Amygdalus persica, a fruit distinguished by its velvety skin, to which the Roman poet Virgil drew attention when he wrote of searching for ‘downy peaches and the glossy plum’.
Like the plum and the apricot, the peach belongs to the rose family and is classified as a drupe, i.e. a fruit with a hard stone. Of all the fruits in this family, with the possible exception of the cherry, the peach is the most celebrated in literature, in the Orient as well as the West. It is a fruit of temperate but warm climates, which will not endure either tropical heat or severe cold. The nectarine, which has a smooth skin, is treated separately, although of the same species.
Wild peach trees still grow in China, the original home of the peach. Like their cultivated descendants, they are medium-sized trees, with handsome, pointed leaves; but their fruits are small, sour, and very fuzzy. Well before the 10th century bc (some authorities suggest very much earlier) improved varieties were being cultivated.
Peaches are easily raised from seed, and cultivation spread westwards through areas with a suitable climate, such as Kashmir, to Persia. It flourished there so well that it came to be regarded as a native Persian fruit; hence the specific name persica.
In classical antiquity Theophrastus (c.370–c.288 bc) was the first writer to mention the peach. Despite the lack of clear evidence, it is widely assumed that it was Alexander the Great who brought it to Greece from Persia. Pliny (1st century ad) mentioned half a dozen types, e.g. the peaches of Gaul (France) and the Asiatic ones, and declared the fruit to be particularly wholesome.
Generally, it seems to have been the Romans who spread the peach further north and west. Much later, in the 16th century, it was the Spaniards who took it to America. The 16th century used also to be thought of as the time when the peach reached England. However, as Roach (1985) points out, there is much evidence, including the supply of two peach trees to the Tower of London in 1275 and a reference by Chaucer (1372), to show that it was being grown there much earlier (and eaten even earlier, perhaps by Roman legionaries, for peach stones have been found in a 2nd-century site near the old Billingsgate fish market). But it seems that peach-growing was discontinued for a time, and that it was in the 16th century that the fruit was reintroduced from France and the Netherlands. Phillips (1823) gave to Wolf, the gardener of King Henry VIII, credit for this.
There are two categories of peach, clingstone and freestone, distinguished by the ease with which the flesh comes away from the stone. Each includes fruits with both yellow and white flesh; and varieties of each were known from early times. Gerard (1633) described four varieties (white, red, yellow, and d'avant) and added: ‘I have them all in my garden, with many other sorts.’ Parkinson (1629) listed 21 varieties, and Rea (1676) 35. Many had names which indicated a French origin. Perhaps the most famous peaches of France have been those of Montreuil near Paris; but this was not an instance of a special variety, it was rather a special method of cultivation, using espaliers of a different design, to produce fruits of exceptional quality, packed by hand and internationally famed. The varieties used included l'Admirable tardive (=Téton de Vénus) and Gross Noire de Montreuil. Émile Zola admired their fine clear skin, like that of girls of the north of France, he thought, in contrast to the peaches from the Midi which were yellow and sunburned like the girls of that region. In 1993, however, there was only one lady orchardist selling genuine Montreuil peaches in the town.
Meanwhile, English nurserymen such as Rivers and Laxton in the 19th century were developing new, improved varieties. However, the English climate is not ideal for peaches, and English orchardists have to grow them in sheltered positions. The peach is much more at home in the Mediterranean region and in those parts of N. America which have a similar climate; and it is American growers, especially in California, who have done most in the 20th century to shape the pattern of world production.
Commercial cultivation in N. America had begun early in the 19th century, concentrated in the ‘Chesapeake peach-belt’ of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware, and S. New Jersey. Nowadays California produces about half of the American crop, with S. Carolina, Georgia, and New Jersey ranking next. The leading Californian varieties in 1996 were Elegant Lady and O'Henry. However, peach trees live only 10 to 20 years, and fashions change quickly, so—in N. America, and other regions too—each generation eats mostly new varieties.
One cultivar grown in S. Florida and the Caribbean, Red Ceylon, is of special interest. All peaches have a requirement for a certain number of hours at a ‘chill’ temperature while they are growing, and this requirement means that most varieties will not thrive in subtropical regions. The Red Ceylon is the big exception to this rule, because its ‘chill requirement’ is very low.
In the mid-1990s China was the world's largest peach producer followed by Italy, the USA, and Greece in that order.
It seems to be widely recognized, writes a pomological correspondent in California, that the peach, of all fruits, most closely approaches the quality of human flesh, eventually reaching that state expressively described by William Morris as ‘pinch-ripe’. No fruit is more laden with erotic metaphor. The pear is its nearest rival, but its cool, smooth skin cannot compare with the warm knap of a peach. The contrasting names of two varieties, Poire Cuisse-Madam and Pêche Téton de Vénus, express the difference. When the fruit-stealing episode which figures in the childhood section of so many autobiographies concerns peaches, the reference may be to ‘kissing’ rather than ‘stealing’ the fruit; and male fruit connoisseurs have written of ‘stroking’ peaches off the tree.
To be at its best, a fresh peach has to ripen on the tree. Those which are exported over long distances are often picked long before they are ripe and make poor eating, may indeed be rubbery and tasteless or (worse still) have lost all their juiciness and become ‘mealy’ or ‘floury’ (usually because they have been refrigerated).
Fresh peaches are so good that it seems a shame to cook them, but they are good if poached in wine or made into pies. The most famous peach dessert, peach Melba, was created by Escoffier in 1893 to honour Dame Nellie Melba. It is less well known that when Mme Récamier, the famous beauty of the early 19th century, was ill, refusing all food and at death's door, she was tempted to eat and eventually recover by a dish of peaches in syrup and cream.
Peaches survive being canned better than most fruits. The flavour is altered, but still good. The canning industry, which started to grow towards the end of the 19th century, now accounts for nearly 30% of US peaches, and peaches are grown for canning in many other countries. Yellow clingstone peaches are the most popular for this purpose.
Dried peaches, in halves, are widely sold; and peach jam or marmalade is a delicacy.
In some Mediterranean countries the green or golden-green fruits (which never ripen fully) of so-called wild peaches are used in cookery and for preserves. These are not true wild peaches (only found in China), but escapes from cultivation. Patience Gray (1986) has written eloquently about la persicata, the wild peach jam made in S. Italy from these fruits.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Gerard, John (1633), The Herbal, New York: Dover.
Gray, Patience (1986), Honey from a Weed, London: Prospect Books.
Parkinson, J. (1629), Paradise in Sole.
Phillips, Henry (1823), Fruits Known in Great Britain, London.
Rea, John (1676), Flora: Seu, de Florum Cultura, 2nd rev impression, London.
Roach, F. A. (1985), Cultivated Fruits of Britain, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
