2025 marks the 100th volume of the Agricultural Review, the free newspaper published by the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. To celebrate, we’re taking a journey back in time. We’re digging out some old papers, dusting off their pages and looking back at what has happened in agriculture in the last 99 years. Each month, we’ll share an article, recipe or other piece of content “From the archives” of the Ag Review. We can’t wait to see what we find!
There is something unmistakably about the scent of ripe peaches lingering in the summertime air that just screams “North Carolina.” Georgia might be known as the Peach State, but I’m convinced there’s nothing like a sweet, juicy North Carolina peach.
In the June 15, 1979, issue of the Agricultural Review, then-home economist E. York Kiker wrote, “Summertime and peach ice cream seem to go together.”
One of my fondest summer memories was when my family and I would stop at Johnson’s Peaches in Candor during the trips back home from the beach. I didn’t even dread the end of the vacation because I knew the ride home would be blissfully interrupted by a cone of peach ice cream. That sweet, perfectly light treat marked the end of another sun-kissed summer trip to the beach. I can almost taste it as I write this.
As of the 2022 Census of Agriculture, North Carolina had 356 peach farms on a total of 1,273 acres. Whether you prefer your North Carolina peaches in ice cream, pie or just standing over the kitchen sink with juice running down your chin and arms, take time to enjoy some this summer. Fresh North Carolina peaches can be found at farmers markets, roadside stands and pick-your-own orchards across the state from June to September.
If you’re craving peach ice cream and the adventure of making it on your own, here’s a recipe from that 1979 issue of the Agricultural Review.
Here’s the recipe:
ELEGANT NORTH CAROLINA PEACH ICE CREAM
3 cups peach pulp
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2 quarts North Carolina milk
1 pint whipping cream
¼ teaspoon almond flavoring
Ice & ice cream salt
To the peach pulp add the lemon juice and one cup of the sugar. Allow to stand one hour. Add the other cup of sugar & salt to the beaten eggs, then blend in half of the milk. Cook this sugar, egg & milk mixture in top of double boiler over hot water to make thick custard. Cool. Add remainder of milk, the cream that has been partially whipped, the flavoring & sweetened peach pulp. Freeze using 1 part salt to six parts ice. Makes 1 gallon.
Here’s the full article from 1979:
