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COPYRIGHT 2003 Vegetarian Times, Inc. All rights reserved.
"Peaches capture the flavor of summer," says David Mas Masumoto, a peach grower from the Fresno, California, area. "And when you bite into one, that transports you back into stories and memories of family and childhood." For many Americans, peaches symbolize the best of summertime--long, hot days refreshed by peach slices on cereal, peach ice cream, peach cobbler, peach pie and, best of all, the barely blushed, tree-ripened whole peach with its burst of sweet juices on the tongue. Good peaches tap into all the senses, Masumoto adds there is its heady aroma when you bring a peach toward your mouth, and the senses of taste and touch when you bite into one and taste and feel its tantalizing juices. "And all good peaches leave a taste that people want to retain," he adds.
A native of China--and the Chinese symbol for immortality--the peach, Prunus persica, is a member of the rose family, and related to apricots, plums and almonds. The peach traveled by ancient caravans from China to Persia and then eventually to Europe. By the mid-16th century, peaches even turned up in Mexico. Soon afterward, peach fanciers took this prized fruit to the East Coast of the American colonies and then westward to California. Today, California has become the largest peach source, growing more than half of the world's supply.
What most American consumers may not know about this favorite fruit is that peaches fall into three categories--clingstone, semifree-stone and freestone, determined by how easily the peach flesh comes away from the stone, or pit--and that peaches grow in hundreds of varieties, with such colorful names as O'Henry, Elegant Lady and Masumoto's favorite peach, the heirloom variety, Sun Crest. "If you...
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