How To Tell If A Peach Is Ripe

There are several ways to tell if a peach is ripe, and they all require using your senses: sight, touch, and smell in particular.

From taking a family trip to the beach to enjoying long, sultry evenings sipping a refreshing cocktail while rocking on your porch, no Southern summer activity compares to biting into a tender, juicy, ripe peach.

We've rounded up some telltale signs of a perfectly ripe peach in this article, because whether you're bringing home a basket of peaches from the farmers' market to bake a fresh peach cobbler or simply snacking on their juicy goodness, it's disappointing—not to mention extremely difficult to manage—to discover that your prized peaches are either too soft and mealy or still hard as a rock. Learn how to pick the perfect one.

What To Look and Feel For

• Reddish tint: A ripe peach has a dark yellow color, or ground color, on the part of the fruit that hasn't been exposed to the sun. Look for a reddish tint on the other side where the fruit did get sun exposure. Avoid peaches that have visible dark spots and bruises, as those are likely overripe. If the peach is green or has any hint of green left on it, that means it needed more time on the tree and was picked too early.
• Wrinkles are good: It may surprise you, but a few wrinkles are actually a good thing when looking for a ripe peach. You can tell that a peach is ready to eat by looking for signs of shriveled skin around the stem. Once the fruit is picked, water begins to evaporate because the skin is very porous. The evaporation causes slight wrinkles around the stem while concentrating the flavors of the fruit, which means an intensely sweet peach for you.

• Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze: Gently of course! You want your peach to have a little bit of give when you gently squeeze it, but not so much that you bruise or poke a hole into the flesh simply by tapping it with your finger. If the peach is rock hard, like a baseball, it was harvested too early. If it is firm with a teeny bit of give, like a tennis ball, it needs a little bit more time to get to that perfectly ripe place. While you can eat an unripe peach, it won't be as sweet, juicy, or enjoyable.

How To Use Your Sense Of Smell

• Sweetness is swell: A sure sign that a peach is ready to be enjoyed is when it gives off a sweet aroma, so go ahead and take a whiff. No smell usually means no taste, and a peach that is not yet ripe will not have a strong smell. As peaches ripen, their aroma becomes stronger and stronger, and a fully ripe peach will have an aroma that will be impossible to resist.

How To Ripen Peaches

• Peaches can continue to ripen at home even if they aren't ready for eating. You can store them in a paper bag or let them ripen on the counter. It's best to leave them on a counter on their shoulders (the top of the peach near where the stem would have been) away from direct sunlight. Set the fruits slightly apart so they aren't touching.
• To speed up ripening, cover them with a kitchen towel or linen napkin—something breathable—while discouraging fruit flies and other insects that can damage the fruit. Depending on the peaches' maturity, this could take a couple of days or as long as a week.
• Check to see if they have softened by feeling them gently and smelling the aroma. When they are soft and smell like peaches, they are ready to enjoy.

How To Store Ripe Peaches

Peaches taste best when stored at room temperature, but sometimes you can't get to them all before they begin to go soft and rot. To slow the ripening process, store them stem-side-down on a flat surface and be careful not to crowd them. If you absolutely must, you can put peaches in the fridge where they should keep for up to a week. Very ripe peaches might only last for a few days in the fridge.

Peach Recipes To Try

• Peach-Blueberry Pie
• Peach Cake
• Fresh Peach Ice Cream
• Easy Peach Cobbler
• Peach Margaritas
• Peach Salsa