Fuzzy, yummy peaches can be found at farmers' markets throughout Bakersfield right now. Photo by Jennifer Baldwin

A wide variety of melons are available at the Tesch Family Farm stand at the Bakersfield Farmers' Market. Photo by Jennifer Baldwin

Piles of corn can be found at the Bakersfield Farmers' Market. Photo by Jennifer Baldwin

By Michelle Beck

When I was a kid, we used to make the long trip out to the boonies of Stockdale Highway to visit Bussell’s Ranch, where we would pick peaches. It was hot, dusty, itchy work, but the peaches were always delicious. When we returned home, we would make cobbler and eat bowl after bowl of ripe peaches.

Peach season lasts most of the summer, thanks to the many early, mid-season and late-ripening varieties available. My favorite is the Elberta. Elbertas are the old-fashioned, very fuzzy peach most often found in back yards. They have a thick skin that is easy to peel. They are never available in stores because they are very soft when they are ripe, and they bruise if you even look at them funny, which is unfortunate, because they are juicy and have a wonderful flavor. It’s a shame that so many consumers are obsessed with perfect fruit, because it forces growers to grow varieties that travel better but don’t taste as good.

Bussell’s Ranch was famous for their cobbler, and I was delighted to find the recipe online here. I remember as a kid being fascinated by the way the cobbler was assembled with the batter on the bottom and the peaches on top. The batter rises up and covers the peaches. My Elbertas are mostly still green as grass, so I haven’t made peach cobbler yet this year, but I plan to try making it gluten-free by substituting my favorite multi-blend flour in the recipe. I’ve had good luck substituting it in other favorite recipes, and I think it will work well here as well.

For a more traditional cobbler or crisp, The Gluten-Free Pantry makes a good crisp and cobbler mix. If you still have some blackberries around, try this peach and blackberry cobbler.

My wonderful friend Helen, who has an Elberta tree that ripens sooner than mine, was kind enough to share a whole bunch of her gorgeous, large peaches with me this year, so I am going to make jam. I use the recipe inside the pink box of the SureJell pectin, but spice it up by adding a half-teaspoon each of cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg.

In my opinion, the only peach ice cream worth eating is homemade. This peach ice cream with fresh peach compote would be a great dessert.

Peach lemonade would be good on its own, or as a cocktail with the addition of a little vodka or rum.

Peach salsa is great on chicken or pork. Peaches also work well on the barbecue, as in this recipe for grilled chicken and peaches with chipotle-peach dressing.

Melons

Summer is also a great time for melons, and the choices seem endless. If you have only had cantaloupe, watermelon or honeydew, branch out and try muskmelons, crenshaw or canary melons. Melons are in the same plant family as cucumber, so some melons, like canary, have a cucumber-y flavor. Many kinds of fresh melons are available at the various farmer’s markets around town. Tesch Farms always has a selection of the more unusual varieties.

At your next barbecue, try serving a honeydew margarita or a watermelon margarita. Granita is a frozen, slushy dessert, and this melon granita is a refreshing and different last course. Try these cantaloupe-mint popsicles for a cool treat on a hot afternoon.

Melon salsa is good on chicken and other barbecued meats.

Watermelon is delicious by itself, but also works well in watermelon limeade or this watermelon salad with feta, mint and lime.

Corn

It’s hard to improve upon barbecued corn with butter and seasoning salt, but this black bean and corn salad with a little feta cheese crumbled on top or this one with its basil and lime vinaigrette are both good vegetarian lunch options. Oxo makes a corn stripper tool, but it is easy to cut the kernels from the cob with a sharp knife.

Plums

Summertime is also plum and pluot time. Pluots are plum/apricot crosses with the plum predominating. Just as there are many varieties of plums, so are there many varieties of pluots. Flavors vary widely, so it is best to do some taste-testing to find your favorite.

My favorite plum is the Santa Rosa, which, as I am sure you are unsurprised to discover, is the old-fashioned backyard variety. They are best when picked ripe and allowed to soften. I love the tangy-sweet flavor. I always make jam using the recipe inside the pink SureJell pectin box, and this year I learned something new. In the past, I’ve had trouble with my plum jam not setting as firmly as I would prefer, but it tastes so good, I didn’t worry much about it. Plum jam is a jam well-worth making because I have never found a decent store-bought brand. Just be sure to use Santa Rosas or one of the Santa Rosa crosses (they have “rosa” in the name). I have made jam so many times, I usually just glance at the directions long enough to see how much fruit and how much sugar to use, but this year I actually read the directions, and discovered that I was supposed to cook the plums first. In my defense, most jam recipes just call for finely chopping the fruit. Lo and behold, when I cooked the plums as directed, the jam came out the perfect texture. It is amazing with peanut butter.

For a good plum dessert, try this plum galette, this plum upside-down cake or this plum ginger granita.

Plum chutney would be good on a variety of meats.

This plum cordial could be bottled and given to friends as gifts.

Caterpillars and butterflies

If you have fennel plant or passion vines, you may see caterpillars on them. Don’t kill them! Fennel is a host plant for beautiful black and yellow swallowtail butterflies. The caterpillars are black and yellow, with black spikes. Passion vines are a host plant for the gulf fritillary butterfly. Its caterpillars are orange and black with black spikes. The caterpillars will feed on your plants, eventually form chrysalides and turn into gorgeous butterflies. Last year, the gulf fritillaries ate my passion vine down to a stick, but the plant came back larger than ever this year. It is well-worth any plant destruction to be able to watch the butterfly life cycle.

Speaking of caterpillars, this seems to be an especially bad year for tomato hornworms, at least in my yard. I have plucked off several gigantic ones, including one that was eating the tender tips off my jalapeno pepper plant! The best time to hunt them is at dusk, and if you see one, squish away!

For a listing of local farmers’ markets, visit the Bakersfield Express calendar of events page.