Picking for Flavor

It’s hard to believe we’re only at the end of June and the Masumoto family is already harvesting their last few varieties of peaches and nectarines. We think of seasons in terms of days and months, but when summer rolls around, fruit harvests really dictate the rhythm of the season for us. The early March heat wave sent many stone fruit orchards into bloom earlier than usual this year. We saw the challenges California cherry farmers faced but the effects on peaches and nectarines have been a little harder to pin down. At the end of April, Nikiko Masumoto sent an update saying that it is “possibly the earliest season in the history of their farm” with Rose Diamond nectarines and Spring Lady peaches just a few weeks out. For us, these first two varieties mark the beginning of summer. With a compressed bloom and shorter growing period, a lot of the early fruit ended up on the smaller side. This made sense: less hang time on the tree results in less time to size up. But when the fruit is ripe and ready, the Masumoto crew is ON for the wild ride.

Fast forward a little over a month and the Masumotos are into the first round of Suncrest peaches and Summer Grand nectarines. We always talk about “rounds” of harvest with the farmers we work with. This is true for most fruit we bring in: citrus, avocados, stone fruit, subtropicals, etc. We work closely with our farmers to bring in what’s ready to be harvested, and farmers work closely with the fruit to know when it’s ready. The Masumoto family’s deep connection with harvest is one that’s incredibly inspiring. All five senses are used to determine whether a peach is ready to be picked. The color of the skin, the aroma and fragrance, the firmness of the fruit, and finally, flavor and taste of sugars. Meanwhile, the birds are singing a choir in the background of the orchard – the fiercest competition and a telltale sign that the peaches are ripe. To calibrate their crew’s senses, they do an exercise to help the team assess ripeness. They have each picker harvest an underripe peach, a perfect peach, and a too-ripe peach, and then ask them to observe each closely. Multiple times a week, every week, the Masumoto family works hard to calibrate harvest timing and quality with their crew.

This all may sound simple and picturesque, but when you’re doing this on a family farm with a small crew and you’re harvesting thousands of pounds of peaches this way, it is a true art form that requires years of skill. Last week, Nikiko reminded me just how much care goes into growing and picking for flavor, especially because a few degrees of temperature change can dramatically slow down or speed up ripening. To harvest the perfect peach, their crew will sometimes pass by a tree without picking a single piece of fruit. They may harvest one or two peaches from a tree in one pass and return to that same tree less than 24 hours later. And while we’re experiencing June gloom in the Bay Area, the Masumotos are working through 90 degree-plus temperatures to get us the perfect peach. We are in awe and full of gratitude for this work. Especially because a bite into my first Suncrest peach of the season was so wow!

PS: I’ve been obsessed with this book for the past year, sharing it with every little human (and adult) in my life. Every Peach Is a Story follows little Midori learning how to tell when a peach is ripe, a metaphor for family history and connection. I highly recommend reading this beautiful book while enjoying a juicy Suncrest peach.