Fresh | Peaches embody the flavors of summer

The other day, on a hike up to the perfect picnic spot with my partner, a bottle of wine, and the sun on my shoulders, we came to a little mountain stream.

We were headed up to the middle of nowhere, and I rolled up my pants, glancing around for a log or a trail of bigger stones to bridge the banks, to keep my dry warm feet dry and warm. The water was ice cold.

After failing to find any possibility of staying dry, I had to laugh at myself -- this, I realized, is what summer is all about: getting your feet wet, getting sand in your shoes, getting the edges of your rolled up pants legs soggy and drying in the sun. It's mosquito bites and sunburn, grass stains and slowing down long enough to watch the speed of the clouds and listen to the wind.

Peaches, of all fruits, embody summer. Unlike an apple or a banana, which I can eat one-handed while driving down the highway, a peach demands I slow down, pay attention. Eating a peach requires both hands -- one for the fruit, one to catch the dribbles of juice with a napkin, before the stickiness reaches my tank top.

The perfect peach is as sweet as candy, temporary as a few weeks of sunshine, and delicate as a bee's questing touch. The perfect peach is the color of late evening sunshine with skin as soft as well-worn cotton. Peaches and summer days are both ephemeral, both meant to be savored, both inviting you to be present, really here, with every sense, for a few moments.

In honor peaches, this month's recipe is a peach crumble. This is a simple recipe and there are a million variations. I got my basic recipe off about.com, after searching for peach crumble. My main criteria was that the topping have oatmeal in it, which I think gives the whole thing a great texture.

I started with peaches from Johnson Orchards, my personal favorite peaches anywhere in the Valley. I start yearning for them as soon as the farmers market opens in May.

Start by peelnig and cutting up 6-7 peaches. The recipes calls fro 6 cups, but I may have used a bit more. Stir in 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice and some lemon zest from the same lemon. In a separate bowl, mix 4 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp. flour then sprinkle that over the peach pieces and set it aside while you make the topping.

For the topping, mix together: 1 c. flour, 1 c. oats (I used old-fashioned), 1/4 c. brown sugar, and some spcies. I figured this is the place to get creative. While the recipe called only for a 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, I used a little mroe than that and also added about 1/8 tsp. ground allspice and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg. I"m sure you could add other spices here too. A dash of vanilla? I even though a hint of black pepper -- which I was out of -- would have been interesting.

Once you've got all the dry stuff mixed up, add 1/2 c. butter, cut it in with a fork or pastry blender until the whole mix is crumbly. Put the peaches into a pie pan or a casserole dish and crumble the topping over it and you're pretty much there. I cooked mine at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, checking every 5 minutes after 25 minutes to see if the topping was browning yet.

When the crumbles are brown -- so you get that crisp texture that contrasts with the soft fruit -- and the fruit is bubbly, pull it out of the oven. Basically, when you open the oven door and it smells so good you can't wait any longer to taste your creation, it's done.

Finally, it pretty much goes without saying that this should be served very warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Also, if possible, you should try to eat this either sitting in the grass in the sunshine, or maybe on your back porch, with your feet kicked up. Anywhere that is shamelessly, wholly, flamboyantly, exuberantly summer.

* Fresh is a photo/food column by Yakima Herald-Republic photographer Sara Gettys.