For the first time in three years peaches are delicious and abundant, but they are the peaches of a new age.
And they are clipped clean as if they were innocent victims in some bald but clandestine depilatory conspiracy.
Think. When was the last time you saw fuzz on a peach? Probably when you picked it off a tree or bought it at a roadside stand. Or, if you are young, maybe you think peaches are supposed to be smooth. They`re not.
The downy soft coat of the ripe peach is as natural as the rosy blush in its color. That`s how it comes off the tree in the Southern United States or in California-like a new tennis ball fresh from the can. But by the time that peach reaches the consumer in a Midwestern supermarket, it`s clean, with no
”fur” to dull the color or feel wooly in the fingers.
Like the sweetened grapefruit or the waxed cucumber, the peach has been groomed for the public, shorn of its beard to conform to what sellers believe consumers want. By the time the fruit reaches the markets the fuzz has disappeared, removed from virtually all commercial peaches, the exceptions being those few that are delivered by local orchards direct to stores and restaurants, though even some of those peaches are smoothed.
”All fresh peaches have fuzz, some more than others,” says Dr. Robert L. Shewfelt, professor of food science at the University of Georgia. ”But somewhere along the line somebody got the idea that Yankees up north wouldn`t buy fuzzy peaches. Now all the peaches are brushed to remove the fuzz.”
”Why no fuzzy peaches?” stammers Desiree Backman, consumer information representative for the California Tree Fruit Agreement, which represents the peach growers in that state. ”Well, we found that a lot of consumers are annoyed by fuzzy peaches, so they are defuzzed before they are distributed,” she tries to explain. ”They are run through an assembly line in which little brushes-little fingers-massage it off.”
But the absence of fuzz may be part of a self-perpetuating fallacy.
”We did an experiment with 450 consumers,” says Shewfelt. ”We had them examine three kinds of peaches-some fuzzy that came directly from the orchard, some from the same orchard that had been defuzzed and some that we bought at the local market that we had no indication where they had come from. Only one person noticed that some were fuzzier than others.
”The idea that people don`t like fuzz on their peaches may be just a great myth.”
But it`s a myth that distributors and processors believe, as Shewfelt and his students discovered in another part of the experiment when they tried to pick, pack and ship peaches directly from the field.
”When you do that and bypass the packing house, there is no way to remove the fuzz,” he says. ”But we could find no shipper who would receive fuzzy peaches.”
Fuzzy or not, peaches are a perishable crop that is misunderstood at the consumer level, growers and marketers say. For instance, most people don`t know how to tell a good peach from a poor one, says Shewfelt, recalling a third experiment.
Shewfelt had consumers examine several types of peaches to see which they would buy and to determine how much they would pay. When the subjects tasted the peaches they had selected against others, those they had chosen-mostly those that had the best appearance-were the ones they liked the least.
”The peaches they selected as best tended to be those with the poorest flavor, but they looked the best. It`s hard to tell taste from appearance,”
he says. ”Yet our marketing system is set up so that appearance sells. That may work for tomatoes, but people want peaches for flavor.”
Finding the peaches with the best flavor takes more effort than just carefully sorting through the display at Jewel or Dominick`s. It has a lot to do with season.
Most commercial peaches in the United States are grown in California or in a group of Southern states: Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. The California peaches come in first, starting in late April, with the Southern peaches coming on strong in late May and early June in the Midwest, says Doug Domenico, sales agent at Lamantia Bros. and Arrigo Co., Chicago wholesalers. Last year the Southern states harvested only about 25 percent of their normal crop because of weather problems, he says, but ”this year promises to be very productive, maybe overabundant.” California also is having a good year, says Backman from the California Tree Fruit Agreement.
You can get peaches almost all year-round, says Greg Jones, general manager of Universal Fruit Co. at the South Water Street Market. From November through May they come up from Chile, and there is a small Mexican crop in April and May.
Domenico says the Chilean peaches suffer from being held too long under refrigeration-two to three weeks to get here by boat. ”Chilean grapes are great,” he says, ”but I think the peaches tend to dry out.”
”We`ve found that the earlier (domestic) peachesgenerally don`t have the flavor of the later ones,” says Shewfelt. ”Part of the answer is they don`t ripen up enough. So because we now start the season earlier, the quality may not be quite as good as mid- to later-season. It could partly be due to the weather, but more likely it is due to genetic makeup.
The maturity factor
”The other big factor in quality is maturity at harvest. Peaches, like some other fruits, will ripen off the tree, but the stage at which you pick them also is very important,” he says.
Once picked, peaches are flushed with ice water to remove the field heat and stop the ripening. Then they are stored at a temperature of 34 to 40 degrees to keep ripening at a minimum and prevent decay.
”You don`t want to get them too cold,” Shewfelt says. ”If they freeze, it destroys cell structure, and if they get too chilled, that can result in poor quality and the cottony consistency some complain about.”
Two factors must be balanced at harvest: If peaches are picked too mature-when they have ripened to the point of being ready to eat-then cooling won`t stop the ripening. ”So by the time the peach gets to a Chicago retail store, 3 to 10 days later, it probably will be too ripe and will go to mush, although that`s not exactly a scientific term,” says Shewfelt.
But if it is not picked ripe enough, it will never ripen after cold storage, he says. ”There is a fairly narrow window, only a couple of days. If the picking is premature, the peach may change color but it probably won`t ripen,” he says.
So how do you find a good peach?
”Look for a nice yellow undercolor,” says Backman. ”When you see red or peach color, all that means is that it is a variety difference. Unless you get into a specialty item like a white peach, it is difficult to tell varieties apart.”
Any grass-green coloration in peaches indicates they probably have been picked too early, she says. ”Even if you continue to ripen them, they will never reach the kind of quality you`re used to.”
Give a little, get a lot
Shewfelt suggests that the best quality peaches give slightly to finger pressure. ”If you want to eat it for supper, get it softer and close to ripe. If you want to keep them two or three days, put them in the refrigerator and pull them out 6 to 12 hours before dinner to let them ripen. My mother used to say, `If you want to make that peach the best it can be, you have to take responsibility for ripening it up and then eating it when it is at its optimum ripeness.”`
Backman suggests that unripened peaches be put in a paper bag with other fruit such as bananas to ripen. ”In two to four days in a bag, they can be ripe and ready to eat,” she says. ”Eat them right off or put them into the refrigerator to stop the ripening. When you get peaches home from market, put them in the bag until they get to the ripeness you want and then put them in the refrigerator, rather than the other way around. Putting them in the refrigerator first might retard the potential ripening. Peaches also can pick up refrigerator flavors, especially when ripening.”
To tell if you`ve got an old peach, submit it to the wrinkle test by running your thumb over the skin. ”If skin bunches up like an old person`s face, it is old. It will be less plump, less juicy, have poor sensory quality, smell strong,” Backman says.
Jones and Domenico agree that the best time to buy peaches is between June and August. Not only are the Southern and Western varieties at their peak, but there also are wonderful peaches coming in from Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. If you`re real lucky you might even find a local one with a bit of fuzz.
