Julia Child's Favorite Fruit

Every year on August 15th Jon Rowley sent Julia Child a birthday box of Frog Hollow peaches. She liked them so much she ate them with a spoon; you can read about that here.

One year Jon sent me a box too; I was so enamored of the peaches that I was inspired to write this piece.

Jon was one of the most wonderful people in the food world - or any world for that matter. Julia called him '“the fish missionary” and sent me off to interview him when I was a very young writer. You can read one of the many pieces I wrote about him over the years here.

In Mexico, guacamole changes with the seasons. Right now, when avocados are at their richest and peaches at their best, is the time for summer guacamole. The recipe substitutes peaches for tomatoes to bring out the sweet nature of the avocados.

A few tips:
Make sure your avocados are ripe. They’re picked hard, so you probably need to buy them ahead of time and ripen them at room temperature. (You can speed up the process by putting them into a paper bag with a ripe banana.) When they yield to gentle pressure put them in the refrigerator so they don’t get over-ripe.

Use white onions - not sweet ones, not red ones, not brown ones. White onions have the cleanest flavor - and you want that sharpness. And rather than leaving them in chunks, grind them to a paste before adding the avocados.

Use a mortar and pestle or a fork rather than a food processor. That way you will end up with the interesting texture that is a big part of guacamole’s appeal.

Taste, taste, taste. Keep adjusting the flavors until you’re satisfied that this guacamole is exactly what you want it to be. Otherwise, you’re just letting the avocados down.

Serve immediately; guacamole does not improve with age.

Summer Guacamole with Peaches
1/2 small white onion, finely chopped
1 green jalapeno chile, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
3 ripe Hass avocado, seeded and peeled
2 small ripe peaches, peeled
1 lime

Put the onion and chile into the bottom of molcajete or an ordinary mortar. Add the salt and crush to a paste.

Put the avocados and peaches into the mortar with the onions. Mash, leaving it all quite chunky.

Finish mashing with a