Peach time

It's that time of year to go peach picking. Normally my wife & I take the Ferrari for a drive out to Strawberry acres in Coplay Pa. But it seems that farm is shut down. A local paper reports the new owner wants to bulldoze the orchard for senior housing.

Anyway, the wife & I hopped into the Ferrari & went out Rt 80 to Rt206S to Fairmont Rt 513 to
Melick's Orchards It was a great drive. Esp. down 206. Melick's is a nice, clean place with Pears, White & Yellow peaches, quite a few variety of apples (most I've never heard of like Zestar, Red Free etc). I understand they also have their own brand of hard cider, preserves, etc.

We picked up white & Yellow peaches, a couple apples (Zestar) and some pears. The peaches are immense. See the pic below (Zestar on the left for comparison)
. They are good, but firm. I'm expecting in a few days, they'll be juice-running-down-your-chin delicious.

If somebody has a better place, Please post. For apples, we'll be going to Masker's in Warwick. It's crazy busy, but we like the variety, the stay-as-long-as-you-want attitude, and there's something about parking right in the orchard and having lunch that's just great.

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Delicious Orchards
320 Route 34
Colts Neck, NJ

 

Thanks. We were just down at Spring Lake yesterday. Had I seen this in time, it could have been a stop.

 

So how were they?. We did the same thing and ended up at Melicks after stopping somewhere else.

After living in California with my own peach trees I have to say this was a huge disappointment. Back in California in the 70's the peaches were immense and so GD ripe right off the tree that they were absurdly delicious. Peaches really don't ripen after picking so much as they do get soft. So we eventually peeled ours added sugar (lots of it) and lemon juice then froze them for later.

I suspect a much hotter climate produces better peaches to begin with. You haven't had a real peach until you eat one fully ripe from the tree in the right climate.

 

I just finished the last one today. My wife thought the same - a disappointment. We did let them sit out and they did get soft and juicy. They weren't bad then. Our old place : strawberry acres was head & shoulders above Melick's, but Strawberry seems closed. The Pa state fair use to use Strawberry's peaches for their pie bake-off. I'll have to find out whose they use now. We'll have to try "Delicious Orchards" noted above or find another place.