In Praise of Peaches

During its midsummer season, Georgia is freckled with farmers markets and fruit stands selling one, or multiples, of the state’s different varieties of peaches. Year-round, the peach symbol is emblazoned on everything from state mugs to parade floats. Georgia, however, isn’t the nation’s biggest producer of the fruit; which begs the question, how did its peaches become so iconic?

At Pearson Farm, the beginning of every peach season starts with blooming trees (above) and ends with fruit-bearing trees (below), ready for harvest.

WHERE PEACHES GROW

Peach pits, historically also known as “stones,” have been particularly helpful in tracing early civilizations, including the fruit’s origins in East Asia. The wrinkly, hard husk that houses the kernel from which the peach tree grows, has been found in the remains of Yangtze River Valley villages, circa 6000-5000 B.C., and has long weaved its way into China’s mythical and literary lore. A famed Chinese fable, The Peach Blossom Spring, written in 421 A.D. by Tao Yuanming, describes a fisherman discovering a mystical peach tree forest that shelters an isolated, idyllic village. Sau, the Chinese god of longevity, is typically depicted holding a peach. Within Chinese culture, every part of the peach tree holds power, including the ability to repel evil and entice love. To the Chinese, the fruit represents a long, healthy life of luck.

From China, the peach moved to India, then Persia (now Iran), followed by Europe. Franciscan monks, traveling to St. Augustine, Florida brought along peach pits in 1571. The seeds were easily preserved and transported—and Native Americans found the fruit responded well to southeastern soil and climate. People began growing the beautiful delicacy for their own use, but, according to the Georgia Historical Society, “peaches themselves could not be immediately commercialized because their fragility makes them easily bruised.” Growing a product that was unmarred, tasty, and shippable remained a challenge.

It wasn’t until the 19th century that the fruit became more than a backyard bounty or a delicious find in the wild. Two early Georgians contributed to making the peach a viable agricultural product: Columbus planter Raphael Moses and Marshallville farmer Samuel Rumph. Between 1858 and 1860, Moses first brought Georgia peaches to New York, protecting the fruit with champagne baskets. Packed in the baskets, the peaches arrived with better flavor and in better shape than those shipped in the previously prevalent packing material of the time: pulverized coal. More tender loving care of peaches came in 1875 when, Rumph, the “Father of the Georgia Peach Industry,” designed iced rail cars and peach crates for more protected transport. He never patented either so that others benefitted from his creativity. Rumph also produced the “Elberta,” a peach variety he named in honor of his wife, that crossed two popular peach varieties, the Early Crawford and Chinese Cling. The Elberta softened more slowly than other varieties, giving it the extra shelf life necessary for shipping.

“The thousands of peach varieties that exist today were developed for two primary reasons,” says Phillip Brannen, Fruit Extension Plant Pathologist for Georgia. “One is taste and he other is the fruit’s aesthetics.” He adds that peach variety research also focuses on effective growth, fighting disease, and insect infestation.

GEORGIA’S PEACHY CLAIM TO FAME

In the 1850s, out of a focused effort to build the fruit industry in the Southeast, the Georgia State Horticultural Society settled on the peach for promotion. In 1876, much of the society’s efforts provided an early link that connected Georgia’s image with the fruit.

Today, the state is the third largest U.S. peach producer behind California and South Carolina. Annually, Georgia produces typically 140 million pounds of peaches, earning in the $30 million to $40 million range. Peach County, located in central Georgia, produces about half of these. Formed from parts of Houston and Macon, Peach County was designated by legislature in 1924 and is the last new county to be established by the state.

The name is apt. “The main commercial band for peaches is in the center part of the state,” says Pam Knox, director of the University of Georgia Weather Network and agricultural climatologist. “That’s where probably 90% of the commercial peaches grow in Georgia. We have enough cold weather there that producers can make their “chill hour” requirements. Chill hours are a measure of how many hours are below 45 degrees,” she says. Some cold time is necessary to grow peaches.

When Georgia adopted the “Peach State” sobriquet in 1995, officials cited the fruit’s “superior flavor, texture, appearance and nutritious qualities” as evidence that the title was deserved. The peach symbol abounds within the state, on license plates, billboards, government documents, the state quarter, the state map, and even the peach-shaped ball that historically drops during Atlanta’s New Year’s Eve celebration. Peach streets, peach parades, and peach festivals thrive, the largest being the week-long Georgia Peach Festival held each June in Fort Valley and Byron. It draws thousands and includes peach queens, a peach eating contest, and the world’s largest peach cobbler. Growers associated with the festival include three major area peach operations: Dickey Farms in Musilla and Lane Southern Orchards and Pearson Farm, both in Fort Valley.

A glimpse above as peach farmers harvest their orchard’s crop.

WHERE PEACHES GROW

Pearson Farm is a large family-run peach producer in Georgia, growing about 50 varieties. Lanier Pearson handles marketing operations for the farm, while her husband, Lawton, represents the family’s fifth generation and is hands-on in production. “There’s a reason Georgia is called the Peach State,” says Lanier, “our peaches are just better.”

Wendy R. Barton, Lane Southern Orchards’ marketing director, agrees and describes Georgia as the peachiest of peach producers, calling the state “the Southern belle of peach season.” Located in Fort Valley, Lane Southern Orchards is another large peach operation in Peach County and has been in business for more than 100 years. Today, the century-old farm grows over 35 varieties and acts as dedicated ambassadors of peaches, not only about peach-producing Georgia, but other states’ peach farming work as well.