Oh, Henry!

David Mas Masumoto wrote a beautiful paean to the Sun Crest peach in his best-selling book, Epitaph for a Peach (1996). This year, Brenda Nakamoto published Peach Farmer’s Daughter, about her childhood on a farm in Yolo county. What is it about peaches that elicits such melancholy feelings?

If you’ve ever eaten a fruit warm from the tree, juice coursing down your chin, you know the soulful joy of a perfect peach. The short time when fresh peaches are at their best leaves you longing for them the rest of the year. (And the first taste in summer is all the better for it.)

Peaches are usually a mid-summer treat, but this late in the season, you can still find varieties like the O’Henry. It’s a yellow-fleshed freestone that’s good for everything from fresh eating to baking. The tree is resistant to peach leaf curl, which makes it easier to grow organically. Capay Fruits and Vegetables (of the Farm Fresh to You community supported agriculture program) grow the O’Henrys locally into September.