In Search of a Purple Peach

October 23, 2012
| 24 Comments

This past weekend we attended an event at the Acta Non Verba Urban Farm. Kelly Carlisle, who runs it asked us if we could bring some of our chickens and we happily obliged.

There was a woman that taught a cooking demonstration about how to make Sweet Potato Butter that was so very delicious Tom couldn’t stop eating it. Due to Tom constantly being at her table to snag another sample he struck up a conversation with the instructor (I wish I had caught her name). She told Tom about a purple peach she used to get for processing. It was so purple it dyed her hands purple when she processed them. She said it was a peach that was once fairly common in the South but rare elsewhere. According to her there was only two people she knew in the Bay Area that grew it, one in Oakland and one in Vallejo. He quickly ran over to me to tell me about it.

He knows me too well. I’m OBSESSED with unique, rare varieties of plants (and breeds of animals). A purple peach? I must find this variety and when I do I will be finding space somewhere in my yard to plant it. Of course Tom doesn’t want me adding more plants so by sharing this with me he was doing himself a disservice. I think he secretly wants one of these peach trees too.

I started researching online for purple peach varieties. Here’s what I’ve been able to find. Winegrowers used to plant peach trees with their vines. The peach trees were extra susceptible to mildew so when the trees got infected winegrowers would be able to stop the mildew problem before it effected their vines. These peaches were called “vine peach,” “wine peach,” or “blood peach” because of their red-purple flesh. From what I can deduce, this was primarily done in France though, so not exactly what I’m looking for. Or is it?

I then found this gem:

One “Blood” peach tree was sent Jefferson in 1807 by the Washington nurseryman Thomas Main. In 1810 Jefferson planted forty-one stones of the “black plumb peach of Georgia” in the “New Nursery.” These likely came from William Meriwether, who had passed on “black soft peaches of Georgia” in 1804 and “Georgia black” peaches in 1809. When pomological writers such as Philip Miller, William Coxe, A. J. Downing, and U. P. Hedrick discussed the Blood Cling peach, they attributed its origin to a French variety known as Sanguinole, a curiosity suitable mostly for preserving. Today the peach is known as the Indian Blood Cling, a name that unites the “Blood” peach of the French Sanguinole with the “Indian” peach that grows wild in the southeastern states of Georgia and Florida and was obtained by Jefferson as the “black plumb peach of Georgia.” The fruit, entirely splashed and mottled with scarlet, tiger-like stripes, is sometimes twelve inches round. The skin resembles a beet: scarlet, tough, and meaty, although pleasantly flavored and brisk. Blood Cling is a fine peach to eat out of hand but is mostly used for pickling and preserving. It was commonly listed by early nineteenth-century nurseries and is still offered in the trade.

There appears to be 4 varieties of peach that might be the purple peach I’m in search of. The Indian Blood Peach, the Indian Free Peach, the Sanguinole Peach, and the Sanguine de Manosque Peach. The funniest thing about all of this is that I have an Indian Blood Peach in my yard already. I originally bought it as an Indian Free Peach but it is not a freestone, but rather a clingstone, so I’m certain it’s actually the Indian Blood Peach. While it wasn’t as dark as the peach above, it was very dark red and it did indeed stain my hands as I ate it. Apparently the color can range from white with red stripes to the dark purple color above from year to year.

I’m sure Tom is relieved to know that I won’t be planting another tree in our yard.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Categories: Current Events, Farm Diary, Garden Planning, Gardening, Growing Tips, Urban Farming & Homesteading, Varieties