Pesca nel Sacchetto

In a country of citrus and almonds, olives and prickly pear, Leonforte grows peaches, and every June does something faintly mad: as they prune, the men bag the still-green fruit one by one in little vellum sacks. It is exacting work that allows no mistakes, and the fastest can bag more than 2,000 in a day. Inside the bag the peach is out of reach of pests and wind and can hang on the tree to the last moment, ripening from August into October and sometimes November. They are not showy fruit, ripening late and in the dark, at most an intense yellow with faint red streaking, but they smell wonderful and the flesh is yellow, firm and sweet with something caramelised in it.