Pretty As A Peach; Let’s Talk Peaches Shall We?
Origins: Although its botanical name, which literally translates as ‘Persian plum’, suggests the peach originated from Persia (modern-day Iran), genetic research indicates that it actually comes from China. First cultivated: Peaches have been cultivated in China since the Neolithic period.
Where did peaches originally come from?
Although its botanical name Prunus persica refers to Persia, genetic studies suggest peaches originated in China, where they have been cultivated since the Neolithic period. Until recently, cultivation was believed to have started around 2000 BC
What are 2 interesting facts about peaches?
Peaches are high in fiber and contain potassium, antioxidants, vitamins A, B3, and C. Peaches are a member of the rose family and are closely related to almonds. There are over 700 varieties of peaches including Nectarines whose smooth skin are caused by a genetic mutation. Peaches originally came from China.
Ancient peach pits recently unearthed in China indicate that peaches were being cultivated in China at least 7,000 years ago.
Evidence found during recent archaeological excavations in the lower Yangtze River Valley in southern China, not far from Shanghai, suggests that peaches were domesticated in that area thousands of years ago and probably originated there, rather than in northwestern China as previously thought.
Domestication means that people were consciously selecting for preferred fruit traits, by clonal reproduction, rather than just planting the seeds of their favorite fruits.
Dr. Gary Crawford, anthropologist at the University of Toronto Mississauga in Canada, has been studying the origins of agricultural crops in China for the past 20 years, in collaboration with Chinese researchers.
Most of the research in southern China has focused on rice, but Crawford, whose expertise is in identification and analysis of plant remains, published a research paper several years ago in which he urged scientists to look at the bigger picture in the region and study other crops.
Yunfei Zheng, a botanist and archaeologist at the Zhejiang Institute of Archeology in China, began showing Crawford more and more plant remains that had been recovered from archaeological digs in the lower Yangtze River Valley in Zhejiang Province.
Because peach pits were found at multiple settlements dating back over a long period, Crawford and Zheng felt peaches would be a good candidate for further study. They wondered, for example, when the evolution from the wild peach to the far superior modern peach began.
Wild peaches
Wild peaches tended to have a thin, tough, flesh. Cultivated peaches are larger and have a greater volume of flesh in proportion to the stone. Modern varieties also have a wider range of maturity times than wild peaches, allowing for a supply of fruit over a longer period. Wild species tend to be mid- to late-maturing.
Peach seeds have great genetic variability. If people grew peach trees from seeds, there would be no guarantees the new tree would produce similar fruit to the parent tree. But, trees producing large fruit could easily have been selected and propagated using rootstocks and grafting.
“If they simply started grafting, it would guarantee the orchard would have the peaches they wanted,” Crawford said.
The scientists examined peach stones from five archaeological sites in Zhejiang Province in southwest China. The stones were among other relics, such as pottery, tools, and animal and other plant remains found at settlements spanning a period of about 5,000 years.
Radiocarbon dating, conducted by Direct AMS in Seattle, Washington, showed that the oldest peach stones were between 8,000 and 7,500 years old and the most recent about 3,500 years old.
Cultivated peach stones are larger and more oval than wild peach stones, whereas wild peach stones are rounder. The largest peach stones, most resembling today’s peaches, were found in the most recent site dating back to the Qianshanyang and Maqiao cultures (3,500 to 4,200 years ago).
Crawford and his colleagues think it took about 3,000 years for the peach to evolve from the wild species to that point, indicating that the domestication process likely began around more than 7,000 years ago.
“We’re suggesting that, very early on, people understood grafting and vegetative reproduction, because it sped up selection,” said Crawford. “If they had their wits about them, with vegetative reproduction and thinning, they could slowly and surely develop forms of peaches that were sweeter, and fleshier, and tastier.”
This differs from the traditional view, that people of that era were hunters and gatherers who were at the mercy of their environment.
“There is a sense in some circles that people in the past were not as smart as we are,” said Crawford. “The reality is that they were modern humans with the brain capacity and talents we have now. People have been changing the environment to suit their needs for a very long time, and the domestication of peaches along with rice helps us understand this.”
Diversity
Although peaches are now grown around the world, China has the greatest genetic diversity of peach, with 495 recognized cultivars. Crawford believes that as peaches moved to different growing regions in China, diversification increased. People started selecting the varieties that their particular towns or families liked.
Though the scientists established that peaches were in the process of being domesticated 7,000 years ago, they do not yet know when the evolution began. This summer, Crawford went to China for a month to examine remains at an older site in Zhejiang Province dating back to around 11,000 to 8,000 years ago. He took a research team from Canada with him.
Though rice is the primary focus of the project, Crawford said he was hoping to find records of other plants, such as peaches. The Chinese scientists will conduct the excavations, and the Canadians will serve as consultants and do specific research projects.
“It’s incredibly exciting,” said Crawford, who has five years of funding for the work.
This will follow from the previous work demonstrating that people who lived thousands of years ago were very knowledgeable about plant reproduction and selection.
“Now, the job is to look at how much more extensive that was,” he said. “These are not simply passive people. These are people who were managing the environment, selecting plants, and engaging with organisms in such a way they were changing their evolutionary path.”
Thomas Jefferson and the Peach
Thomas Jefferson is considered one of the founding fathers of the United States. He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third US president. But did you know that he a passionate fruit grower who sought to develop new varieties of apples, peaches, plums, figs, almonds, and pears in the orchards around his home at Monticello?
Thomas Jefferson regarded the peach as a fancy delicacy for the table and, if one measures his appreciation of a fruit by the frequency with which it was planted, or by the number of varieties he collected, the peach would easily be considered his favorite fruit tree.
In fact, Jefferson is considered one of the pioneers of North American pomology. In addition to planting over 170 varieties of temperate fruits at Monticello, he experimented with vegetable seeds, plants, and grapevines. His goal was to prove that America could produce the type of bounty that he had observed during his visits to Europe. Jefferson documented his experiments in detailed horticultural plans that were used to recreate his garden for visitors today.
An autumn visit to Charlottesville, Virginia is a perfect way to explore Jefferson’s story – and the history of American pomology – with a visit to his home and plantation at Monticello. You can also visit incredible local orchards, cideries, and wineries in this fertile part of the United States.
One of the first things you’ll notice during a visit to Monticello – Jefferson’s mountain-top home in the center of what was once his 5000-acre plantation – is the soil. It’s a vivid rust color and was used to make the red bricks in Jefferson’s stately home. Often, red clay soil is too dense for agricultural purposes. But Monticello’s red soil is loamy and rich in iron, and provided Jefferson with a wonderful canvas for his agricultural experiments.
Jefferson inherited this land from his father in 1764 when he was just 21 years old. He also inherited dozens of slaves. At his young age, he decided to build a neoclassical house of his own design on the mountain. Starting in 1768, his slaves worked to level the top of this 865-foot mountain by hand to prepare to build Jefferson’s new home. Jefferson was 25 at the time. It would take over 40 years until the remarkable house would be complete.
And yet, Jefferson’s priority, even before building his primary residence, was to plant an orchard. His detailed notes show that he planted his first trees in 1767 – a year before work on his home had begun.
“Jefferson’s first gardening act on this little mountain was to begin budding fruit trees on the south slope of the mountain,” explains Peggy Cornett, Monticello’s Curator of Plants.
This first planting was in the South Orchard, which Jefferson called “The Fruitery,” and which would eventually be a showcase for over a hundred varieties of “fancy” fruits. Some varieties were imported from as far away as Italy. Others were renowned American introductions such as Lemon Cling peaches, the Newtown Pippin and Esopus Spitzenburg apples, and the highly acclaimed Seckel pear.
Jefferson was a voracious reader and devoured books on horticulture and pomology. He understood that the southern slope of this mountain created a microclimate that could protect his more delicate trees from frost damage. His hope was that the microclimate would allow him to grow tender Mediterranean plants like pomegranates, almonds, and figs that would not otherwise survive in this region.
“I have known frost so severe as to kill the hickory trees round about Monticello, and yet not injure the tender fruit blossoms then in bloom on the top and higher parts of the mountain,” Jefferson wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia in 1780, according to The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello, a book written by Peter J. Hatch, Monticello’s former Director of Gardens and Grounds.
Jefferson would add more and more fruit tree cultivars to the Fruitery over the years. He would also plant rugged cider trees in another orchard on the north side of the mountain. Cider orchards were more common in the region at the time than orchards for fresh and dessert fruits.
“Most early American planters and farmers grew a lot of fruit for beverages, Cornett says. “People drank their fruit more than ate it in Jefferson’s time. They planted cider orchards and grew peaches for brandy, but I think Jefferson’s approach was different because he developed a fine taste for fruits when he lived in France.”
Starting in 1982, staff at Monticello have worked hard to recreate Jefferson’s orchards, painstakingly tracking down some of the more unusual varieties he grew. And yet not all of these cultivars have survived. Some have vanished over the past 200 years, because growers have not propagated them. Other trees – like Jefferson’s almond trees – were failed experiments that simply could not survive in Monticello’s climate.
In addition to exploring Monticello’s orchards, there is so much more to learn on the site. Jefferson had his slaves carve a 1000-foot-long terraced vegetable garden, supported by a massive stone wall, where he grew more than 250 different vegetable varieties. It too has been recreated and each year is planted up with heirloom vegetable seeds. And then there’s the tour of Jefferson’s home, furnished with many of his own belongings, which gives you insight into Jefferson’s character as a scholar and an aspiring inventor.
Tragically, this entire site would never have existed without the use of slave labor, so the “Slavery at Monticello Tour” at Monticello is essential. It helps illustrate the brutal realities of slave life at the time, and exposes the two conflicting sides of Thomas Jefferson. On the one hand, he was an idealist who wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, which states that that all men are created equal and are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” At the same time, Jefferson was part of the cruel system in which human beings could be bought and sold like livestock, forced to participate in hard labor for 14 hours a day or more, whipped or even killed for disobedience, and deprived of their freedom.
Jefferson was a curious man and loved agricultural experiments. But he was not a good farmer or businessman. When he died in 1826, he was in debt and his home and property – including most of his slaves – were sold off. But the tradition of growing diverse varieties of fruit continues to thrive in this part of Virginia, as evidenced in a wonderful visit to the Albermarle Ciderworks, just a few minutes’ drive from Monticello.
Far too often when you walk through an orchard, you’ll see a huge monoculture with row upon row of genetically identical trees producing genetically identical fruit. Orchardists do this for a reason. Different fruit varieties have different needs when it comes to spraying to prevent pests and disease. And yet the Albermarle Ciderworks orchard began as a private fruit tree collection with over 200 types of apple and other fruit trees planted within a small space.
A stroll through the orchard in the autumn is an odyssey in fruit tree varieties. You can find Arkansas black apples with their dark purple skin just a skip and a hop from a red/green Baldwin. Or a Golden Russet may be planted just steps from a Hewes crab.
Today, this large orchard encompasses thousands of fruit trees, and the cidery produces 11 different types of hard cider. Some are made of a single variety of apple like Goldrush, or Arkansas Black. Other ciders are made of a unique blend. Their “Pomme Mary” cider is a sweet blend of Albermarle Pippin and Goldrush, while “Jupiter’s Legacy” is a dry blend of over 20 varieties including both crab and cider apples.
The early eighteenth century that one colonist wrote that they grew as wildly as weeds: “We are forced to take a great deal of Care to weed them out, otherwise they make our Land a Wilderness of Peach-Trees.”
While George Washington recorded only two varieties of peaches in his Mount Vernon orchard, Thomas Jefferson cultivated 38 varieties in his Fruit Gardens at Monticello. Jefferson was particularly fond of dried peaches and also used the fruit to make mobby, a peach brandy popular in Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson Grilled Peaches with Honey
Mary Randolph’s popular 1824 cookbook The Virginia Housewife contains six recipes for peaches, including peach marmalade, peach chips, and peaches in brandy. This recipe for grilled peaches is a snap to make and is great to serve at summer barbecues and other large social gatherings.
4 large ripe peaches, halved and pitted
1 pint French vanilla ice cream
4 teaspoons honey
Heat a grill set to medium. Place peaches on the grill, cut-side down, and cook until grill marks appear, about 3 minutes. Turn over with a metal spatula and grill for another 4 minutes, or until the skin starts to shrivel and the peach softens.
Remove from grill and place 2 halves in 4 separate bowls. Top with the vanilla ice cream, drizzle with the honey and enjoy!
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