Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/654468
34 MARCH 15, 2016 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com Friday is happy about the wide distribution of the peaches, but he seems most excited about responses from individuals. "A shipper packer in California has had my varieties on test for a number of years, and he told me, 'We always eat your varieties at home and serve them to our guests.'" Friday smiles, and then he pulls out his phone and plays back a voicemail of a telephone call he got from a grower in Kentucky about his PF Paramount 24 variety, which he describes as a sweet midseason peach with bac- terial spot resistance, cold-hardiness and high yield. On the recording, the grower remarks, "I just want to thank you for an amazing peach. It's really the best peach we've ever had. We've really been talking about it all day." When asked about his own favorite Flamin' Fury vari- ety, Friday answered, "For what season? They're all only good for 10 days, so there are lots of good peaches." He does, however, point out a few notable varieties: One is the PF 24-007, a freestone peach that ripens about 22 days after Redhaven. The other is the PF 24-007 peach, which has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest peach since 2002. It was 5.5 inches in diameter and weighed almost 2 pounds, although Friday said he's actually grown some that are larger. In 2010, the talk show Late Night With David Letterman got wind of the record, and called Friday asking him to bring his record-holding peach to the show. "I said, 'I ate it eight years ago!'" He laughs. "You can't make this stuff up." Other Flamin' Fury peaches he thinks especially worthy of mention are the PF Lucky 13, one of his most popular varieties; the large, midseason PF 19-007; the PF 28-007, a late-season peach that ripens 32 days after Redhaven; and the even later ripening PF Fashionably Late. He is quite fond of PF Fashionably Late, which he considers "one of the best in the series." PF Fashionably Late ripens 54 days after Redhaven and, while a semi- cling variety, is very juicy. Shane has a few favorites in the Flamin' Fury line, too. "The PF 19-007 is a nice one for its harvest window about 16 days after Redhaven. Other ones that I like quite a bit are his PF 9A-007, which is in the Redhaven window, and one of his really early ones called PF 5 D Big, which is about 24 days before Redhaven." Besides the merits of Friday's individual varieties, Shane asserts that the entire Flamin' Fury series has made a difference. "One of the things that his breeding program has done is it has developed peaches that ship well, that have enough red color to compete in the national peach market and have good fruit size," Shane said. "He's really made remarkable progress, and the number of his intro- ductions is amazing for a breeding program." Today, Friday is easing up his workload a bit. He has retired from his life as a peach grower and even moved into a retirement home — "It's like a cruise ship, but without the seasickness!" — but when asked if he'll retire from breeding, he immediately and emphatically said, "No. The goal is always to develop something better than what you already have, and I have a lot of stuff in the works." He added, "I'm always in search of the perfect peach." • Leslie Mertz, Ph.D., is a freelance writer based in Gaylord, Michigan. Friday named his Flamin' Fury series of peaches after his then 3- and 5-year-old grandchildren, shown here in a family photo. The two youngsters had fl aming red hair along with energetic personalities well described by the series name. 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