Just saying “Palisade peaches” brings a smile and a sigh to most Coloradans. It’s summer’s reward from the Western Slope where the delectable, juicy fruit is grown. The region’s high-altitude sunny days and cooling nighttime breezes cause the sugar in the stone fruit to concentrate and become sweeter. There’s just nothing that beats Palisade peaches.

Weather can be an issue for Colorado orchards: Late spring freezes can knock off fruit blossoms, and hailstorms can wreak havoc on orchards.

“Farming can definitely be tough during certain times, and we are at the mercy of weather and conditions out of your control,” said Mackenzie Clark-Schmalz, who is the sixth generation, along with her sister, to operate Clark’s Orchard, Orchard River View (a wedding venue) and Clark & Co. Distillery, all in Palisade.

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For example, peach farmers in 2020 got hit by a late spring frost and then an extremely unusual frost in late fall, which the valley had never seen. The overnight temperature dropped in the fall, shocking the trees, in some cases killing them, she said. Thankfully, peach growers this year have mostly dodged those dangers.

In addition to peaches, the Clarks also grow veggies like tomatoes and peppers and have other stone-fruit trees.

“We have pears, cherries, plums and apricots as well,” she said. “Commercially, we sell peaches and pears to grocery stores and the rest out of our fruit stand.”

Beehives also populate the orchards, providing even more bounty. With so much food coming from their orchards, gardens and bees, Clark-Schmalz has plenty of ways of storing and using it all.

“We make and sell our jams, jellies, salsas and honey from beehives on our orchards — and make peach ice cream,” she said.

One of her favorite things to do with peaches is to peel and slice them into a big bowl, stir in sugar, and then put the bowl in the fridge.

“We then eat them for dessert or over vanilla ice cream, and it is delicious,” she said. “Grilling is also a favorite. We halve them, remove the seed, add some butter and brown sugar to the cut side, and cook them quickly on the grill.”

Of course, she puts her freezer to work during peach season.

“For freezing peaches, I have always peeled, sliced them and sprinkled a little Fruit-Fresh on them, then put them into Ziploc bags,” she said. “Then the bags are laid flat in the freezer. This way you can stack lots of bags on top of each other. These work great for pies and cobblers throughout the year or even smoothies.”

Cobblers are, for sure, easy to make. All you need for this deep-dish dessert is fruit, butter, sugar and flour, combined in one way or another. Most have a thick biscuit crust. Some versions have the fruit enclosed in the crust, while others have a drop-biscuit or crumb topping covering the fruit. And if you’re a pie-baking queen or king, you might cover yours with a buttery, crisscrossed lattice.

Mari Younkin, a personal chef and food stylist, is a fan of lattice tops.

“I always use a rich, sweet, buttery biscuit dough,” she said. “I roll it out and use cookie cutters to cut different shapes or cut into strips to overlap and make a lattice pattern. I then brush the dough with melted butter and sprinkle with a sugar cinnamon blend.”

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Another quick dessert is Rustic Peach Crostata, which Younkin loves to whip up. You’ll see in the accompanying photos how this lovely, rustic dish shows off beautiful fresh peaches. Crostatas are an Italian version of the French galette, which, she says, “is a flat tart that’s free-form and you fold the dough edges up and over the filling, exposing the center.”

“This peach crostata is filled with thin slices of ripe peaches that have macerated with sugar and their own juices, with a little vanilla and peach brandy,” she said.

Younkin says it’s not necessary to peel peaches before putting them into cobblers or crostata — or into most baked fruit desserts, for that matter — since the baking process will soften the peel. But if you want to peel them, she suggests blanching the peaches first.

“Score them and drop in boiling water for only a few minutes, then drop into an ice bath,” she said.

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Or you can put them in the microwave. Score each peach and microwave them one at a time on high for a few seconds, then peel them.

Don’t let the Palisade peach season pass you by. Stop by a farmers market near you, seek them out at the grocery store, or head to the Western Slope to buy them straight from the orchards. Smile, sigh, and then take your pick of the tasty ways to use this culinary prize.

Contact the writer: 636-0271.