This fruit tastes better when soft-ripe; it ranks first among fruits in iron content and is hailed as the number one fruit under heaven

Now is the season when fruits hit the market in abundance, and for those who love fruit, it is like the best season of the year. In southern China there is a fruit as sweet as honey that tastes even better when soft-ripe, but unfortunately, because it does not tolerate long-distance transport, many northerners have never tasted it. This fruit ranks first among fruits in iron content and has excellent blood-nourishing effects, and because of its delicious flavor and sweet taste, it is hailed as the "number one fruit under heaven."

This fruit is the peach. From ancient times to the present, whenever people mention peaches, they always associate them with immortal peaches and longevity peaches, and they are extremely fond of them. The peach is native to China, and by now it has about 3,000 years of cultivation history, with dozens of different peach varieties developed, among which the honey peach grown in the humid hot regions of the south is one of the most popular varieties. When a honey peach has just ripened, it is crisp and sweet; after being picked and left for a few days it softens, and when fully ripe it becomes soft and juicy, with skin that peels off with a gentle tug, and its taste is very sweet.

The honey peach has extremely high nutritional value, with the three elements protein, iron and vitamin C having the highest content. Its protein content is double that of grapes and apples, and seven times that of pears. Its iron content is 3-5 times that of pears and apples, ranking first among fruits, making it an ideal food-therapy fruit for people with iron-deficiency anemia. In addition, honey peaches also contain large amounts of pectin and fruit acids, which have a good relieving effect for people with habitual constipation, and are especially suitable for elderly people to eat.

As the saying goes, "Peaches nourish people, apricots harm them," and since ancient times the peach has been an excellent fruit for health preservation. In "Journey to the West," the Queen Mother of the West invited all the immortals to a feast of flat peaches, but did not invite Sun Wukong, which made Sun Wukong fly into a rage and destroy many flat peach trees, leaving the immortals heartbroken. This shows just how great the charm of peaches is, and even today in many regions, when celebrating longevity for the elderly, people replace the cake with traditional longevity peach pastries, precisely for their meaning of long life and health preservation.

Although peaches are delicious, they also have a drawback, which is that they keep very poorly; a slight knock and they rot the next day. So there is no way for them to become a fruit available in all four seasons like apples, and they can only be a seasonal fruit. Dear readers, do you like eating peaches?