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Best way to make grilled peaches coated in ginger and butter, served with dairy-free coconut ice cream, and crumbled ginger cookies.
Grilled Ginger Peaches

Have you ever thought that the peaches you had in August tasted completely different from the ones you tried back in May? Maybe you thought it was just the difference between eating a peach at the height of the season and one picked a little too early. You whispered to a friend, “The flavor and texture were so different, they could scarcely be considered the same fruit!” Newsflash – they probably weren't, even though they were both labeled peaches.

I can never resist stone fruit. I love them all, from the sweet flesh of deep red cherries I snack on in the car, to juicy peaches whose sweet goodness runs down my fingers with the first bite. Apricots show up first here in northern California, with the rest rushing in together with a flourish. By July, it's an orgasm of Tuscan colored fruit piled on worn tables under tents at the markets.

All Stone Fruits are Hybrids

They're an incestuous group, these stone fruits. They're all closely related to each other, having all originated from the bitter almond tree. This closeness makes them excellent candidates for hybridizing, and farmers have taken advantage of this for decades. Just as wheat was hybridized to increase yield and ward off pests, stone fruits were hybridized to adapt to different weather conditions and soils, to fight off pests, and to improve pollination so that we could all enjoy peaches for a longer period of time. So, the peach you have at one time of the year may well be a different peach hybrid than the peach you have at another. But because there are little labeling requirements on naming stone fruits, they may both be labeled peaches. Interestingly, peaches and nectarines are so close genetically, they're practically fraternal twins, with the obvious exception of a gene responsible for a smooth skin vs fuzzy.

The stone fruit family tree gets further complicated with the openly acknowledged hybrids. You've seen them. Pluots, and their predecessor, the plumcot, are the most popular in my markets. Just in case you didn't know, a plumcot is a 50/50 plum and apricot hybrid, and the pluot backcrosses the plumcot with the plum to improve pollination. Apriums are another plum – apricot hybrid, but where the pluots are plum dominant, apriums are apricot dominant, with a lighter, almost tropical flavor.

Then there are the more rare peacotums, a cross between a peach, apricot, and plum (also marketed as Golden Velvet), or nectarcots, a cross between a nectarine and apricot. You might have seen them and not know it, as any of these could be marketed under different names by different growers and/or nurseries.

So how do you really know what you're getting? I recommend taking advantage of samples being provided, and ask the farmer at the farmer's market how he grows his stone fruit. Ask him what hybrids he works with, and why.

My Favorite Grilling Partner

I am a HUGE fan of Cookina Reusable Grilling Sheets. They roll up for easy storage, come with their own little scrubber, and instantly lay flat on the grill. I can get grill marks on anything I grill, with none of the mess on the grill itself. Without the Grilling Sheets, the peaches in this recipe would likely have stuck to the grill, or ignited unwanted flames, or both. With the Grilling Sheets, I didn't have to worry about any of that, and within seconds of removing from the grill, they're cool enough to handle. They clean up in a flash, but can be thrown in the dishwasher if you want to go that route. I've also used them in the oven with great success. They make a great gift for yourself, or your favorite BBQ-er. I confess I received my Grilling Sheets as a gift from Cookina to try out on my own grill, making this a quasi-sponsored post. Here's where you can get your own on Amazon (affiliate link). Just click on the below picture:

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