Navajo Peach

I’m looking for Navajo Peach seeds or scion wood. Does anyone happen to have it?

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Maybe, this can help.

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I did, no response yet. My email is probably stuck in the spam folder! :sob:
Thank you! :slight_smile:

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When I looked into what she wrote earlier she is only distributing to Native American communities at this point.

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If you want an alternative there is Ericka’s Iowa-Indian White Freestone

Description:
IOWA WHITE PEACH SEEDS
• Five years ago, I transplanted three seedlings that had sprouted from a grove of Iowa-white peaches and we’ve had two extremely bountiful seasons so I’m offering the joy of these magnificent trees to others! Never would I have thought I could so easily grow peaches in northern Iowa (zone 4b)! Now you have can your flowers and eat them, too!
• The trees had their first beautiful pink flowers bloom in May of 2020. Even with a frost during the flowering, the trees have produced remarkably well. (Thanks, black Iowa dirt!)
• We haven’t had the heart to thin the young peaches as many experienced peach-growers do, so the peaches are a little smaller than the ones in the grocery store, usually about 3". The one that I’m holding in the picture is from 2020—they were smaller that year, probably due to being the first fruiting season. Perhaps next season I’ll try reducing the numbers so that they might grow in size. They ripen well on the tree, and also ripen with time if harvested a little green.
• We have the dreaded Japanese beetle here that decimate our apple trees to the point of us having to remove them, but the beetles don’t touch the peach trees! Aside from a few expected nibbles here and there, the trees grow very well without the use of pesticide. These are 100% organic.
• Since I planted three, I’m not positive if they are self-fertile or if more than one tree is necessary for a pollination. (I’ve seen reports from others of both.) The trees are so beautiful, I wish I could have an entire grove! I’ve read that you can plant a few close together so they’ll essentially grow as one with multiple trunks. Ours are spaced at least 15 feet apart.
• The Iowa-white peach tree, or I’ve seen them called the Iowa-Indian white peach, is a rare, cold-hardy, Iowa-native variety that stays fairly small.
• Peaches are fuzzy (I’ve found the fuzz to rub off easily as the whole fruit is bathed in warm water if you’d like to skip the peeling step—I do), red-blush with creamy-white and red centers with a freestone pit, which makes processing them a breeze. Other than right off the tree, my favorite way to preserve them is dehydrating. I made 20+ pounds this season and altogether got about 1,800 peaches! They’re my absolute favorite snack. Also great for freezing, canning and baking.

She sells them on Etsy but sells out every spring.

I got some seeds and gave some to @Hillbillyhort so i will be trying them here in WV.

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Not a answer to you, but
Since it seems you might be interested in old peaches as well ,

Have you heard of the California grower Masumoto Family growing peaches for 4 Generations

In Central valley CA
How close are you to Fresno

BlockquoteOn the Masumoto Family Farm, we cultivate certified organic peaches, nectarines, apricots, and grapes (for raisins).

We do our best to sustainably farm our 80 acres south of Fresno and share our harvests through food, writing, and art.

Blockquote

Do you have any of these

I saw this On slow food a while ago, and thought of your request

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Newest info on these peaches.

“Using dendrochronology and backdating the groves using inbreeding estimates, the orchards could have been isolated for a period of 240 to 480 years”

https://utahstatemagazine.usu.edu/environment/putting-down-roots-with-native-peaches/

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Contact the woman through the university where she works. Suggest she sell seeds to finance the project- one tree usually produces an awful lot of seeds if it produces any.

She will probably let you have a couple seeds anyway if you establish contact with her and sincerely flatter her project. Offer her to return the favor with many seeds once you have any bearing trees.

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Video on the Navajo peach by Reagan and how they grow naturally.

Interview with Reagan on the peaches

in this video she explains that they do not want to share this cultivar at this point due to the fear that a disease etc will make it back to the local trees. They have been isolated and inbred… and at this point she doesnt want to change that. The trees and seeds are to be given to local Elders to grow in their communities to benefit them is what she says.

The way she explains the fruit… sounds alot like Iowa white…which is somewhat available.

Iowa White

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There’s a lot of varying information on the history of peaches in North America. One story said 1562 in St Augustine area of Florida by the Spanish or 1562 from Spanish in Mexico.
The Smithsonian magazine said settlers in Jamestown found peaches growing there 1607. However, a story about Thomas Jefferson and his peach orchard said Capt. John Smith first mentioned peaches in Jamestown in 1629. William Penn noted peaches in Philadelphia in 1683.

Peaches moved westward as Indians and settlers migrated. Of course it makes better sense that the Utah ones moved northward out of Mexico before the east coast ones arrived.

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"On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company settlers landed on Jamestown Island to establish an English colony 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Discovery of the exact location of the first fort indicates its site was in a secure place, where Spanish ships could not fire point blank into the fort.

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Interesting as the offical history has Smith long gone from Jamestown and never returned to know anything about peaches in 1629.

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Smith was a braggart.

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She seems to have strangely irrational fears. How is this peach growing in isolation going to suffer from the same variety growing elsewhere around many other varieties? Why would isolated peach trees be adversely affected in any way. I would suggest her motivation for keeping this treasure to “her people” comes from somewhere else.

Tribal identity when your tribe or tribes have been horribly victimized comes with a lot of baggage. I’m not sure how one unloads it.

The good news is that the genetics in this peach are probably mostly in available varieties, including Indian Blood. Maybe I will begin to grow seedlings from mine. I’d like to have one that ripens earlier- I need a hot September to ripen it properly and I can’t count on that. They are much more acid than sugar this year and not very appealing to my palate. The flesh looks similar, but Indian Blood can even be redder.

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This nursery may have ‘Navajo’ peach seeds… the story fits.

The picture that this nursery uses is actually Reagan’s hand. As shown by the original poster and also in the video that i linked.

I will contact them monday or so and see… as it looks like at some point they sold seedlings.

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Did you ever find any Navajo Peach seeds? I am also interested and haven’t been able to find any seeds or seedlings for sale.

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No, She is working with a University or someone to make it available. The problem is any way you look at it, there is no way it will be the same. If they cross it with modern varieties it might be resistant but it won’t be Navajo Peach any more, If they graft it to Available rootstock it will lose it’s drought tolerance and some other qualities. If they share seeds with us, they don’t make money. Any way you look at it it’s a losing proposition.

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Thank you for letting me know. I have the white Indian blood cling peach tree that a man generously gave to me and said it was grown from seed, the peach is delicious and fairly drought tolerant as I live in Abilene Texas and the summers are brutal here.

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From the article published last fall, 50 bushels of peaches were gathered in 2022 to fund a scholarship and distribute to growers. It’s early days.

The first people to receive native peach seeds are native growers and Wytsalucy is moving slowly to expand distribution for both practical and ethical reasons. First, it takes years to produce the peaches in quantities large enough to distribute and to grow them in a way that is culturally respectful and retains the peaches genetic purity. But for Wytsalucy, giving the seeds to people outside the region needs to be a collective decision.

“I’m just here to preserve this so it’s accessible to our people — that’s the overall, the number one goal,” she says. “There is so much that we don’t know about these (peaches). They are literally isolated. Do they have disease resistance? … There are a lot of things that we are considering and I’m just one Extension agent.”

She is starting a nonprofit — Da’kah Hotsa — to bring help with the process and make decisions collectively. The name roughly translates to mean Huge Garden in Navajo and reflects the tribe’s connection with the earth and their creator, Wytsalucy says.

Last September, she and her family, as well as USU student and staff volunteers, harvested about 50 bushels of peaches for processing to fund a scholarship for Native American students and the Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science Department. About half of the peaches were brought back to Blanding and handed out at the 2022 Zuni Fair with some boxes going to native growers.

“Not only do they have the food, but they also have the seed to start growing,” Wytsalucy says.

Much of Wytsalucy’s Extension work focuses on gardening education and has involved establishing community garden programs. In 2021, at a community garden site in Bluff, a quarter of the population volunteered to build it.

“Our people used to know how to live off the land and sustain ourselves,” Wytsalucy says. “There are a lot of young Native Americans in this area that are trying to go back to growing traditional food crops again.”

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