Friday has arrived. Everyone exhale.
I don’t know about you, but the heat really does a number on my appetite. I find all I want to consume is raw, cooling foods. Lots of fruits and veggies – and, of course, ice cream, but we went over that earlier in the week.
Thankfully, summertime is synonymous with fresh produce. In season foodstuffs are available at every farm stand and farmer’s market and even, depending on where you live, the supermarket. And nothing says late summer more, in my mind, than juicy, sweet peaches.
Peaches are stone fruits, which means they have a pit or “stone” (actually a seed) encased in a fleshy orb. Stone fruits are also known as drupes, and typically have thin skins that are fuzzy or smooth. There are two main types – clingstone, which adheres tightly to the center pit, and freestone, which, as the name suggests, has flesh that separates more easily from the pit.
The peach originated in China and is one of the most ancient domesticated fruits, with nearly 4,000 years of cultivation. In the 1980s, a Chinese survey team found a peach tree in Tibet that was 65 feet tall and had a 30-foot circumference. It was estimated to be 1000 years old!
Archaeologists believe that peaches in China were first domesticated along the Yangzi River, where fossilized peach stones believed to be from 6000 BC have been found.
To this day, China is the world’s leading peach producer, responsible for growing half of the world’s peaches, which translates into 11 million tons of fruit annually. Italy is No. 2, but with a paltry 1.5 tons, and then the USA at 1 ton.
Aside from the importance of the fruit, the peach blossom holds particular significance in Chinese culture. They’re believed to fend off evil spirits and provide vitality. Each New Year begins with peach blossoms are hung on front doors all over the county.
The botanical name for peach is “Prunus persica”, translated from Latin to “Present from Persia.” After conquering Persia, Alexander the Great took peach seeds to Europe and introduced the fruit to Spain and France.
In the 16th century, Spanish explorers brought peaches to South America, and from there they traveled to England, becoming a rare and prized delicacy.
English colonist and horticulturist George Minifie reportedly planted the first peach tree in North America at his home in Virginia. In 1768, Thomas Jefferson planted peach trees at Monticello, but they weren’t commercially grown in the US until about a century later.
Peach trees don’t live terribly long, compared to other fruit trees. In some cases, orchards are replanted after a decade or so, though the trees can produce for 20 to 25 years or more if they’re so inclined. It really all depends on their ability to withstand diseases, pests, and extreme weather. They don’t like the cold, and don’t grow where temperatures dip often below −23 to −26 °C.
There are many varieties of peaches, and since August is National Peach Month, now is as good a time as any to seek them out. Try them in a cobbler, a pie, a salad, gelato, ice cream, compote, pizza, or even just solo. If they’re tree-ripened and at peak, there’s really nothing better.
We’re headed into a spate of wet-ish weather, with lots of chances for scattered thunderstorms over the next four to five days and temperatures in the 90s.
In the headlines…
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema offered critical support for President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda after party leaders agreed to change new tax proposals at her request, indicating she would “move forward” on Democrats’ sweeping economic package.
To win her over, Democrats agreed to drop a $14 billion tax increase on some wealthy hedge fund managers and private equity executives, change the structure of a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations, and include drought money to benefit Arizona.
The new approach — along with other changes to the proposal known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 — satisfied Sinema’s chief concerns and helped set in motion a plan to approve it as soon as this weekend.
While Sinema didn’t outright back the plan, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in his own statement that he believed the changes would keep the bill on track in the 50-50 Senate, in the face of united Republican opposition.
In a surprise victory for Republicans, the Senate voted to overturn a Biden administration rule requiring rigorous environmental review of major infrastructure projects such as highways, pipelines and oil wells — an outcome aided by Sen. Joe Manchin.
The resolution is unlikely to pass the House, where Democrats hold a slightly larger majority, and Biden is also expected to veto the measure if it makes it to his desk.
A a plurality of registered voters now say it would be “the worst thing that could happen” if either Biden (39%) or former President Donald Trump (41%) were to win the White House again in 2024, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said he believes Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris won’t run for president in 2024.
The Biden administration declared a public health emergency (PHE) for monkeypox, signaling new urgency as cases rise in the U.S.
“We are prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said to reporters during a briefing.
The story of monkeypox feels to experts frustratingly like a replay of the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Testing took too long to get launched. Data hasn’t revealed the full extent of the outbreak. The spread wasn’t stopped quickly enough.
Biden said the nine-year sentence handed down to WNBA star Brittney Griner by a Russian court for drug smuggling is “unacceptable.”
“Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney,” Biden said. “It’s unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates,” Biden said in a statement.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 260,000 last week, near the highest level since November amid a shift in the U.S. labor market.
That is above the 2019 pre-pandemic average of 218,000 claims and just narrowly missed topping the eight-month high of 261,000 recorded in mid-July.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended an elected Democratic Tampa prosecutor, Andrew Warren, for declaring he won’t enforce strict anti-abortion laws or potential future rules prohibiting surgery for transgender kids.
In June, Warren, a Democrat, was among 90 elected prosecutors across the country who vowed not to prosecute those who seek or provide abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Florida imposed a 15-week abortion ban in April.
Federal officials charged four current and former police officers in Louisville, Ky., who were involved in a fatal raid on the apartment of Breonna Taylor, accusing them of several crimes, including lying to obtain a warrant that was used to search her home.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney apologized to Biden during a CNN appearance for saying during a debate that she didn’t think he would seek re-election in 2024.
A day after she blamed judges for rising crime in New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul ruled out any serious discussion of changes to state bail laws until January at the earliest.
Hochul said that those who blame a recent rise in crime on changes to the state’s cash bail laws in 2019 are pushing a “political slogan” rather than looking for real answers.
Siding with Mayor Eric Adams, frustrated merchants urged Hochul and the Albany legislature to roll back the controversial no-cash bail law to put more repeat offenders and other dangerous criminals behind bars.
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy slammed Hochul over her failure to dump “prosecutors that won’t uphold the law” — as he railed against the Big Apple’s soft-on-crime policies.
Hochul said that the New York State Police have made progress in their push to crackdown on guns, seizing more than twice as many firearms this year as last year, as officials work to drive down gun violence rates that surged during the pandemic.
“People are loading up trucks with weapons that they’re bringing across the state lines,” said the governor, emphasizing that these guns are not being made in New York.
Hochul said that illegal gun seizures by the New York State Police have doubled in 2022, compared to last year.
Amid the rise in homicides across both urban and rural communities, traffickers are bringing a growing percentage of firearms from states with loose gun laws into states with tighter restrictions, according to a WSJ analysis of federal data going back a decade.
New York voters have just one week to change their party affiliation ahead of the Aug. 23 primary after a judge closed a loophole.
Rep. Lee Zeldin may be at the heart of an election fraud case after a Democratic state senator filed a complaint about thousands of allegedly photocopied petition signatures submitted on behalf of the Long Island congressman’s gubernatorial campaign.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney could face an ethics investigation into allegations that he paid a staffer using campaign and House funds to perform personal services for him.
Polio has been found in more wastewater samples upstate, raising fears that the virus is spreading after an unvaccinated Rockland County resident was paralyzed and hospitalized last month.
New York State health officials intensified their push for people who have not been immunized against polio to get vaccinated “right away,” saying the one confirmed case of the disease found in the state may be “the tip of the iceberg” of a much wider threat.
“There have been no confirmed cases of polio infection identified to date in Orange County, but the virus is circulating in the community according to recent wastewater analysis reports,” county health officials wrote in a social media post.
While New York holds itself out as a beacon of reproductive rights, there is a segment of individuals who are sometimes forced to leave the state to get abortions in their second and third trimesters.
With the next shipment of monkeypox vaccines delayed for at least two months, Adams said there’s not much he can do about it aside from getting the vaccines the city does have to those who need them as quickly as possible.
Adams has instructed city agencies to present him with photographs of potential hires as City Hall reviews candidates for jobs ranging from assistant commissioner to departmental press secretary.
Several unnamed city officials maintain that the request is clearly an effort to hire more diverse staffers. However, Adams maintains that it will merely help him recognize his employees in the sprawling city workforce.
“I like being mayor,” Adams said in response to critics who can’t understand why he smiles — and hits the town — so much. “You know, I’m amazed at how much people are upset that I’m happy that I’m mayor,” he added.
Adams is blaming sudden sharp cuts in Staten Island Ferry service on crews failing to show up for work — while the union representing workers now approaching their 12th year without a contract says captains are getting wrongly blamed.
A Staten Island ferry service meltdown that stranded thousands of passengers in lower Manhattan was more than a decade in the making, said officials at the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, the union that represents the bulk of the ferry’s workforce.
Adams announced the completion of more than 200 affordable apartments in Far Rockaway – the culmination of almost a decade of planning and politicking aimed at improving what’s historically been one of the city’s most ignored neighborhoods.
New York City taxpayers paid out nearly $68 million to resolve alleged police misconduct lawsuits in the first seven months of 2022, putting the city on pace for more than $100 million in payouts by year’s end, The Legal Aid Society said.
A judge in Manhattan said that he was planning to vacate New York City’s recently adopted education budget and give City Council members the opportunity to revisit their vote.
The Adams administration has argued that school budget reductions are a necessary response to declining enrollment and avoid an even bigger budget cliff when federal COVID relief runs dry. But educators and parents argue students are hurting right now.
The police said Bishop Lamor Whitehead was robbed of a fortune in jewelry, the crime caught on camera. But the focus soon turned to him and his past run-ins with the law.
The city’s most vulnerable residents need more public places to cool down, especially at night, to prevent heat wave deaths, the city comptroller said.
Elizabeth L. Hillman, the president of Mills College, has been appointed president and chief executive of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan.
A thousand nursing students will have their tuition picked up by the state.
Amazon will pay for employees to attend classes through SUNY Empire State College.
Infowars host Alex Jones was ordered by a Texas jury to pay $4.1 million to the family of a first grader who was one of 26 people killed in a Newtown elementary school in 2012, which he falsely claimed had been a hoax orchestrated by gun-control advocates.
The Jan. 6 committee investigating the 2021 attack on the Capitol in Washington wants Jones’ phone records, according to an attorney representing the parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre.
The lawyer, Mark Bankston, who represents Sandy Hook parents suing Jones in defamation lawsuits for lies he had spread about the 2012 school shooting, said in court that he planned to turn over the texts unless a judge instructed him not to do so.
Actor Kevin Spacey must pay more than $30 million to the producers behind “House of Cards,” a judge ruled.
