I’m sad because of fruit.  I know what you’re thinking.  How can a diehard food enthusiast be sad because of fruit?  I guess wistful is more accurate.  Mournful maybe.  OK, sad.

I know a lot of us feel this way.  Labor Day is around the corner and I haven’t eaten nearly enough peaches.  They’re vibrant and slurpy now and I’m trying to make up for lost time.

Because this isn’t the first year the summer escaped me, and slurpy peaches are an important part of summer.

Last year I spent most of the summer tooling around the Midwest in my sporty red Mustang visiting farmers markets.  Yes, a great gig, but I felt like I missed the summer.  Tomatoes failed, and not just mine, but I didn’t have the ginger-ale-on-the-back-porch kind of summer I wanted.  And not this year either.  I still can’t figure out what happened.  I didn’t stock my freezer with strawberry bourbon sauce, or the cupboard with blueberry basil preserves.  And my tomatoes were again lackluster performers, but that’s because I need raised beds and new soil to counteract the burned-down barn residue.

So what happened?

My season wasn’t a total loss.  I made luscious carrot soup at the Chicago Botanic Garden, I grilled some corn, and my chili-blend butter recipe for grilled corn ran in a bunch of Tribune newspapers.  I gardened enough to flair up my carpal tunnel, a gardening injury from several years back when I ordered ten yards of topsoil in hopes of Michelle Obama arms and a more level back yard.

But back to the peaches.

I’m making up for lost time by buying up as many peaches as I can get my hands on. Today I enjoyed them with my new favorite granola.  Typically I make mine with honey, but my cupboard was bare of my favorite sweetener.  I had bookmarked Melissa Clark’s recipe from the New York Times using olive oil and maple syrup, both of which were handy this morning.  This is a pared-down bare-bones version of Melissa’s, perfect for sprinkling on top of slurpy peaches. And if you’d like homemade yogurt with your peaches and granola, The Kitchn has a great post here.

Olive oil and maple improv granola

Riffed from the Melissa Clark’s fantastic recipe in the New York Times.

Makes three cups

3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal

1/4 cup fruity olive oil

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Turn oven on to 350 degrees.  Pour oatmeal into a three-quart shallow baking dish, then drizzle with olive oil and maple syrup.  Sprinkle with salt and cinnamon.  Put into oven for two or three minutes, then remove and stir thoroughly. Return to oven and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Store tightly covered in the refrigerator.

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Tags: granola peaches

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