How Peach Pubescence Made The Fruit A Southern Success

For more than a hundred years, Georgia has claimed the peach as its own. The fruit adorns our license plates, our street names and earns money for our state. But what makes the peach such a Southern success? Its sweet taste, of course, but also its fuzzy skin according to Kennesaw State University Professor Thomas Okie. His theory about peach skin – also known as peach pubescence – is featured in the forthcoming book, “The Georgia Peach: Culture, Agriculture, and Environment in the American South.” 

We spoke with Okie about peach farming in Georgia. Dan Horton, professor emeritus of entomology at the University of Georgia, and Al Pearson, a fourth-generation peach farmer and co-owner of Pearson Farms, also joined the conversation.