If you would have asked me 2 weeks ago whether or not you could grow peaches in the Phoenix area I would have probably laughed at the ridiculousness of the question. And I would have been completely WRONG! When the cherries I bought to can and make jam with went bad I started searching our area for "U-Pick" farms since that was how we picked our cherries when visiting Washington. Using the www.pickyourown.org site we found several in the area and decided on Fenway Park Orchards to go and pick peaches at.
Aunt Debbie had the day off so we piled in her car and headed for our short drive north.
When we arrived we were handed a couple boxes and shown where the pickin' was good!
Of course you have so sample a few along the way.
Although it was going to get very hot that day (like 110 degrees hot), in the shadow of the trees it was still tolerable, and we had some nice company.When we had picked our fill, our bounty was weighed by a friendly gentleman who looked more likely to be from Lancaster County than Maricopa!
Our peaches are the "White Stone" variety, they were very sweet and had great flavor. Their only real disadvantage was that they were small and very ripe, which meant by the time they were picked (and less than gently dropped at times), and loaded into a hot car they were spoiling at a bit of an alarming rate. I had been hoping to wait until the next day to tackle making Peach Preserves but worried my fuzzy and flavorful peaches wouldn't make it that long. To wash, peel, pit, and slice what I needed to make preserves with these small variety peaches took what felt like FOREVER! And because many were bruised and squishy, they required a lot of trimming. 
In the end it was worth it though, by dinner time I had a beautiful collection of honey colored Peach Preserves. I think because they were so ripe, my preserves are definitely on the "soft' side. We had them the next morning on pancakes with a little dollop of cool whip...
only do this if you can afford the calories, which probably means you're under 14 years old. This was so delicious I was tempted to run back to Fenway Farms to get more, until I remembered how long it took me to prepare those fuzzy gems and then I came to my senses. 
Next year I hope to try picking some of the berries that they have, and maybe make another trip for some apples. 
Until then we'll enjoy our Spiced Peach Preserves over toast, biscuits, and of course pancakes!
