One of the nicest things about living in South Jersey is the wide array of summer food festivals that take place each summer. There are blueberry, strawberry, peach and cranberry festivals at churches, community centers and other venues. One of our favorite summer festivals is the Peach Festival hosted at the Mount Laurel Friends Meeting. This year, our friends Sue and Steve joined us in our pursuit of Jersey peach perfection. It is low key-there are no rides or craft vendors (although there is a booth where a brisk peach selling business occurs).
After buying a $5 ticket, you enter the historic Friends meeting house and pick out a slab of homemade cake. Once you select your cake of choice, you get a generous helping of homemade vanilla ice cream (freshly churned at the Peach Festival), several luscious ladles of peaches, and another ice cream side of peach ice cream to finish it off. We always say that we can’t possibly finish the heaping servings provided-yet we rarely leave without cleaning our plates. The Friends Meeting House is a part of New Jersey history and dates back to 1695. As I sit and savor the just-peeled portions of peachy goodness, I feel lucky to live an an area where there is pride in the wonderful foods that New Jersey has to offer.
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