TH
E^
KIT
CHEN^ GARDE
NE
RA fruit with a venerable history
Stone fruits are at their luxurious peak in summer and none more so than
peaches. At their best, peaches are richly perfumed, sweet and dripping with juice.
It’s no wonder that Chinese culture associates the peach with heaven where, in
one tale, Peaches of Immortality grow in the mythical Mt Kunlun garden of the
goddess Xiwangmu, whose name means Queen Mother of the West. The image
of the peach occurs everywhere in Chinese decorative arts; as likely to be found
embroidered on silken imperial robes as it is printed on plastic takeaway crockery.
From its Chinese heartland, this precious fruit made its way west along the
Silk Route, joined by its smooth-skinned Turkmen cousin, the nectarine, to the
Persian Empire. From Persia, the peach travelled to Greece and Rome, hence its
Latin name, Prunus persica, ‘Persian plum’. Spanish explorers took the peach to
the Americas and then to France and chilly England, where they require a certain
amount of cosseting for healthy growth. King John was said to have possibly died
from a surfeit of peaches in 1216, shortly after he signed the Magna Carta.
Clearly, he was not eating the immortality variety.
Peaches need careful handling and ripening to live up to their potential.
Shop-bought fruit can be a little hit and miss. There is nothing more
disappointing than biting into a woolly, tasteless peach, so it pays to be choosy
when purchasing peaches. Perfume is a good guide to ripeness, so make sure
you sniff or, better still, taste before you buy. If you have the inclination, you
might like to try growing your own.
Nothing sayssummerquitelikethese sweet
stone fruits, writes SIMON RICKARD.Peaches
ILLUSTRATION GETTY IMAGES.