By Yuri Yuhara
Yamanashi Prefecture has one of the
smallest percentage of habitable land area in entire Japan (44ยบ place), but is
the Prefecture with the biggest grape, peach and plum production in the
country, and also produces many cherries, nectarines and other fruits, being
known as ใใซใผใใฎ็ๅฝ, the
Kingdom of Fruits.
The long hours of sunlight and small quantity of rain (1st place
in annual hours of sunlight and 47th place in number of rainy days per year),
and the pure water from Mt Fuji makes Yamanashi the perfect place to grow high
quality fruits.
Between July and the beginning of September, all attentions turn
to the peach harvest. In Yamanashi, several kinds of peaches are raised, as the
hakuhou, famous for its size and sweetness, and to learn how this delicious
fruits are produced we visited the Takara Momoen farm, owned by Mr Horie.
The peach harvest season is relatively short (each kind of peach
takes around two weeks to be completely harvested), but it takes a year of intensive
dedication to produce high quality fruits. Soil preparation for planting,
pollination, choosing the best buds for growing, all the work is done by
specialists in peach production and most of time it needs to be done manually,
fruit by fruit.
The result couldn’t be better:
juicy, sweet and giant peaches are produced by Mr Horie.
Yamanashi's peaches are usually sold in
luxury grocery stores around the country at high prices, way more expensive
than what we are used to pay in other countries but it is a fair price
considering its quality. Yamanashi's peaches definitely can't be compared to
fruits sold in other countries.
Not only the production but the
commercialization also demands a lot of work: according to Mr Horie, peaches
harvested this year were already ordered one year before and to guarantee that
the fruits will be delivered as fresh as possible, they need to be sent to the
final customer in the same day they were harvested.
We also visited a nectarines farm, runned by Mr Tanzawa. Nectarines
are similar to peaches but don't have the fuzzy skin that
peaches have. The smooth skin makes the nectarine easier to be eaten and many
people claim that nectarines are sweeter than common peaches.
Mr Tanzawa has been researching
the nectarines since the 70's, when he went to California and saw the nectarine
for the first time, and after coming back to his home country he worked hard to
make the nectarine well known in Japan and also developed several new kinds of
nectarines.
The nectarine season happens at
the same time as the peach season, and eating cold nectarines is one of the
best ways to refresh yourself in the summer.
Peaches are also the main ingredient in several dishes and
desserts. At La Pesca, a restaurant specialized in peaches located in Yamanashi
city, the most ordered item is the peach parfait, made with an entire peach,
ice cream, crumbles and peach jam. La Pesca only works from June until the end
of the peach and grape season, and also sells fresh harvest peaches from Peach
Senka Yamanashita farm, jams and fruit butter.
Takara momoen Farm Website
About Mr Tanzawa nectarines
La Pesca
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