Peach Varieties
All About the Different Peach Varieties
There are well over two hundred different peach varieties, but all of them belong to one of two groups: freestones and clingstones. In freestone peach varieties, the pit is easy to remove from the flesh of the fruit. In the clingstone peaches, the flesh is harder to separate from the pit--they cling to one another. Most people prefer freestone peaches for eating fresh or freezing, and the clingstone peach varieties for canning.
Peaches can have either yellow flesh or white flesh. Generally, yellow peaches are preferred in the United States, and white peaches are the preference in Asia. White peaches are less acidic and thought to be sweeter. All Chinese peaches have a gene that is referred to as the honey gene. Both yellow and white peach varieties are have red interspersed on the outside skin.
As for shape, the majority of peach varieties are round and have a pointed end. There is a donut peach, similar to Chinese varieties that is shaped like a donut. It is flat and round with an indent in the center where a donut would have a hole. There is also a flat peach called the Saturn peach, because it has rings that look like the ones around the planet Saturn. French peaches are said to have the best flavor of all peaches. They are smaller than U.S. peaches and have red flesh.
In the United States, the number one freestone peach variety is the Elegant Lady. It is both delicious and has a long shelf life. It is a yellow-fleshed fruit with a good amount of red skin. The size can range from 2-½ to 3-½ inches. It was first introduced in the late 1970s and has been a standard in the industry ever since. Depending on the location, it is harvested between the second and fourth weeks of July.
Another popular peach is the O’Henry. Grant Merrill of Red Bluff, CA introduced the variety in 1970. It is a later season gold flesh variety, quite large at three to three and a quarter inches. It’s ninety to one hundred percent red skin color makes it a good-looking fruit.
One of the peach varieties that is more tolerant of cold weather than most, is the Redhaven. It was bred at the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station in 1940. The peach is a semi-freestone, which falls in-between the clingstones and freestones. Redhaven is still a fruit that produces well and one of the most-planted in the industry for harvest during the last week of July.
Cresthaven is another of the peach industry’s standards. It also was developed in the State of Michigan and is one of the later peach varieties, bearing its fruit the last week of August. The buds can withstand somewhat cold temperatures. Peaches are 2-½ to 3 inches and a good tasting yellow flesh.
For many years, the only white peach that most people in the U.S. knew was the Babcock Peach. Today, there are many more white peach varieties but the Babcock is still the standard by which all other white peaches are judged. The Babcock and most of its descendents are super sweet. White peaches, however, have never risen to great popularity in the United States.