I thought Lee's comment of being in the "pit of the peach state" was cute, and then I realized I didn't know what the official fruit of the state of Alabama is, so I looked it up.  It is a peach.  WHAT???  Yeah, we grow some good peaches, but everyone knows that Georgia is the "official" peach state (whether they are better than Alabama peaches is a matter of debate).  Seems like that happened in 2006.  It was previously a blackberry.   Yeah we grow a lot of those too.  They are all over the place, my property is full of them, but they aren't much of a crop.  Earlier until 1982 it was a pecan.  Seems I remember something about Georgia being able to grow a few pecans too.  I guess we can't decide.

Alabama has always been know as the cotton state.  Why?  I don't know.  We produce a lot of cotton but there are 8 or 10 other states that produce more, including Georgia.

Also interesting is that the official fruit of Rhode Island is also a peach.  Rhode Island?  Where would they put the trees?

South Carolina which is #2 on the peach production list, does claim the peach as the state fruit, but the state is known as "The Palmetto state", "The Rice State", "The Swamp State", "The Iodine State", and a few others.  They are all confused.

California which grows more peaches than South Carolina, Georgia, or Alabama, decided to not get into the argument and has no official fruit.  Unofficially, I heard they have a whole city full of them.

Jerry, K4SAV
still in the briar patch