We’re getting a new dessert destination in town called “The Peach Cobbler Factory”. It’s a franchise I’ve never heard of despite locations in twenty-six states. As you’d expect, The Peach Cobbler Factory offers fruit pie in a cup (à la mode or sans ice cream) but also lots of other desserts. Choose from cheesecakes, cookies, or brownies, and all sorts of spins on peaches. Now if only I actually liked peaches.
Without “cobbler” in the name this business would never have caught my eye. The truth is, I love peach cobbler. It’s one of those foods I find inexplicably tasty even when its main ingredient doesn’t appeal to me. The same can be said for Fig Newtons. I’ve never been a fig fan yet I’ve eaten scores of the cookies. Not that they taste like fresh figs. But cobbler tastes like fresh fruit.
I grew up in a household that was all pie and no cake (read my take on pies in Any Way You Slice It). My mother used to make delicious hot fruit pies from scratch. Cherry, lemon meringue, apple, and peach, and there might’ve been a blueberry in there somewhere as well. The cherry was always my favorite but the peach was a close second. My mother knew how to make a homemade crust, with the wonderful latticework on top to finish off the look. She also knew what ingredients went into the pie to give it just the right consistency.
So go figure; I love hot peach pie even if I don’t love peaches. Maybe I had too many as a kid (not by choice), sliced into a bowl and served with cream. Maybe the sugar and crust of the pie somehow makes the peaches more palatable. Whatever the reason, I know I’ll be visiting the The Peach Cobbler Factory and giving their products a try.
Peaches are a big deal around here, evidenced by the groves (no, not “orchards”) of trees just about everywhere you look. South Carolina harvests over 90,000 tons of the fuzz balls every year, over twice as many as our neighbor to the west. That’s right; Georgia may consider itself “The Peach State” (as their signs boast when we cross the Savannah River) and their pretty girls might be “Georgia Peaches”, but South Carolinians know which state really delivers the fruit. On that note, here’s more peach trivia:
- The peaches you buy at the market are likely a local product, but no country produces them in numbers like China does. If you added up the peach production from every country in the world you wouldn’t be close to half the number coming out of China.
- A nectarine is technically a peach. So is an apricot. The fruits are only separated by one recessive gene (causing the “shaved” look of a nectarine). You can even find peaches and nectarines growing on the same tree.
- Peaches come in 300 varieties. The “yellow” is the one you’re familiar with but the white is more common. Peaches can also look like donuts (flatter, with a hole in the middle). They’re categorized as “freestone” or “clingstone” according to how the pit separates (or doesn’t) from the fruit itself.
- Peach fuzz is a form of defense. It protects the fruit from the rot brought on by surface water. It also discourages bugs from taking a bite. Maybe I should skip my morning shave whenever I work in the backyard?
I’ll be sure to report back after I give The Peach Cobbler Factory a try. I’m hoping their signature dessert is as peachy keen as Mom used to make. Of course, it’ll be cobbler – not pie – which adds to today’s trivia. With a cobbler I don’t get a crust under the fruit… only on top. That’s okay. As long as it’s hot and a la mode I’ll be transported back to the pie days of my youth. With desserts like those, who needs cake?
Some content sourced from the Lane Southern Orchards website, and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.
———————————————————–
LEGO Neuschwanstein Castle – Update #5 (read about the start of this project in Fit for a (Fairy Tale) King
As predicted, we’ll continue to build this castle in modules. Bag 9 came together in a cool eighteen minutes, but Bag 10 was another test of patience with more of those tiny, tiny pieces. The end result of both bags is the structure and tower you see above, carefully snapped into the surrounding model after I completed it. It’s known as a “bower”, a private apartment for the ladies of the house. Fancy digs, no?
I would’ve loved to see the bower in all its glory. The fact is, with only 14 of Neuschwanstein’s 200 rooms completed the bower is likely just the elegant exterior walls you see here and nothing else. And those walls are full of windows, aren’t they? I’ve added dozens of windows to the castle (with several dozen more to go). And – painful lesson – those windows need to be oriented correctly. I got one wrong on the lowest level of the bower, which meant several steps of deconstruction/reconstruction. Not so fun.
Here’s a close-up of Neuschwanstein’s “lower courtyard”. It’s where King Ludwig would’ve welcomed his guests when they arrived. It’s also where you – should you choose to visit – will begin your tour of this magnificent structure. When all’s said and done, the castle itself will utterly tower over this courtyard, a statement about not only the castle but also Ludwig himself.
Running build time: 5:07.
Total leftover pieces: 37.
Accompanying movie soundtrack: Rudy (1993). I can’t believe this movie came out over thirty years ago. Then again, I can’t believe I graduated from Notre Dame over forty years ago. Extreme bias aside, Rudy is a story of perseverance unlike any other. Just when you think Rudy Ruettiger can’t 1) Get accepted into Notre Dame, 2) Make the football team, 3) Actually play in a football game… Rudy delivers the goods time and again. You need hear only a few seconds of the flute-soloed theme to know most of the soundtrack. I can tie every bit of the music back to specific scenes in the move but that’s just me, a Notre Dame fanatic. I’ll be watching my Fighting Irish – in person – this weekend as they take on Wisconsin at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field. Meanwhile, you’ll be listening to the Rudy soundtrack. Here.
I’m the opposite. I like plain peaches for eating but not peach cobbler or peach pie. Not sure why, just that pie to me always means apple or occasionally cherry. I’ve never heard of the restaurant, but checked the menu and they do not have apple cobbler. Dessert restaurants seem to be popular these days, maybe it’s the splurge like with the gelato. This is the first year I have seen the donut peaches in our grocery stores, but haven’t sampled them….yet. It was not a good year for local nectarines, another fav of mine, but they were not sweet. I would not have thought of China as a major peach producer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My wife loves nectarines and has had the same challenge finding them this year, Joni. I keep meaning to ask her why she prefers a nectarine over a peach. Lack of fuzz? When I think cobbler I don’t think “apple” but it would make sense that just about any fruit pie can be offered as a cobbler as well. And good point about “dessert stores”. Ice cream has a razor-thin margin of profit so you have to believe other desserts aren’t much better as a profitable business. We have a shop in our town that offers nothing but brownies. Wonder how long that’ll last?
LikeLike
You don’t have to peel a nectarine so that could be part of it! I’ve never had a brownie better than the ones I make at home from a simple Betty Crocker mix although I use butter not oil, smothered with Betty Crocker’s chocolate icing in a can, the sweet one, not the whipped stuff! I find most homemade restaurant brownies made from gourmet cocoa way too chocolately. Jays winning 8-1 against Kansas….every game counts! This is how I spend my September….
LikeLiked by 1 person
My wife confirms your theory on what makes a nectarine her fruit of choice. She doesn’t like “hairy skin” ha. And go Jays! I’m not on any of the division leader bandwagons so I’ll be happy to root for a potential Wild Card. That applies to the Mariners as well ⚾️
LikeLike
There’s nothing like a good cobbler. My wife makes a good one, but my mother was generally not good at cooking — she did know all the good places to buy pies, but she rarely made them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have a few places in town where I’d trust the purchase of a pie, but not many. Seems to me I should attempt to make one, even if I don’t achieve the level of quality of my mother’s. Homemade crust is apparently a fine art so that scares me a little. But the thought of a homemade peach pie doesn’t scare me at all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really like fig newtons! This post makes me hungry…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haven’t had a Newton in a long time but can taste them as if it were yesterday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It surprises me that a dessert restaurant is profitable. Then again, many ice cream establishments certainly do well. If the Peach Factory has perfected crust like your mother, Dave, they just might make it! Interesting factoid about the fuzz on peaches. Too bad other fruits didn’t catch on, like blackberries and raspberries. If they get wet, their shelf life is drastically reduced!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I used to think of ice cream establishments as razor-thin-margin businesses, but the prices they charge today may far outweigh the cost of operation. Ditto dessert places like this one. It’ll be interesting to see what they charge for a cup of peach cobbler. Locations in twenty-six states suggests people are willing to pay high-dollar! And yes, the shelf life of berries is frustratingly short. Down here they tell us to separate the berries onto a paper towel before putting them in the frig, to lessen the likelihood of rot.
LikeLike
My mom used to make peach pie and peach cobbler too Dave – now you have me hankering for it. When we first moved here in ’66, we had a neighbor who had peach and plum trees that produced like crazy, so they told us to come fill our bags with them. They in turn got peach and plum treats courtesy of Mom. Mom used to make peach kuchen too. This little dessert place would appeal to me and people who figure peaches are healthy for you, so why not stop here? 🙂 I didn’t know the facts about the peaches – they were interesting. I’ve seen the donut peaches in the past. I’d have never guessed that China produced so many peaches – didn’t see that stat coming at all. Forty years since graduation – that’s a wow too! I’ve never seen “Rudy” (which probably doesn’t surprise you). The bower is cool – it stands on its own without toppling.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting point about “healthy for you”, Linda. Maybe that’s why this business is called “Peach” Cobbler and not one of the other fruits. Peaches just seem healthier. I’d love to attempt a homemade peach (or cherry) pie and maybe I will after this post. But homemade crust scares me a little. I’ve heard it’s a fine art, kind of like homemade pasta. You have to get it just right or it’s an inedible disaster!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, you should definitely try a homemade peach pie Dave – there’s nothing like a fresh, juicy peach and peach pie is always tasty. My mom did not make the lattice pie crust tops, but she did order a gizmo to “punch” out the lattice strips from a baking site, but didn’t get to try it. Even if it’s a disaster, you can turn it into “Peach Crumble” and let ice cream melt over it and voila – a perfect dessert!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love this approach Linda. If my pie turns into a crumble I’ll just pretend that was always my intention. Now I really don’t have an excuse not to give it a go!
LikeLike
I’m a cherry cobbler guy myself, but can do peach in a pinch.
I have made my own pie Crusts, and even splurged a time or two using lard for the fat, for flakiness perfection. The short story is that it’s what happens when the newlywed husband asks his wife why she is buying pre-made pie Crusts. After all, how hard can it be to make a pie crust? I will also confess to buying pre-made ones in recent years because I have become lazy, but still love pie.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I owe it to my mother to give pie crust from scratch a try. She used lard as well (Crisco for me, I guess?) Whatever she used back then she had no problem getting her hands and kitchen counter all messy with it. And the end result was scrumptious (a word I rarely use!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have become convinced that lard is probably a healthier option than Crisco, which is the hydrogenated stuff they tell us to avoid now. Especially in the tiny quantities used in a crust.
LikeLiked by 1 person