Stone fruits

Fruits with soft flesh around a single hard pit, such as peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots and cherries.

Stone fruits: An assortment of peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and cherries, one peach sliced showing the pit
  • Baking ingredients and additives

Botanists call these fruits drupes. Freestone varieties have flesh that pulls easily away from the pit, while clingstone varieties hold tight to it and are often used for canning. Stone fruits are at their best in summer and ripen further at room temperature after picking.

In baking, they shine in pies, cobblers, crisps, galettes, clafoutis and upside-down cakes, and they are good grilled, roasted or poached. Peaches are easy to peel after a brief dip in boiling water and then ice water.

Related entries

Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. Path to the Plate: Plums and other Stone Fruit, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service