Missouri peaches have a short season so enjoy them now

You can taste the Midwest in a locally grown peach. The fuzzy skin yields easily to your teeth. The flesh is packed with juice eager to drip down your chin.

Sweetness flows from heartland sunshine and a farmer patient enough to let fruit ripen on the tree. It’s peak peach season, and growers across Kansas and Missouri are working seven long days a week to bring you this year’s crop at its peachy perfection.

“We’ll start picking at 6 a.m.,” Cody Bader says. His smooth drawl and southern “ma’am” signify the Bootheel home of Bader Farms in Campbell, Mo., considered the peach capital of the state. “Sometimes we don’t stop until 9 or 10 at night. Our motto is: Our peaches are picked, packed and in your grocery store in 24 hours.”

The Bader family partners with Hen House stores as part of “Buy Fresh/Buy Local,” a national program managed by Food Routes, a not-for-profit promoting local and sustainable food. Mark Mollentine is the local consulting chef for Hen House’s effort.

“The issue with peaches is their short season,” Mollentine says. “When they’re here, they’re fabulous. There’s nothing like a locally grown fresh peach.”

Sweet success

Bader Farms employs about 100 workers to handpick peaches on the 1,000-acre farm. The orchard space has expanded fourfold since 1988.

“We pick nothing but mature fruit,” Bader says. “That way, the sugar content is already established in the peach. We’ll pick a crop every three days — five times over 15 days. We take only the fruit as it’s ready.”

Similar patience is practiced by Frank Gieringer whether he’s picking peaches for his Edgerton farm stand or the Overland Park farmers market. “That peach doesn’t get any sweeter once it’s picked,” Gieringer says.

Harvesting early may benefit the long-distance shipper but not the end consumer. “You’re sacrificing convenience for flavor,” Gieringer says.

Weather worries

One of the drawbacks to growing peaches in the Midwest is the weather.

“Our peaches may not be as pretty as in California or Georgia because we have a harsher environment,” Gieringer says. “Those other states have cookie-cutter weather. We have a lot of moisture, which leads to spots.”

The 2014 crop has its own challenges: “This year we’re running about two to two-and-a-half weeks late,” Bader says. “Typically we pack about the third week in June, but the prolonged winter and wet and cold spring has pushed everything back.”

The trials of farming temporarily disappear when farmers head to market and sell directly to consumers. Gieringer loves the land, but the market has its own attraction.

“Something about the farmers market really brings out the social side of me,” he says, his voice quickening. “You get to see such an array of people — it’s like being in a sidewalk café. It’s a fun, fascinating environment … much faster-paced than out here at the farm.”

Best peaches to bake

Gieringer advises home cooks buying from market stalls to look for freestone peaches.

“The first peaches are really for eating out of hand. They’re still pretty clingy,” he said, referring to the varieties in which fruit clings to the pit. “They’re softer, so they don’t hold up too well for cooking or canning. Near the end of July, you get into the freestones. When they’re ripe, you can just flick the pit out with your thumb. They’re the more substantial varieties for cooking.”

Amish baker Becky Miller uses only freestones in her best-selling peach pie.

“I look for a freestone because they’re nicer to peel, slice and cut up. Unless you’re eating them like an apple, you definitely want freestone,” Miller says.

Her crates of produce and stacks of pies have been available at the Ottawa market for nine years. This year, she’s expanding to sell in Overland Park on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

“If it’s a good year for peaches, I could sell a dozen peach pies in a day,” she says.

Creative culinary twists

Does Miller have a peach pie secret?

“I add a little bit of orange Jell-O powder to bring out the peach flavor. And a little lemon juice keeps the peaches looking nice.”

Chef Mollentine likes to use peaches as a stand-in for other fruits. “You can substitute them for more exotic ingredients like mangos,” he says.

The Texas-trained chef also adds pureed peaches to barbecue sauce for an underlying sweetness and serves up Peachy Keen Salsa using some of his favorite Hatch chili peppers. (Check out his salsa recipe on The Kansas City Star’s Chow Town blog.)

Peaches and peppers, you say? “The two complexities together are fabulous,” he says.

Just can’t get enough

As for Bader, he’s definitely an out-of-the-produce-box eater. “People always ask me if I ever get sick of eating them, but I like to eat two or three a day.”

We wrapped up our conversation so Bader could get back to his peaches.

The next day, I had to run to the store for ingredients to test my Fresh Peach Chutney recipe. I couldn’t resist snapping a photo of the produce boxes stacked just inside the door: They were Missouri peaches from Bader Farms.

This story was originally published August 5, 2014 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Missouri peaches have a short season so enjoy them now."