School is officially back in session bookmarking to another sweet summer in California. The end of summer used to mean the end of fresh summer stone fruit like peaches, plums and nectarines, but that’s changed over the past few seasons. California growers are constantly testing and naturally breeding new flavorful varieties of peaches. If you recall our Aug. 15 post on Variety Tastings & Rootstock Tours you can see a taste testing session amongst California growers. They are not only breeding for flavor but they are also looking for varieties that harvest later and later into the year.

This means we can still get American grown peaches in October! The most important thing to remember when buying fall stone fruit is to look at the PLUsticker for Country of Origin (COO). Southern Hemisphere fruit will just begin their production and sometimes the seasons overlap each other. So, to make sure you are buying produce that was grown and cared for by Americans make sure you check your labels before enjoying!