Peach Fuzz

This past week I had an adventure, of a sort. OK. It was a very minor adventure. OK. Maybe not exactly an adventure. But I Tried Something New and approached it with some trepidation. I know that peach fuzz shouldn't cause anyone grief, but there ya go. This week I overcame my aversion to peach fuzz.

Ever since I was a little kid, I had it in my head that I don't like peaches. I cannot think back to a single bad experience with them. It was never attacked by peaches in my dreams. I never got sick from eating peaches. I was never punished by being forced to eat peaches.

Indeed, I remember eating peaches from a can when I was a little boy. I don't recall especially liking or disliking them. And yes, I know peaches from a can taste completely different than fresh peaches. I'm just saying that I haven't been able to think of a reason why I've had this mild aversion to them my whole life.

When I was in college I had the occasion to try peach cobbler a few times and fell in love with it. The fresher the peaches the better. Of course what's not to like? Carby-goodness, milk, cream, peaches, sugar. And it wasn't like the flavor of the peaches was hidden by all the other stuff. I actually liked the taste of the fresh peaches. And over the years I got to the point of seeking it out. About once a summer I'll buy some fresh peaches at a roadside stand and make some peach cobbler. It's one of the few things I'll suffer the time it takes to bake.

And yet. And yet. I never ever ate a fresh peach. It never occurred to me. Even when I was buying peaches at the roadside stand for a cobbler, it never occurred to me to eat a fresh one.

Well, I was hanging out with a couple of friends at our local "whole foods" coop a few days ago and somehow the conversation turned to fresh fruits and peaches and I admitted that I didn't like fresh peaches. You would have thought my friends had just discovered a second head sticking out of my neck.

Of course I back peddled. I admitted to liking cooked peaches in cobblers etc. And allowed as how maybe I should give fresh peaches a chance sometime. Immediately, one of my friends said he was going to go into the store and buy some fresh peaches for us to try.

Gulp. I can't say I felt like making a run for it. But I did feel this mild panic and my mind raced through options for diplomatically getting out of this sudden obligation to eat peaches with my friends. There weren't any good options.

There's something about facing your fears. or at lest in this case being forced to face the fear through good natured peer pressure to make it crystal clear. For the first time in my life I realized that it's not the taste of the peaches I don't like. It's the peach fuzz that seems kinda weird to me. The idea of biting through something fuzzy just seems, I dunno, not right some how.

One of my super hero skills is the ability to make a mountain out of a mole hill in my head. In the 5 minutes it took my friend to go buy some fresh peaches, the idea of biting through peach fuzz grew bigger and nastier in my head. I was getting all stoic about it in my head. Trying to compose myself so I would not make a fool of myself by gagging on peach fuzz or some other involuntary bodily reaction.

Given all that buildup, of course, the end of the story is anti-climactic. Yes. It was kinda weird feeling the peach fuzz on my lips and tongue. But it's paper thin and as soon as your teeth tear through it, you are rewarded by the deliciousness of peaches that are a perfect combination of fleshiness and sweetness. And I'll even go so far as to say that there is a brief moment after you take that initial bite but before you start shewing when there is a contrast in your mouth between the warm fuzziness of the peach fuzz and the cool fleshy sweetness of the peach which is absolutely amazing.