squashed peaches

I think I might be the last person on earth to discover the existence of these flat peaches. Someone showed them to me when we were grocery shopping together in May, and yesterday evening I found them at our corner shop. I was stubborn enough to want to bake a fig, honey and marscapone pie when the fig season hasn’t quite come yet, so it became a half fig, half-flat peach, honey and marscapone pie.

i think the flat peaches I tasted in May were sweeter than last night’s, but they certainly scored high on my novelty scale. They’re also known as Saturn peaches, or donut peaches, and originate from China with a cold-resistance breeding stop at Rutgers Tree Fruit Research Center in New Jersey. The new breed was licensed to only a single grower about 15 years ago, but that licence has recently expired and more growers are offering it, which explains why the fruit has suddenly popped up here in Europe. Shops like them because… they’re stackable. I like them because they are different!