Best Of MetaFilter

nectarine-heart at sunset by Mayr (cc by)

I have 8 nectarines, a reasonably well-stocked kitchen, and a song in my heart. What is the best nectarine-based dessert?

Plate with sliced peaches by wuestenigel (cc by)

Pull up a chair and sit down, as EmpressCallipygos 'splains what to do with millions of peaches (or other produce)

Elsewhere on our plate:

Salad Fight! | 1,500 year old New Mexican beans | An Alphabet of international bread recipes | Reclaiming Canadian indigenous cuisine | As Muslim-American as bean pie | We all scream for ... mayo ice cream? | Sugartime by Ruby Tandoh | Forgotten Southern Recipes | An illustrated compendium of Chinese baos | Verbing the taco | The story of Chop Ayam

And finally, for those of us less culinarily evolved, have we even been opening our cans the wrong way?

Peaches by La Grande Farmers' Market (cc by)

Former fruit agency and Whole Foods employee jocelmeow offers amazing detailed advice on how to find and treat yourself to the best peaches possible.

Ethylene (the fruit's natural ripening gas) output rises for a while but then levels off. The level of sugar the fruit contains and its red color stay exactly the same. The effect of all these changes is that the fruit goes from hard and sour to soft and sweet.