Peach Parers and Stoners

Because the immediate pleasure of eating a ripe peach is delayed by peeling, we can sympathize with the words of a certain 1872 editorial writer: “A continuous and urgent inquiry for a machine for Paring Peaches has been ringing in our ears … for five years.” He then praised the cast-iron, cranked Lightning Peach Parer, which had been manufactured by an apple-parer company since 1869. A parer that did not waste the fruit was desirable for canneries and home cooks. Merchants’ price sheets in the 1860s quoted peeled-peach prices that were twice those for unpeeled.