Featured Ingredient: Peaches

Fuzzy, adorable and delicious, peaches are one of the most popular fruits farmed on the planet. A quintessential summer treat, there's more to this glowing pink orb than meets the eye, and a history that precedes the beginning of time.

Along with their unlikely cousins the raspberry, peaches are members of the rose, (Rosaceae), family. They are a finicky crop, intolerant of severe cold, but unable to flourish in climates where winters are too mild. For this reason, they grow best in warmer temperate zones of the northern and southern hemispheres, where seasons change but not too drastically.

It is believed that the peach originated in China and to this day Asia, lead by China, is the largest regional producer. The oldest fossil records from southwestern China show evidence that peaches have been around since at least 8000–7000 BP, well before the invention of agriculture, and even the existence of humans. Period.

Domestication and cultivation of peaches is estimated to have began around 2000 BC, with peach plants decorating the tapestries of Chinese royals and featured in Chinese literature. The peach’s popularity spread westward through Asia to Mediterranean countries, eventually landing in Europe. Spanish explorers introduced the peach to the Americas, and fruits were found as early as 1600 in Mexico. As in Asia, peach cultivation was confined to the gardens of nobility in the Americas. It wasn’t until the 19th century that growing peaches commercially took off in the United States.

Today there are hundreds of cultivars and varieties of peaches around the world. As of 2017, peach and nectarine production, (nectarines are a fuzzless variety of peach, not their own species), amounted to roughly 25 million metric tons globally. As of 2018 in the United States, 651.5 thousand tons of peaches were produced, with California representing two thirds of national production at 479 thousand tons harvested.

There are plenty of peaches in Washington too! As of 2019, 11.15 tons of peaches were harvested in our state. You can find delicious homegrown peaches at your local farmers market, and online for pre-order and pick up via our online farmers markets!