Where Do the Best Peaches Come From?
Photograph from iStockPhoto.com
What's the best peach you've ever eaten? Where was it grown? In mid-July, a Serious Eater's mind and stomach turn to peaches, as Jeffrey Steingarten's did a few years ago in Vogue. At least mine (and his) do.
I have been on a lifelong search for the perfect peach, one that's so juicy you end up wearing it, one that has a perfect balance between sweetness and acidity. You might think that those of us who celebrate local food would pronounce the peach grown in our backyard the best, but I live in New York City, where there are precious few backyards. But I cannot say in good conscience and all honesty that the peaches grown in neighboring backyards and farms all over New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania are the best, either. I certainly eat more than my fair share of local farmers' market peaches from Nemeth Orchards and Stone Arch Farms, but their peaches are not life-changing affairs.
I have friends from Georgia who claim that the best peaches are grown there (yes, I know that baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb was nicknamed the Georgia Peach), but I have tasted many Georgia peaches, and though they can be pretty damn fine, they are not the best. Others say that the best peaches come from South Carolina or Texas or Colorado. They would be wrong as well.
No, I'm afraid I can say with more than a modicum of certainty that the best peaches come from sunny California. Some would say they come from Frog Hollow in Brentwood, and farmer Al Corchesne grows a mighty fine peach. But the best peaches I have ever put in my mouth come from Goldbud Farms in Placerville, in the middle of California Gold Rush country, and from Honey Crisp Farms in Reedley, just outside Fresno.
I recently found Honey Crisp peaches at a new farmstand on Martha's Vineyard, and at $6.98 a pound, they were a stone cold bargain. Goldbud's Ron Mansfield and Honey Crisp's Art Lange both have degrees in peachology from the University of California. They employ sophisticated growing and irrigation methods to grow peaches that will make you think you're tasting one for the first time. And isn't that how you want to feel when you bite into a peach?
You owe it to yourself to order some peaches from Goldbud. They're ridiculously expensive with the shipping (at least $5 a peach), but they're still much cheaper than caviar or those black truffles Florence Fabricant just wrote about in the New York Times.
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7 Comments:
The best peaches I ever ate - or can remember ever eating - were from Morton's orchards in Colorado. And this happened only this Sunday, so my memory is super-fresh. The were incredibly consistent - there was barely a single bite that was especially bitter - and were, at their best, sweet, smooth, and complicated. The consistancy is a really important point. Most peaches that I get from the store, even when they're good, have patches in them that just taste like peach-flavored water, or worse. These peaches were good through and through.
I am, by the way, trying to eat 100 peaches this summer. Check out my progress at 100peaches.blogspot.com. You can read about my experience eating Morton's peaches here.
festivemanb at 10:42AM on 07/11/07
the best peach i had this year was from a regular ol' georgia grocery store. spilled out all over my shirt and shoes; it was heavenly.
the best peach i had two years ago was from the farmer's market under the I-80 overpass in baltimore one sunday. i believe it was from Reid's Orchards.
french tart at 10:46AM on 07/11/07
All this peach talk reminds me of that Presidents of the USA song "Peaches." ["Peaches" video; YouTube]
Adam Kuban at 10:57AM on 07/11/07
The best peaches I have ever had were from visiting my grandparents in Arkansas and going to the peach orchards there and getting them freshly picked. They're so juicy and tasty, they've ruined me for all other ones, they just don't compare.
Alm25 at 11:20AM on 07/11/07
Ed...do you know what kind of peaches they were from Goldbud?
Deb07 at 3:15PM on 07/11/07
I live in Queens New York and there was a neighbor with peach trees living next to my grandmother. One day I was fortunate enough to visit her when this neighbor was taking the perfectly ripe peaches off of the tree. I had been lusting after them. They were beautiful and when I spoke up and told him how I had been admiring them he kindly gave me an armful. These were perfect. The most delicious peaches I had ever eaten - right off the tree.
Rae729 at 3:37PM on 07/11/07
I've had peaches from the south (pretty formidable as they have the heat) and midwest and California and Oregon. My very own humble opinion is that it is very much a weather thing. I've had them from the same sources, same you pick trees and in different years the taste is radically different.
The best peaches ever were from neglected trees, dead ripe and available, free for the picking in ....Arcata CA....where it is normally foggy all summer, but they had a clear and bit warmer summer and the peaches were divine. I think the north west area has had perfect weather for prime peaches this year......sooon.
dmzapp at 3:53PM on 07/11/07