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POACHED PEACHES<br />
IN SEASON<br />
I<br />
tasted my first golden-pink nectarine on a<br />
trip to San Francisco more years ago than<br />
I care to admit. I was still an unadventurous<br />
food explorer: it was not that long since I<br />
realised tinned sliced peaches actually<br />
came from fruit-bearing trees.<br />
Velvety peaches were my Californian fruit<br />
of choice but was the nectarine a peach<br />
or a plum with attitude? They are, in fact,<br />
a smooth-skinned variety of peach of<br />
mysterious origin that first appeared in<br />
Britain in the early part of the 17th century.<br />
The name possibly <strong>com</strong>es from German<br />
and Dutch words meaning nectar-peach.<br />
So alike are peaches and nectarines that<br />
peach trees can sometimes spontaneously<br />
produce nectarines and vice versa.<br />
Peaches were born in the mountain<br />
‘So alike are<br />
peaches and<br />
nectarines that<br />
peach trees<br />
can sometimes<br />
produce<br />
nectarines<br />
and vice versa’<br />
valleys and upland forests of central Asia.<br />
They need both summer sunshine and<br />
winter cool. Their natural home is in a<br />
temperate climate; they fail to thrive in and,<br />
in fact, detest the tropics.<br />
Wild peaches were already cultivated<br />
in China around 2,000BC. On his travels,<br />
Marco Polo saw yellow and white peaches,<br />
‘great delicacies’, for sale<br />
24<br />
FOOD & TRAVEL ARABIA
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