Peaches are good, but be careful of the pit

I've bought a half dozen or so peaches in the last week or two and noticed that every single one has had a cracked pit inside.. while this itself doesn't pose any danger, the almond looking "nut" inside the peach can be poisonous as it contains trace amounts of cyanide.

"Split pit is a disorder that can affect up to 50 percent of the peaches harvested each year. High nitrogen fertilization, improper irrigation scheduling, and the number of fruit on the tree all influence the amount of split pit that occurs. Peach trees planted in the lawn where they receive more fertilizer and water have more fruit with split pit. Peach trees not pruned properly also experience this problem more frequently." 

  Last night I bit into a peach that had a split pit and there was a clear gel by the opening of the pit and had a very bitter taste.. I spit out what I had in my mouth and threw the rest of the peach out.  While the peaches are all fine I told The Kid to just be careful when eating the peaches and to not just bite into one but to cut it up and remove the seed first.

Just be careful when eating peaches and Never leave the pits where kids or pets can get into them, they can be very harmful to small pets.

I cut clear through this peach this morning with little effort, so be careful when cutting them too

This is NOT an almond, this is the "nut"  inside the peach pit that can be harmful to small children and pets.  It is inedible.

 The clear goo over there around the top of the pit has a bitter taste that I had the unfortunate experience of tasting last night.. it was gross and scared the hell out of me too.

If you do experience cutting into a peach like this, lay it flat on a cutting board and slice through it sideways to remove the pit and discard.  I've found if you cut it lengthwise it's easy to remove the first half and the other half is a mess and you lose a good portion of the peach flesh.