Yes, blueberries and peaches do pair nicely with cornbread. The result is a kind of upside-down cake that goes down easy no matter what the time of day. I should know; I ate some for breakfast, at lunch and as an afternoon snack. There wasn’t any left for dinner.

‘Tis the season for farmers’ markets and I’ve been making the rounds at several of them, always managing to learn something interesting while there. Last week in Malibu, I learned that date palms, in order to bear fruit, need 100 days of 100 degree heat a year. The farmer at the Encino market where I bought peaches for this recipe told me that some oranges – Valencia oranges I think he said – take more than a year to ripen and often redevelop the green color of an immature orange to protect themselves from the sun. He called this an orange’s answer to sunglasses and then revealed that these ripe, slightly green oranges, if sold commercially, are often sprayed orange before being displayed in the supermarket to ensure that customers like us will still buy them!

The guy is a war vet with an orchard in Fresno and a ton of personality. He drives down to the San Fernando Valley every weekend to sell his stone fruits and citrus, but he gives away so many samples I can’t imagine he makes any money. (Although I did buy a $10 pint of watermelon juice!) He introduced me to all kinds of heirloom peaches, including the O’Henrys I used to make this cake.

The peaches were firm, but easily gave way when you bit into one, not at all soggy and that’s a good thing because there are really few things I like less than a mealy peach. It’s always a terrible surprise – and great disappointment -when you think you’ve got a perfect peach only to take a bite and realize something is horribly wrong. Every one of the O’Henrys was a delight, but I imagine this has more to do with how the peaches were handled as they ripened rather than the kind of peaches they were.

I love the peach and blueberry combination, but you could just as easily use plums or apricots in place of peaches or raspberries and blackberries in place of blueberries. I also loved the cornbread top, or bottom rather, because, well, I think cornbread could be its own food group.

This recipe below was adapted from the Hay Day Country Market Cookbook.

Blueberry-Peach Cornbread Cake
One 8-inch oval cake (24 fl. oz.), or similar size baking dish

Fruit Topping

3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 or 2 ripe peaches, halved and thinly sliced
2/3 cup blueberries

Cornbread

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup medium-grain stone-ground cornmeal
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. For the topping, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk in the sugar, maple syrup, orange juice and cinnamon. Bring to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the skillet and set aside to cool.

3. Pour the topping into the bottom of the baking dish and arrange the peach slices on top, “peppering” peaches with blueberries and pushing some of the berries between the slices.

4. For the cornbread, cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and blend in. In another bowl, stir together the corn meal, flour, baking powder and salt. Add this to the creamed butter mixture in batches, alternating with the milk. Blend until smooth.

5. Gently spoon the batter over the peaches and blueberries. Try to avoid moving them around. Bake until the cornbread is set and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-30 minutes. Depending on the size of your dish and the thickness of the cake, you might want to start checking on it at 20 minutes. When it’s finished baking, remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then invert the cake on to a plate and dazzle at the beautiful fruit topping. Serve warm or at room temperature.