peach and blueberry cornbread cobbler

We went peach picking yesterday!

Just like we did with the strawberries, we made the short jaunt over to Huber’s Orchard and Winery with my parents yesterday morning to hit up the Huber’s peach orchard. I’ve talked about it before on here, but peaches are a bit hit and miss here in Indiana. They just don’t grow great here consistently. Those folks that are getting them to grow really well every year are spraying the crap out of them with insecticide. But every now and again, we’ll get a year with weather that is great for peaches, and this was one of those years!

We love going to Huber’s because they are a low/no spray farm, which means that these beauties were only sprayed once and only before the fruit was on the tree. 100% organic it is not, but considering the price, proximity and taste, that’s okay by me. We got our nearly organic, hyper local, insanely delicious peaches for $0.89 per pound. Which is usually the sale price of conventional peaches (flown in from hundreds of miles away) in the grocery store. And because it was such a great deal, we, uh, stocked up.

Unlike picking strawberries, peach picking is super speedy work. The four of us were able to pick about 160~ pounds of peaches in about 20 minutes. I know that sounds like an insane amount of fruit, but we’ve got big plans. We’re going to be doing a ton of freezing and canning of these beauties so we can enjoy them during the winter. Plus, I have a bunch of fun recipes floating around in my brain. And, of course, we need a bunch for fresh eating. I’m not exaggerating, I ate at least eight peaches yesterday just on my own. SO GOOD. Craig and I ended up taking home two bushels of yellow peaches (which were perfectly firm and ripe for preserving) and a quarter bushel of ripe, run-down-your-chin-juicy white peaches. Those suckers are going to be reserved for eating over the next week.

On the tractor ride back from the orchard, we were brainstorming all the delicious dishes we were going to make with our peaches when the tractor took a turn and headed to the blueberry patch to drop off some other u-pickers. They had giant blueberry bushes heavy with ripe, plump blueberries ready to be picked. We were tempted to get off the tractor and pick some of our own, but weren’t really feeling schlepping 160 pounds of peaches off and back on the tractor again, so instead, I just bought a pre-picked (but from those bushes) pint of blueberries at their farm store. Not quite the same fun-factor as picking your own (and holy geeze, a lot more expensive) but still delicious none-the-less! And with the blueberries in tow, this dessert beauty was born in my brain.

I’ve been wanting to make a cornbread cobbler for a while now. Growing up, my nickname was “The Cornbread Kid” and I certainly came by it honestly. I love, love, love cornbread! And I’ve been contemplating for a while now sweetening up some cornbread and using it as a topper for a summer cobbler. In my mind I had it atop some tart cherries (and I’ll eventually try that out, too), but it works beautifully on top of this peach-blueberry hybrid. I particularly love the texture of the cornbread. It’s not heavy or dense like some cobbler toppings, it’s crumbly and light, but still holds up nicely to the sweet fruit syrup that bakes out of the peaches and blueberries.

Of course, you can’t eat fresh fruit cobbler without a big dollop of vanilla ice cream alongside (promise me you won’t even try). Summer perfection in a bowl! Gosh, I love this season.

Enjoy! I’m off to go freeze some more peaches.

 

 

What’s your favorite summer dessert? Cobbler’s mine!