OFF THE SHELF
Juicy Saturn peach available in some island stores

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

It's a descendant of a flat peach variety from China. The fruit is up to 3 1/2 inches wide and 1/2 inch in diameter, with pale yellow skin tinged with red.

It is reported to be among the most popular of the new peach varieties, partly because of its novelty but also because of its pungent fragrance and juiciness. Similar varieties are known in some places as "doughnut" peaches because of their sunken centers and bulbous circulate shape.

Some describe the fruit as having almond overtones, according to the Web site of a wholesaler, The Produce Hunter.

You can use these peaches as you would any other — eat them fresh, poach or roast them, dry or can them.

According to the Web site of California-based Dave Wilson Nursery, which specializes in unusual varieties, until about 20 years ago, most of the world's hybridizers discarded the white-fleshed fruit that frequently resulted from their crosses.

"Markets wanted only firm, yellow-fleshed fruit; the whites were too easily bruised and considered commercially worthless. But in the 1980s, when the Asian markets opened up, they demanded sub-acid (low-tartness) white-fleshed fruits and paid top dollar for them," wrote Ed Laivo of the nursery, whose articles on backyard gardening are in Garden Compass magazine.

The fruit is available now in some island grocery stores.