Fruiting Body

The natural world erupts into my consciousness — sight, sound, smell — the key is observation, a practice especially challenging in the hyperactive, sense-whelming city.

Here I am planning to cross a highway on-ramp while not being run over, dodging masses of pigeon droppings under an overpass, noticing a fruit on the sidewalk. Looking up. A tree heavy with fruit in what’s essentially a traffic island. Something Prunus. The slender, slightly curving leaves are characteristically peachy, the smooth fruit less so. But then, P. persica, the peach tree, has over 2,000 named fruiting cultivars! Including nectarines, like these. Nectarines are essentially fuzzless peaches, caused by a recessive gene, but now cultivated and marketed as a separate fruit (and, sadly, mostly grown for transportation, not taste).

Good inspiration for making peach cobbler this weekend. You bring the ice cream.