National Peach Pie Day

August 24th is National Peach Pie Day in the United States.

This is another dish made with peaches, but it does fall during National Peach Month.

Pies themselves are baked dishes that are made from a pastry dough casing. There are different types of pies, as defined by how the pastry is used. A single, or bottom, crust pie has the top left open. A top crust pie has a lid on top, but no bottom. A two crust pie has both a top and bottom lid, although the top lid may be a lattice of pastry strips. In sweet dessert pies, which a peach pie is, the pastry used is usually, but doesn't have to be, flaky pastry.

The filling of this pie is, naturally enough, peaches. These are added to the pie and then the dish is finished in the oven by baking.

National Eat a Peach Day

In the United States, August 22nd is National Eat a Peach Day.

The peach is a tree that was originally native to north-western China which has been cultivated since around 2,000 BC. From China, it spread westwards to Persia and then to Greece by Alexander the Great following his conquest of Persia. It continued to spread westwards and was transported to the Americas by the Spanish in the 16th century. Today, peaches are grown in many different countries, although China is still, by far, the largest producer of them.

The peach fruit itself, also called a peach, have white or yellow flesh, which is the part eaten. They have a stone (the seed) inside that either sticks to the flesh - a clingstone - or is easy to remove - a freestone. The skin of a peach is covered with a light fuzz. Nectarines, which are actually a peach rather than being a distinct different fruit, instead have a smooth skin.

The peach, like many fruit, contains many useful vitamins, minerals and nutrients. The seed, though, is less good for you, being toxic with the chance of producing the dangerous hydrogen cyanide gas. So, eat a peach, but don't eat the stone.

National Peach Month

August is National Peach Month in the United States.

Peaches come from a fruit tree of the same name that was first domesticated in north west China, which is the region from which they originated, although the name "peach" and its scientific name is due to early Europeans believing that the tree originated in Persia. China is still the largest producer of peaches in the world.

Peaches are  a spherical stone fruit, or drupe, that have a velvety skin and yellow or whitish flesh, and may come in different colours. Nectarines, which are considered a different fruit, also come from the peach tree; the difference is that they have a smooth, rather than a velvety, skin.

Peaches, like many fruit, can be eaten fresh, but they are also preserved, tinned and used in an ingredient in many dishes, especially desserts.

National Peach Ice Cream Day

National Peach Ice Cream Day is on July 17th in the United States.

Yet another day that celebrates a particular flavour of ice cream, rather than celebrating ice cream in general. This time it's peach.

Ice cream, a frozen dessert which is usually, but does not have to be, made with dairy products, is flexible in that it can be flavoured in many different ways, simply by adding different ingredients to the base recipe. For peach ice cream, this can be done by simply adding flavouring to the mix or, alternatively, could also use instead, or as well, actual pieces of peach. Generally, the first type of ice cream tends to be cheaper than the second.

Peaches themselves are a fruit which first came from China but has since spread all across the world. China is still, by far, the world's largest producer of peaches, and a significant proportion of the remaining supply comes from various countries surrounding the Mediterranean.

National Peaches and Cream Day

June 21st is National Peaches and Cream Day in the United States.

This is really quite a simple dish, as it requires no cooking and very little in the way of preparation. Peaches, which would usually be fresh, as well as being split open and having the stone removed, would be served in a dish and topped with cream. The cream could be single, double, whipped, pouring or aerosol for example, depending on personal preferences.

Peaches themselves are a fruit that is consumed and produce all over the world, with the People's Republic of China being the largest producer of them, well over the next rival, as more peaches are currently grown in the PRC than the next nine countries combined. They are related to both the cherry and the plum and, although it is usually marketed as a different fruit, the nectarine is of the same species.

National Peach Cobbler Day

April 13th is National Peach Cobbler Day in the United States.

Peach cobbler is, obviously enough, a cobbler that uses peaches. But what is a cobbler itself?

Cobblers can be either sweet or savoury. Peach cobbler, as it uses a fruit, is a sweet dessert dish, rather than a savoury one. They replaced the suet pudding, as British American colonists were unable to get the needed ingredients and cooking equipment.

The basic cobbler has the filling, in this case peaches, poured into a baking dish. This filling is then topped, with such as batter, scone, pie crust or biscuit (the U.S. type). Some cobbler variants may also have a bottom crust. These are most common in the American South.

The peach cobbler is a traditionally American South recipe, so it would be common to find it in the two crust variety. In such a case, it would also be frequently topped with vanilla ice cream.