Peach

Peaches are a member of the rose family, along with apricots, plums, and nectarines, and, like those, are classified as drupe fruits, meaning the fruit contains one hard stone in its center. There are both clingstone and freestone varieties. Peaches, which are referred to by many as the queen of the temperate-zone fruits, are available in the United States from early May through October (and in the remaining months, you can find imports from the Southern Hemisphere). Peaches are a fitting fruit partner to the king of fruits, the apple. They are very sweet and juicy when ripe, and are one of the favorite summer fruits for ice creams and cobblers. Peaches are also often used to make jam. They need a warm climate with no frost and are grown in both North and South America, Australia, Africa, and many parts of Europe. Early settlers in America planted peach trees all along the eastern seaboard, establishing the fruit so thoroughly that botanists in the mid-eighteenth century assumed peaches to be native to the New World. History tells us that, in actuality, peach trees originated in China and from there were introduced to the Middle East, Europe, and subsequently to the Americas. Because peaches were first imported from Persia (more than two millennia ago), the Romans, knowing only that they received the fruit from Persia, gave them the botanical name Prunus persica and thus, for many years, they were known as the Persian apple.