Near and far, peach has place on plate

Peaches are hand-picked because they ripen on a tree at different times and bruise easily. Each field is picked about six times.

Peaches are taken from fields in bins. Each bin has a barcode that denotes where they were picked and who harvested them.

For processing, peaches are poured in hydro coolers and chilled to 33-34 degrees for 40 minutes. The water contains chlorine and citrus acid for disinfectant.

The peaches are poured onto a belt, and workers remove leaves and bad peaches.

The belt carries the fruit through a washer, which removes fuzz, then light wax is applied as a preservative. Fans blow off water.

The peaches are graded. USDA Grade 1 peaches have no defects and can be shipped anywhere. Those with a small defect are graded 2. The best of those are destined for roadside stands and markets close by.

Each peach is cradled into a moving scale, which distributes them by weight to 12 drop stations.

Workers at each filling station fill boxes to be shipped.

Each box is assigned a lot number and stored cold until shipped.

PICKING PERFECTION

Hail, disease or freeze are the most serious threats to peaches. Hail damage, even early on, results in a scar on a mature peach.

Lower-quality peaches were once sent to factories to be used in baby food, jelly or puree. Those industries have moved elsewhere, so Southern farmers no longer have an outlet for the lower-quality fruit.

At the market, you can tell whether a peach is ripe by looking at its background color. If it's yellow, it should be ripe, but if it's green, it needs more time.

For Dr. Desmond Layne, an associate professor of pomology at Clemson University, peachy perfection is a fruit that's perfectly round with a red blush, a yellow background and a melting meat.

"When you bite into it, it melts in your mouth," he said, "and it drips off your elbow when you're eating it."

Source: Hap Carr and Titan Peach Farms owner Chalmers Carr

THE PEACHY PAST

Peaches originated in China, and the fruit was introduced to North America in 1571 at St. Simons Island by Spanish Franciscan monks. Their cultivation continued with the Cherokee in the 1700s.

Peaches became a commercial crop in the mid-1800s. By the late 1800s, Georgia and South Carolina had large commercial peach operations.

THE SPICE OF LIFE

About 40 varieties are grown commercially in the Southeast. They ripen at different times, so growers will plant several varieties to have something in production throughout the season. Red Globe, O'Henry and Big Red are the most common in South Carolina. Georgia growers prefer the Harvester.

It takes 10 to 15 years to develop a new variety. New varieties include flat peaches, "like you squish it down and it looks like a doughnut," Dr. Layne said. These varieties have names such as UFO, Saturn and Galactica.

SWEET REPUTATION

California and South Carolina surpass Georgia in production, so why is Georgia the Peach State?

In the 1800s, Samuel Rumph in Marshallville, Ga., developed the Elberta, a popular variety at the time that is no longer grown because of a sharp point that would injure other peaches in shipment. He also developed refrigerated shipping in railroad boxcars, which allowed Georgia farmers to ship the fruit in better condition to markets up and down the East Coast.

Sources: Desmond Layne, state program leader for horticulture, associate professor of pomology at Clemson University; Frank Funderburk, executive director of the Georgia Peach Council

They're piled high at roadside stands and grocery stores. It's the peak of the season for peaches. Here are all the juicy details.