Park Gate Baptist

If you’d like to grow some of your own southern food, peaches are hard to beat. They’re sweet and juicy, and they can be used in numerous recipes, ranging from jam to barbecue sauce. Of course, they’re also wonderful eaten right from the tree!

Basically, there are three types of peaches: clingstone, freestone, and semi-freestone. With clingstone peach varieties, the flesh and the pit are difficult to separate, while the flesh and pits of freestone peaches separate easily. Obviously, the semi-freestone peaches are somewhere in the middle. Most peaches grown in the South have yellow flesh that ranges from soft to very firm. Firm peaches are the best kind for cooking in pies and cobblers.

Freestone peach varieties that grow well in parts of the Deep South include Gala, Harvester, Bounty, Encore, Sunland, Flameprince, and others. Good clingstone varieties for southern growing are Camden, Empress, Flordaking, Derby, and Sunbrite. Semi-freestone peaches include Cador, Surecrop, Flordacrest, and Redhaven.

Depending on the variety and other conditions, peaches are ready to pick from the middle of May until nearly the end of August. In most cases, peaches that are harvested near the end of the season will be sweeter. Once a peach is picked, it won’t get sweeter. It will get softer, but it won’t actually ripen any more.