Peaches in the Summertime

One of my favorite things about summer in Japan is the peaches. These big pinkish fruits are not at all like the Georgia peaches and local North East Peaches I knew in America. The US Peaches are great for baking and eating, these Japanese peaches are not good for baking at all- but they are extremely delicious. White and pink flesh inside, much more delicate taste and so much juice. Eating one guarantees a lovely tasty mess… juice dripping down your arms, much more like the experience of eating really juicy watermelon.

Peaches are famous in Japan, from the legend of Momo-Taro the peach boy to the expensive individually wrapped peaches in the department store food boutiques, to Japanese peach tattoo icons… Our friend aaron even got obsessed with Peach juice from vending machines while he was over here visting us.

Peaches are available in Japan only from beginning/mid July to the end of August. So you have at best 6-8 weeks of peach enjoyment time. This makes me love them even more in a way as it makes them a bit more special. The photos above are of a fairly small whole peach, some can be bigger than large fuji apples… and a cut peach that we are enjoying today, on My husband’s birthday.

I would have to say, that Japanese peaches are hands down my favorite seasonal fruit in Japan.

Some interesting links
For any true science geeks…. Japanese Peach-genome mapping

A great blog post about peaches from “she who eats…"

A little info and photo on Peaches from Nagano

If you ever get a chance to try these wonderful summer treats, I highly reccommend them!