Sometimes new, fresh fruit can be met with trepidation. Much of this is due to people doing their best to maintain a healthy diet and eat naturally. If you aren’t familiar with a certain fruit, it’s unlikely you know its history or even if it’s good to eat. When healthy snacks are delivered to the office, should you have one?
With all these questions , a flat-looking peach gets flagged and disregarded as a Genetically-modified organism (GMO) or even “not good for you” because it doesn’t fall into what a peach is “supposed” to look like.
Are donut peaches GMO?
In a word, no. It’s important to remember the difference between crossbreeding and genetically modifying a plant. In this blog we’ve looked at the process of how fruit and apples specifically are modified to create new cultivars.
According to Non-GMO Project’s website, a GMO is an organism whose genetic makeup has been “modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering or transgenic technology.”
Donuts are a descendant of China’s Pan Tao peach which came to the United States about 150 years ago. Stark Bro’s Nursery and Orchards Co. was the first company able to sell them when they purchased the rights in the 80s.
Those rights didn’t expire until the 2000s when other farmers were able to grow and sell them freely. Since then, donut peaches have spread around the country and has between 15-20 offshoots and descendants of their own.
Story of a fruit
These delectable morsels were originally tabbed for home growers but eventually, produce trendsetter Frieda’s caught wind and became the sole distributor of flat peaches even prior to Stark Bro’s obtaining a sales license.
Donuts have been seen as a “premium fruit” since hitting the market. They command a higher price; originally because of their rarity, because they are challenging to grow. Peaches normally grow into spherical shapes and due to this, the skin can split as the peach grows out wide. They are also susceptible to blight which can take out a crop before it’s even harvested.
We deliver donut peaches every day in our seasonal fruit bins. Let us show you these and some of the other services we offer at ThirdLeaf NW!