peaches someone shared with me last year were astoundingly delicious.

The Peach Truck lived up to its
slogan: Delivering Joy.

How it’s going:

I picked up the peaches on July 2nd, getting in the end of a huge line in the dangerous sun and heat.  I feared getting sunburned, but The Peach Truck operates efficiently.  The precious cargo and my skin were home within the hour.

Twelve pounds of peaches,
minus two which we ate out of hand.

The Peach Truck said to spread them out on a table for a few days.  I did, but it was a good thing I did not wait more than a day. These gems were ready for baking.  I spent the next two days making pies, perhaps the most intense pie production of my life.  

One recipe said chunks are better than 
slices.  Slices are hard to cut,
but chunks are way harder.
As for the outcome, further
research is required.

Cutting peaches for pie is not as easy as cutting apples for pie.  These peaches were oh, so lusciously juicy, which made them ultra slippery when skinless, as most of us would be.  

First pie, with hearts and triangles.
For Thanksgiving.  

On Independence Day I made two of the pies and six tarts. For the tarts I cheated by using store-bought graham cracker crusts.  Thank you, Keebler Elves! 

On Independence Day, my favorite season
is still the fall of the patriarchy.

As I was endangering my fingers by slicing peaches for the second pie, I listened to Heather Cox Richardson read the Declaration of Independence out loud, with commentary.  I had not been keen to recognize this holiday, but with peach juice dripping off my hands, I hit my stride and was glad to have my own little celebration, just me and HCR and peaches and pie crust.  Suitably American.

Second pie, with diamonds. 
 Planned for my birthday.

While peach pie is one of my favorites, I haven’t made it all that often.  I experimented with several different cooking methods– those might appear in another post, much much later.  Or not.

Third pie (raw; those are supposed to
be clubs cut into the crust).
And tarts.

We ate the third pie for July 4th dinner.  It was rather soupy – dammit, I will have to try again.  I think it was because the top crust needed more openings.  Through additional rigorous scientific testing (n=6), we discovered that graham cracker crusts become soggy after just a day or so, but the filling was not soupy. 

We stored two pies in the Common Household Son’s freezer – one for my birthday and one for Thanksgiving (if it makes it that long).  We did eat some of the peaches fresh.  Oh, glory!