🍑 Why are peaches fuzzy?
Spoiler: The fuzz is good stuff. Also, did you know that nectarines and peaches can grow on the same tree?
The idea to write about peaches came to me one sunny afternoon. I was eating a donut peach, which is essentially a flattened peach. No, there is no hole in the middle, and no, it is not seedless. What a disappointingly misleading name.
Anyway, by my second donut peach, I caught myself staring at this fruit and wondering why they have such a velvety coat.
And so, like any other curious and tech-savvy millennial, I turned to Google.
The short answer: The fuzz is a defence mechanism
Alan T. Eaton/Extension
All that teeny little hair on the peach irritates the heck out of some bugs such as the plum curculio, which is a nasty lil’ snout beetle pest, making sure that they wouldn’t want to land on it.
If they don’t land on the fruit, then there is no chance of these pesky creatures laying their eggs or eating up the flesh.
The peach also has a relatively thin skin as compared to, say, an apple. This makes it important for moisture to be kept away from the skin such that bacteria wouldn’t start thriving.
The fuzz helps with just that by holding dew or mist away from the peach’s skin to prevent it from weakening, and ultimately rotting or decaying.
Of course, if the peach is under running water then the fuzz can’t really do much.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Peaches are fuzzier than you think.
From the moment they’re picked, peaches will last for two weeks. By the time you see them at a supermarket, they’ve already been selected, cleaned, processed and all that jazz. More often than not, this isn’t the original state of peaches.
Fruit producers often get rid of some peach fuzz to make it look more appealing to customers like us.
After all, a ball of fur isn’t exactly a tempting fruit.
The producers from major grocers use wet knives, high-pressure streams of water or brushes to get rid of some fuzz. Farmers markets, on the other hand, typically skip these steps, which explains why their peaches tend to be fuzzier than those at supermarkets.
Don’t worry though, the removal of some peach fuzz doesn’t shorten the lifespan of peaches since they would have already been picked. However, the additional handling may result in quicker decay.
If you can’t stand the fuzz…
Why not opt for nectarines?
Nectarines were adapted from peaches using a natural mutation that made its skin smooth. Belonging to the same species, peaches simply have a dominant gene that allows them to produce the signature fuzz, whereas nectarines have a recessive gene that gives it a smooth skin.
In fact, you wouldn’t be able to tell the nectarine tree apart from a peach tree, and can even find both peaches and nectarines growing on the same tree.
Beyond regular peaches and nectarines, have you tried a donut peach? I’m not sure if it tastes better, but it’s definitely easier on the jaws. Don’t worry, they’re not genetically engineered to look that way, and are actually descendants of the wild pan tao peaches from China.
Why not check them out at the supermarket this weekend? You can even complete your grocery list with a bottle of kombucha, which is made with a creepy slab of jello.
While you’re shopping, why not listen to an energetic tune as you practise social distancing? Here’s a signature soundtrack that you’d definitely recognise if you grew up watching Digimon!
Bonus: You can lip-sync all you want without getting judged since the mask will be covering your mouth anyway. Relive the nostalgia!
Congratulations for making it to the end of the newsletter! Here’s a satisfying GIF of a peach being peeled perfectly. Well, almost.
Know of any peach-lovers who will find this information interesting? Share it with them!
Pssst
This is rather random, but I suppose that’s the whole point of pssst-ing.
Did you know that Danish is the most gender-biased language in the world? It’s followed by German, Norwegian, Dutch, Romanian, English, Hebrew, Swedish and Mandarin.