Arm yourself with these 10 facts you never knew about juicy peaches

Synonymous with summertime, let fuzzy peaches from Choithrams.com be the star of your salad this month. The peach is a versatile fruit that can be used to garnish meals, stewed in savoury dishes and cooked to make fruit jams, among other things.

Summer peaches are soft and sweet, smell divine, taste good cooked or fresh, and they’re chock-full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Peaches boast lots of potential health benefits, including improved digestion, a healthy heart, a strong immune system and improved allergy symptoms.

Whether you plan to try them chopped on salads or whipped into family-friendly compote bowls or healthy, fruit ice pops, here are a few facts you may not know about the fuzzy fruit.

1. Georgia, in the USA, goes by the nickname “The Peach State” because of the number it produces each year.
2. Peaches originated in China where they have been cultivated there for more than 3,000 years, and China is still the number one producer of peaches in the world.
3. The peach tree made its way to India and the Middle East where they were introduced to the Europeans. Spanish settlers brought the peach to the Americas in the 16th century.
4. The peach tree belongs to the same family of trees as roses and almonds. That’s a pretty diverse family tree!
5. The largest peach on record with the Guinness Book of World records weighed an astonishing 726g. It was picked in August of 2002 in Coloma, Michigan.
6. Peaches are a great source of vitamins A and C.
7. When a fruit is ripe, the flesh of a peach should have a slight give when pressed gently using your whole hand.
8. The World’s Largest Peach Cobbler is made every year in Georgia, USA. The cobbler measures 3.3m by 1.5m.
9. August is National Peach Month in the USA and peaches are at their peak from June to the end of August each year.
10. After being picked from trees, peaches are immediately rinsed in cold water to stop it ripening. They are run through hydro-cooler, essentially an ice-water bath that lowers the temperature of the peach so the fruit won’t be overripe when it reaches the consumer.