James And The Giant Peach

What a peach!

What a peach!

            -James

It was too hot to cook yesterday.  Knowing I wasn't going to cook, I stopped by the Farmers' Market in the morning on my way to work.  I was looking for fruit and tomatoes for a no-cook meal.  I came across a vender from Scott County selling gigantic peaches.  Really gigantic. They were labled very simply, Giant Peach.  I couldn't help but giggle and ask why they were so big.  Apparently one tree in their orchard suffered an early frost blossom thing and the result was a tree full of giant peaches.  I tried to pay attention to the horticulture reason for the big-ness, but couldn't get past the sheer whimsy of buying one. Sold.

I found a Johnson County vender selling heirloom tomatoes at a steep discount because they were picked on Sunday and they  needed to move them.  2 pounds of yellow and red heirlooms tomatoes snagged.

On the way to my car, I stopped by a vender selling melons.  Small yellow fleshed watermelons with mud clinging to the outer rind.  Who could possible resist that?  Into my bag one went.

When I cut open the fruit, I was so amazed at the bursting vibrant flesh.  The peach sprayed mist throughout the kitchen when halved.  The watermelon looked surreal.  Vibrant yellow specked with black seeds.  Beautiful.

I simply sliced and diced the fruits into nonuniform pieces and tumbled them together with  seedless purple grapes.  Small curd cottage cheese was the perfect light no-cook compliment.

My friend,  Erin,  asked me if bigger is better with peaches.  Well, I'm not exactly sure about size equalling pleasure, but that peach was so sweet and juicy.  Firm and juicy at the same time.  The yellow watermelon was a revelation.  Of course, it had the texture of watermelon.  It just seemed sweeter and softer. Tricky. A tromp l'oeil for the mouth.  It looked tropical, but the mouthfeel and flavor was down home familiar. It actually tasted yellow, if that makes any sense. 

Sliced unadorned red tomatoes, even though sweet, seemed savory in comparison to the fruit.

I used  the remaining yellow tomatoes to recreate my favorite gazpacho of the summer, Ace Weekly's Yellow Gazpacho. So sweet, smooth, velvety, and acidic. Balanced. I Didn't even use a spoon.  It was like drinking pure tomato and cucumber essence.

Fresh fruit, tomatoes, and cottage cheese.  A great way to beat the summer heat.