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