By August. The month Vermont pretends is still summer while secretly preparing for fall. The nights are cooler. The light shifts earlier. The garden, which was chaotic with growth in July, has settled into the steady production of a factory that knows its peak has passed and is now focused on efficiency. The tomatoes keep coming. The beans keep climbing. The zucchini has finally slowed, which I consider a personal victory in a war I was losing.
I made peach cobbler. The peaches are from New Hampshire — Vermont doesn't grow peaches worth eating, which is one of Vermont's few agricultural failures and one that we compensate for by importing from our neighbor and pretending we don't mind. The cobbler is a biscuit-top style, not a crumble, because life is full of choices and I have made mine. Butter, flour, sugar, peaches, oven. The result is summer in a baking dish, golden on top, bubbling underneath, best served warm with vanilla ice cream that melts into the peach juice and creates something that is technically a dessert but feels like a religious experience.
School starts soon. Teddy will be in third grade in September. Anna starts kindergarten. The grandchildren are marching through the educational system with the inevitability of September itself, and I find that I track their school years the way I used to track my own students' progress — with interest, with investment, and with the persistent belief that reading is the foundation of everything and any child who reads will be fine.
I spent Saturday afternoon in the sugarhouse, not doing anything useful, just sitting. The sugarhouse is empty in August — no sap, no fire, no steam. Just the smell of old maple and wood smoke and the quiet of a building that has done its job for the year and is resting until March. I like it in there. It's the one place on the property that is entirely mine — Helen has the flower beds, Frost has the yard, the garden belongs to both of us, but the sugarhouse is mine. My grandfather built it. My father used it. I use it. Someday David will use it. The succession is simple and certain and more comforting than I can say.
Cobbler cooling. August fading. School approaching. The sugarhouse waiting for March. Everything in its season. Everything in its place.
The cobbler I described up there is the centerpiece of the week, but peaches have a way of multiplying when you buy them from a New Hampshire farm stand — you bring home more than you planned, because August is short and peaches don’t wait. On the evenings when the oven felt like too much, when the sugarhouse heat still lingered in the air and Helen and I just wanted something cool and uncomplicated before the night settled in, this quick peach fruit salad became the answer: the same New Hampshire peaches, less ceremony, no less gratitude for what the season had given us.
Quick Peach Fruit Salad
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 4 large ripe peaches, peeled and sliced
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
- 1/2 cup seedless green grapes, halved
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Fresh mint leaves for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare the fruit. Peel and slice the peaches into bite-sized wedges. Hull and halve the strawberries. Halve the grapes. Rinse the blueberries and pat dry. Combine all fruit in a large serving bowl.
- Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, fresh lemon juice, and vanilla extract until the honey is fully dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
- Toss and coat. Pour the honey-lemon dressing over the fruit and gently toss to coat all the pieces evenly, being careful not to bruise the peaches.
- Rest briefly. Let the salad sit for 5 minutes at room temperature so the fruit releases a little of its juice and the flavors come together.
- Serve. Transfer to individual bowls or serve family-style from the large bowl. Garnish with fresh mint leaves if desired. Best served the same day while the peaches are at their peak.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 95 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 24g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 2mg