White-Flesh Nectarine (© Yong hian Lim | Dreamstime.com)

Once grown primarily for the Asian market, white-flesh peaches and nectarines from California have caught on with American consumers and continue to grow in popularity.

The snowy-white interior color is not the only thing that makes these fruits distinctive. They’re also prized for their high sugar levels and low acid levels. Since they are naturally less tart, the white-flesh varieties are ready to eat when still crunchy, but all varieties get sweeter as they continue to ripen.

According to an article in The Produce News, this year’s California crop will be characterized “by generally larger fruit size and excellent quality due to exceptionally good growing weather so far…The eating quality on the early fruit has also been exceptional,” with a higher sugar level than expected.

The success of the early crop bodes well for the later varieties coming to market from June to September. Sounds like this is going to a good summer to break out your favorite peach pie recipe!

If you’d like to read The Produce News article cited above go to: Growers expect full crop of white-flesh product with improved fruit size