Fruits

Summer is in full swing and amidst warm weather comes delicious Canadian grown fruits and veggies in our local grocery stores. With plenty of fresh produce readily available, it’s a great time to eat local fruits and veggies more often. Why not bring a package of fresh local cherries to a work meeting instead of donuts? Or how about eating a peach as a substitute for a chocolate bar during that afternoon sugar craving! Get inspired by the bounty of Canadian grown produce and step up your fruit and veggie intake during these beach body months. New this season are our Thomas Fresh, premium brand cherries, peaches and nectarines which are locally grown in the beautiful Okanagan valley of British Columbia. Our cherries are sold in 1 lb ‘Fresh Okanagan Cherries’ and 10 oz ‘Okanagan Jumbo Cherries’ and both peaches and nectarines come in 3 litre clam shells. All Thomas Fresh clam shell packaging can be recycled in household blue bins, including the peach and necta...

Peach season has arrived, and what true blue Ontarian is not salivating for a basketful of this perfectly ripened tree fruit? Well, for one, my friend Cort Egan. He has huge problems with peach fuzz. “I love the taste of peaches,” he says, “but I can’t stand peach fuzz in my mouth. It makes my skin crawl. To me, it’s like nails on a chalkboard.” Industry observers believe he’s not alone. “I’ve heard people say eating a peach is like eating a velour sweater,” says veteran Toronto-based produce buyer and industry consultant Mike Mauti of Execulytics. However, in Ontario, peaches are a legacy fruit. Peach season is a sign that summer has reached full maturity. So, fuzz haters such as Egan are taking a different approach. More and more, they’re patronizing peaches’ smooth-skinned cousins, nectarines — so much so, that nectarines, which have been improved for better consumer acceptance, are being heralded as the next big thing in Ontario tender fruit. Farmers such as ...

Updated by: Gina Marzolo, graduate student of Agricultural Sciences, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, grmarzolo@cpp.edu, October 2015. By Henrich Brunke and Min Chang, Agricultural Issues Center, University of California. Introduction There are two basic types of peaches (Prunus persica): clingstone and freestone. With clingstone peaches, the flesh “clings” to the "stone" of the peach, making it difficult to separate, and thus more suitable for processing. The pit of freestone peaches "freely" separates from the flesh, making it ideal for fresh consumption. (Clemson University – Cooperative Extension, n.d.) The inside flesh of peaches exists in three different colors: yellow, white and the less common red. In the United States yellow-fleshed peaches are the most common, having a balanced flavor of sweet and tangy. White-fleshed peaches are very common in Asian countries; and recently there has been a growing demand for them throughout the U...

Ontario peaches have arrived in their trademark cardboard baskets, signalling the height of summer. A perfect peach is a thing of beauty, a sweet and juicy ode to sunshine and blue skies. Something to be savoured right now, because once it is gone in early September you won’t taste anything like it until next year. Here in Quebec, the closest thing to local peaches are the ones that arrive from the Niagara Fruit Belt in late July (this year’s exceptionally warm spring and summer brought them two weeks earlier than usual.) Apart from a few well-sheltered and carefully tended backyard trees, peaches don’t do well in Quebec; they are early flowering fruit trees whose blossoms are easily damaged by frost in areas like ours where the temperature dips below freezing well into May. Patricia Masbourian, the new owner of Chez Nino greengrocer at Jean Talon Market, says aficionados look for the Red Haven variety of peach that was developed in Michigan but is now popular among growers in ...