Peaches, Wine, and Art

I returned from my trip at the beginning of this month to find our little peach trees in full bloom with beautiful pink blossoms.  I regret not getting pictures when the trees looked that way, but the flowering seems to happen pretty quickly.  At least judging my apple trees, which bloomed the following week but had lost all their blooms within a few days (didn't get photos of those either!).  I have my suspicions that the apple blossoms dropped early due to an encounter with my 3 year old and our garden hose, but that is another story!

I can't see any apples forming on the apple trees but I was pleasantly surprised to find tiny, fuzzy, peach buds left behind when the petals fell off our peach trees.  Our trees are small but very sturdy and it looks like we'll be getting quite a few peaches from them this year!  I'm so excited to try homegrown peaches, and hopefully there will be enough surplus for some jam and pies.

The only things I regularly make with peaches in them are fruit salad and Peach Bellinis (yum!).

So here are the recipes for those:

Simple Summer Fruit Salad:

Fresh Sliced Peaches
Fresh Blueberries
Fresh Sliced Strawberries

Serve with Vanilla Yogurt on the side.  Optionally add sliced banana, apples, or whole seedless grapes.

Peach Bellini's:

The best Bellini I ever had was in Venice.  But that is probably because the drink was invented there, so if you are ever there be sure to try one!  It was invented by a bartender in the 1940's who named the drink for the color of a saint's robe in a Giovanni Bellini painting!  See the fun things you learn in art school?

There is nothing difficult about making a true peach bellini at all.  All you need is fresh peach puree and prosecco (sparkling Italian wine).  I think it is best just with those two ingredients, but it is certainly versatile so try different kinds of sparkling wine or add other fun fruits like strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries.  In fact, I just had a great idea!  Just puree your fruit salad (above) and add the wine to that!!

Since I haven't done a lot of cooking with peaches, I've been hunting around and saving some recipes that I want to try once we harvest ours.  Here are some of the peach recipes I've saved in my "recipe box" on Allrecipes.com:

Grilled Peaches & Cream

Peach-A-Berry Pie

Southern Peach Cobbler

Apricot & Peach Fried Pies

Spicy Peach Chutney

Georgia Spiced Peaches