Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Peaches and Nectarines
Just as a rose is not merely a rose, a peach is not merely a peach, and a nectarine certainly
isn't merely a nectarine. Sure, that's what the sign says when you go into the grocery store.
But that's for the convenience of the grocer, not a clue for you. The reality is that dozens,
even hundreds, of different varieties of peaches and nectarines are grown and sold commer-
cially every summer, sometimes of widely different qualities. Most of them are harvested
for only a week or two, and then they're gone. To stitch together something approaching a
continuous season-long marketing campaign for fruit, grocers sell many different varieties
under the name "peach" or "nectarine." But that simple labeling can disguise what may be
deep and fundamental differences among the different fruits.
The most obvious difference is the one between clingstone - fruit in which the flesh is
glued to the seed inside - and freestone - that in which the seed floats free. For the most
part, this difference is largely academic for grocery shoppers. Whereas clingstones once
dominated the fresh peach market (and, in fact, are still grown in almost equal quantities as
freestone), they are now almost entirely relegated to the canning industry. Customers just
don't want to have to wrestle the flesh away from the seed anymore. It's messy.
And that's how it goes in stone fruit land. Plant breeders are trying all the time to come
up with new twists on old favorites. Frequently, the changes are designed to meet the de-
mands of the growers or packers. One very delicious family of peach varieties has nearly
vanished commercially because it forms a small but definite "beak" at the bottom of the
fruit. That little point tends to break during packing and shipping, opening the door to spoil-
age.
This is certainly not to say that the wants of consumers are ignored. In fact, they drive
some of the most fundamental changes. (The word "consumers" instead of "fruit lovers" is
used here very deliberately. Many of the changes have nothing to do with the joy of eating
a great piece of fruit.) One thing consumers like is red - lots of red. Peaches and nectar-
ines used to be prized for a golden skin tone; now people are buying red, equating it with
ripeness. (In fact, the high-red blush on many new varieties of stone fruit actually makes
it harder to tell when the fruit is ready. The red comes on early, obscuring the background
color, which is what really predicts quality.)
