That perfect peach. You know the one; from the moment that you catch a whiff of it you know it’s going to be luscious. The perfume is slightly floral and sweet — old fashioned. Then that first bite, that first juicy mouthful of bliss as peach nectar slides down your chin, your arm, your neck. Not minding your manners you simply lean over the sink and devour that peach and it’s not done until you lick the amber juice off your arm.

The peach and nectarine both originated in China and slowly migrated west to America. Georgia is famous for prized peaches, but let’s not over look our neighbor across the Delaware River. New Jersey peaches and nectarines are superb and at their best from mid-late June until September. The nectarine is the fuzz-less twin sister of the peach. A recessive gene separates them, hence the peach is fuzzy and the nectarine smooth. Peaches and nectarines are further categorized as clingstones or freestones. Sometimes the stone “clings” to the flesh of the fruit and needs to be cut away.

Peaches and nectarines exude the most delicious perfume and are easy to enjoy raw, sliced on top of

yogurt for breakfast or pureed and topped off with Prosecco for a fizzy, fashionable Bellini cocktail. Don’t be afraid to cook peaches and nectarines, they lend themselves to both the sweet and savory sides of the kitchen. Also, be sure to take advantage of the skin-color. Don’t bother peeling nectarines, the skin provides a vermillion blush and a pleasant touch of bitterness. Use briskly running water to remove most of the fuzz from peaches; if too much fuzz remains, blanch and shock in cold water to peel. Put peach peelings in a saucepan, cover with sugar and squeeze of lemon and cook to make peachy-hued syrup to accompany peach desserts. Try a peach or nectarine short cake, with the addition of ground almonds in the biscuit, and drizzle with peach syrup.

Fortunately, apricots, cherries, and plums - all stone fruits (fruits with a pit) - can be every bit as alluring and delicious as peaches and nectarines. The stone fruit family lineage is ancient; most of these fruits grew in Asia and through trade and migration traveled west. They are now grown worldwide.

Members of the rose family, stone fruits are drupes, but not all drupes are stone fruits — blackberries and raspberries, for example, are drupes, but not stone fruits. These fruits share more commonalities than their pits. In fact, they are cousins. Like all families, there is always a nut involved. Lucky for the stone fruit family that nut is the almond, which explains why the almond has such a wonderful affinity to all of these fruits.

Apricots are the first of summer’s fruit to appear in mid-May and are available through mid-August. The apricot has been cultivated in China before 2,000 BCE. Mongol silk dealers are credited with bringing both the apricot and the peach from China. The apricot traveled from China to Persia to Armenia and on to Greece and Rome. Not surprisingly, the Greeks thought the apricot originated in Armenia and called it the Armenian plum — hence its botanical name, Prunus Armenicia. The word apricot, derived from ancient Latin, means early peach. The great apricot belt ranges from Turkestan to Turkey where apricots grow in a variety of sizes and colors: white, black, grey and pink. Turkey is the chief producer in the world but most Turkish apricots are dried and sulphured. As a preservative, sulphur dioxide lightens the color and flavor of the fruit. California produces unsulphured apricots—the color is sunny-orange and the flavor more intense than the sulphured fruit with caramel notes. Dried apricots are available year round and are used extensively in Middle Eastern and North African cuisines. Apricot jam is a Western pastry kitchen staple. Substitute apricots in any stone fruit recipe for a nice surprise—blanch briefly in boiling water to remove the fuzzy skin.

Cherries are for the birds, or so the name of summer’s next crop, sweet cherries, Prunus Avium, indicates. Available all season, they are an easily accessible summer favorite delightful eaten out of hand.

Sour cherries, Prunus cerasus, indigenous to Anatolia, are said to have taken their name from the settlement at Kerasos. Perhaps a case of culinary fake-lore, as it is more likely that the town took its name from the esteemed sour cherry. These garnet jewels of summer are only available for about a two-week period; when you see them buy them, they go fast! Farmers must beat the birds to the delicate sour cherries. Because of their fragile nature and short shelf life, most sour cherries are immediately canned, dried, jarred or jammed, further making the fresh ones such rare gems.

Compared with their sweet counter parts, sour cherries are smaller, deeper ruby-colored with a jewel-like translucence. As the name indicates, you might not want to pop these in your mouth—they’ll make you pucker! But the tangy sour notes, confronted by a sweetener like sugar or honey, creates an intense cherry flavor. Candy your pitted or unpitted sour cherries with sugar, a vanilla bean and cinnamon stick, put the cherries in a sealed Mason jar and store them in the fridge. Voila. Refrigerator jams, will keep several months. Bring them out at Christmas or on Valentine’s Day for a warm kiss of summer during the cold winter months.

The plum-Prunus domestica is indigenous to Central Asia. There are about 200 varieties of plums; a hundred or so available in the US. Plum season is long; from May until October. Like the nectarine, the flesh is sweet and juicy and the skin is tart. The color of the skin and flesh varies with the variety of plum. Angeleno’s have reddish skin and rose-tinted yellow flesh, greengages are an eye-pleasing green, and Italian plums range from inky-purple to brownish-red. New hybrids, the plumcot or pluot (an apricot-plum) is especially succulent and the skin and flesh are vibrant crimson.

The almond, Prunus amygdalus, is also stone fruit. Unlike its other cousins the kernel, the inner-most part of the pit is what is consumed, not the surrounding fruit. Of the two varieties of almonds, sweet and bitter, the variety commonly consumed is the sweet. Bitter almonds contain traces of prussic acid – a component of cyanide. Almond extract and almond oil are derived from bitter almonds; the heat and extraction process eliminates the toxin and the unpleasant bitterness.

The peach and almond are among the closest relatives in the in rose family and the peach pit contains traces of prussic acid too. The pits of stone fruits mimic almond flavors. Amaretto, Crème de Noyaux, and Italian ammaretti biscuits almond flavor is derived from apricot pits, not almonds. Maraschino, (maar es KEE noe) liqueur is another delicious concoction made from marasca cherries, their crushed pits giving the cherry liqueur its distinctive, almond essence. Keep in mind, however, that Maraschino liqueur has nothing to do with those wretched, red-dyed maraschino cherries in the jar.

There is nothing more enticing than the heady perfume of ripe orchard fresh fruit, peaches, apricots, cherries, nectarines, and plums, fragrant and warm from the sun filling the air with the promise of healthy decadence. When stone fruits are at their best they need no further adornment. However, all stone fruits make scrumptious desserts. Give these a try.

Chef Adrienne Hall is an assistant-teaching professor in the Hospitality Management, Culinary Arts and Food Science Programs at Drexel University.

Article photograph by Framer2009 via Flickr (Creative Commons), shortcake photo from http://www.lottieanddoof.com/, scone photo from petitchef, “Menu” photograph from Image Source/Getty Images; "Plate" photograph from FoodCollection/Getty Images.