PEACHY KEEN

When you bite into a fresh peach, juice running down your chin and soft fuzz tickling your lips, do you ever wonder where they came from? Peaches have traveled a long way through the centuries to reach our shores.

Peaches were first grown in China 4000 years ago. The Chinese people believed that eating peaches gave long life. One Chinese legend tells of the goddess Xi Wangmu and her enchanted orchard. Her peach trees took three thousand years to bloom. When the peaches finally ripened, she called all the gods together for a feast. Eating these rare peaches gave the gods their immortality. The sweet peach you bit into won't make you immortal, but it is a healthy snack, packed with vitamins C and A.

From China peaches journeyed to Japan where another folktale was born. You may have read James and the Giant Peach. Long before James moved into his peach, the Japanese hero Momotaro lived in one. The story tells of an elderly Japanese couple who had no children. One day while washing clothes in the river, the woman sees a large peach floating in the water. She takes the peach home to share with her husband. They are both surprised when a little boy, Momotaro, pops out of the peach. They raise him as their own and he grows up to battle ogres and bring them fortune. The legend doesn't say which type of peach Momotaro was in. Peaches come in two varieties: cling stone, where the fruit sticks to the pit and free stone, where the pit slips out easily. Which type of peach would you guess Momotaro popped out of?

Peaches left the orient and traveled along the silk trade route to the Middle East. The silk route wound through the Kunlun Mountains in western China. The ancient Chinese believed this range to be the home of the gods and the site of the enchanted peach orchard.

Romans discovered the tasty fruit next. They mistakenly believed peaches were from Persia. Peach is actually an old English form of the word Persian. The scientific name for the fruit is Prunus persica. Romans introduced the peach to the rest of southern Europe.

Spanish explorers, looking for cities of gold in the new world, brought the golden fruit to North America. Peach orchards in California, South Carolina, and Georgia produce the peaches that you find in your supermarket today. Many states hold Peach Festivals during the summer. Both Georgia and South Carolina claim the peach as their state fruit. One town, Gaffney, South Carolina even created an enormous peach shaped water tower that stands 135 feet tall and holds one million gallons of water. That's one juicy fruit!

So as you savor that last delicious bite of your peach-- just think-- you've eaten a fruit that has journeyed around the world.