The origin of peaches

Peaches and nectarines are the same species Prunus persica. China is the center of origin of peaches.  

Chinese literature dates its cultivation in China to 1000 BC, when book of poems and songs was written describing pink peach blossoms and peach tree with ripe fruit. The Romans acquired the peach from Persia and named the fruit persica, assuming Persia to have been the center of origin of peaches.

The Romans spread peaches throughout their empire.

The peach is said to have been first cultivated in England about the middle of the sixteenth century, Gerard describes several varieties of peach as growing in his garden. Tusser mentions it among his list of fruits in 1557.

Peaches were introduced to the New World following the Spanish conquest.

In North America, it was only after the American Revolution in the 1770s when clonal propagation of peaches became a common technique.

Several peach cultivars were released between the 1770s and 1860s from selected seedling of unknown parentage.

A number of cultivars of unknown origin were released in the first half of the 1800s including Early Crawford, Late Crawford and Oldmixon Cling.

About 1850, Charles Downing introduced peaches directly from China to North America, from which emerged the Chinese Cling.  After Civil War, Samuel Rumph planted Chinese Cling in Marshallville, Georgia and released two important cultivars from that field, Elberta and Belle of Georgia.

Chinese Cling and its seedlings such as Elberta, Belle of Georgia, J.H Hale and their derivatives became important peach cultivars throughout the USA.
The origin of peaches

Nutrient content of peaches

Peaches are fruits that have fuzzy skins. There are thousands of varieties of peaches. They are among the most widely eaten fruits in the world.

Peaches are excellent when consumed fresh. They also have culinary uses, mainly desserts, but also in pickling and in chutneys and preserved in brandy.

A large peach fruits provides with 570 international units of vitamin A which is very important to health vision, and it also provides with 11.6 mg of vitamin C which is a tissue builder and an antioxidant.

Peach fruits do provide lower levels of vitamin K and E, with about 6a% of the daily value based on a 2,000 calories diet. Other vitamins in peaches are riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, pantothenic and niacin.

Peaches also fair source of potassium and fiber. A medium size peach has 35 calories. Dried peaches contain about 7 times the solids and calories of the fresh fruit.
Nutrient content of peaches

Fruit of Peaches (Prunus persica L. Batsch)

A soft, sweet fruit that grows on trees, believed to have originated in China. Peach, along with its smooth-skin mutant nectarine, is one of the most important temperature stone fruits grown in the world.

The large-sized fruit varieties are grown mainly in the temperate regions of the world, where they find congenial environmental conditions for the healthy development of the plant and fruit.

The characteristic flavor of the peach is due to the effect of a rather complex mixture of substances upon the organs of taste.

Perception of the sugars, acid, tannins and astringent substances permits the formation of a judgments as to the ratio which these constituents bear to one another and consequently of the palatability of the fruit.

Fresh peaches should be fairly firm or becoming slightly soft. The skin color between the red areas should be red or at least creamy. The pulp is of a yellowish color, full of high-flavored juice; the fleshy part thick and the stone small.

Reddish color alone is not a sign of ripeness, but a mark of certain varieties. At home, peaches should be kept at broom temperature 3 or 4 days until fully ripe, then refrigerated.

Peaches are excellent when consumed fresh. They also have many culinary uses, mainly as desserts but also in pickling and in chutney and preserved in brandy.

The fruits are high in vitamins A and C and have fewer calories that apples and pears.
Fruit of Peaches (Prunus persica L. Batsch)