(Prunus persica)
Every year, in mid July, I head to the Guelph Farmers’ Market to get the season’s first, almost-freestone peach, Harrow Diamond. It’s one of the best! Fully ripe, it has a gorgeous red blush. It’s great in pies or try it in a Peach~ Blueberry Crisp!
Harrow Diamond was bred at the Greenhouse and Processing Crops Research Centre in Harrow, Ontario and is one of 15 peach cultivars developed by the now-retired Dr. Richard Layne between 1969 and 1995. It takes decades to bred a new peach, and thanks to breeding techniques developed by Neil Miles at the Vineland Research station, the Ontario processing peach harvesting season was able to be extended by a whole month. Released in 1984 and still commonly grown in Southern Ontario, the Harrow Diamond cultivar is winter hardy and quite disease resistant.
Photo Courtesy of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
