On the 15th of every month, it’s time to introduce charming Senshuites. This time, we would like to introduce you to Mr. Matsumoto of Maruya Farm, a farmer who produces the sweetest peaches in the world. Mr. Matsumoto started as a farmer in 1998, growing ordinary peaches. After that, he decided to produce more attractive peaches with a strong commercial spirit. Today, he has succeeded in producing the sweetest peaches in the world, which has been registered in the Guinness World Records. However, it took a lot of hard work to achieve great success because he paved the way for himself. In this article, I would like to introduce what kind of peaches it is, the history of the peach until it was registered in the Guinness World Records, and how to identify sweet peaches.

Kanechika district is famous for sweet peaches. In the summer, many locals visit the market for sweet peaches (check the link to the article about the local market called Aisai Land). Mr. Matsumoto is one of the leading peach growers in Kanechika district. He initially worked as a building demolition worker, but in the fall of 1998, he started farming, and growing peaches with his parents. Initially, he was producing ordinary peaches, but after meeting a farmer who produced sweet apples, he decided to produce sweet peaches as well.

The Kanechika district is located close to the consumer areas, so the peach is shipped in a mostly ripe state. In addition, Mr. Matsumoto grows more sweet peach with the original method. By using microorganisms to improve the soil and adjust the fertilizer, he has grown it. Let me introduce the following method. Photosynthesis, causes the starch to accumulate in the leaves, which is then converted into glucose. This is the sweetening agent. After that, glucose is accumulated in the fruit through the antagonistic effect of some fertilizers. The peach grown by this method makes the sugar meter shakes out.

Incidentally, there are other ways to make crops sweeter: stress the plants.

Mr. Matsumoto was asked by a TV station, “Why don’t you try for the Guinness World Record? At that time, he thought it would be interesting if his peaches are registered in the Guinness World Records! That’s why he started working on the registration. The application process was very arduous. First of all, there were no regulations for measuring the sugar content of raw fruits, so they started by making the rule. After that, it took three years to register the sweetest peach in the Guinness World Records.

Let me share the method of identifying sweet peach, lectured by Mr. Matsumoto. Most people think, peaches that are dark pink are sweet. In fact, peaches with white spots are said to be sweet. If white spots in peach spread over, the peach is sweeter.