Pick-Your-Own Peaches, Strawberries, Blackberries
In Fredericksburg in the Beautiful Hill Country of Texas

 Marburger Orchard

30 Years of Quality Fruit & Memorable Experiences


Strawberries planted in October are looking healthy, and growing new leaves in November.

 


Closed for the winter -- open again late February or early March for strawberry picking

 

December 8, 2011 

Our harvest season is usually from early March through early August.  We are primarily a pick-your-own orchard, but most of the season we have fruits and vegetables, which we have picked, available for customers who are unable, or prefer not, to pick.

Strawberry season is mainly March and April; blackberries come in during May and June; and more than ten different varieties of peaches (each with its own two week harvest season) span from late May until early August.  Although only a small part of our operation, we also grow an assortment of vegetables.  The best way to know what is in season at any particular time is to check back here regularly.  When we begin harvesting, the information here on the website is updated frequently, in order to inform our customers of what is currently available, and what is coming next.

 

Picking begins in March, continuing into May.

Strawberries

Strawberry season is primarily March and April.  In June/July we remove the old plants, take out the old plastic and irrigation lines, and plow up the field.  In September we rebuild the plastic-covered beds, and in October we plant new plants.

 

 

 

 

Leaf fall in the peach orchard in November 2011.

Peaches

Peaches are our primary crop!

  We currently have 13 varieties, ripening between mid-May and early August.  Each variety lasts approximately two weeks.

  Peach trees produce best when they have had adequate "chilling hours" during their winter dormancy, from November through February.  During this dormancy, freezes do not usually cause any harm to the trees.  The trees bloom and set their fruit in March, followed by the emergence of the new foliage.  In April, our workers begin the tedious work of thinning.  Thinning is the task of removing excessive fruit, so that the remaining peaches can grow to larger size.  This work is done almost exclusively by hand, one peach at a time!

From late February to early April, we are always vulnerable to freezing weather, which can result in either a partial or total loss of the year's peach crop.  Springtime is also when there is the threat of thunderstorms, accompanied by hail, which may scar or devastate the crop.

Our first peach variety is usually ready to start picking about the third week of May.  A lot of pruning, irrigating, fertilizing, insect prevention and weeding goes on year-round, in order to maintain healthy peach trees, and to produce good quality fruit.

 

 

Blackberries

  Blackberry season is May and June.  We have four varieties, that ripen at different times over that two month period.  The plants are tied up on trellis wires, with grass walkways between, for ease of picking.

 

Vegetables

Because of the threat of killing freezes, most of our summer vegetables can not be planted until early April, which results in harvest being mostly in June and July.  We try to have a good assortment of vegetables each year.

 Although we allow some pick-your-own, we do most of the picking of the vegetables ourselves, so that we can be sure that they will be harvested at their freshest and best early each morning.  They are then available for sale at our orchard stand, until they are sold out for that day.

We do not grow fall and winter vegetables.

 

Hours of Operation

Our current hours will be posted here when harvest begins.  When our crops are abundant, and more fruit ripening every day, we are typically open every day, all day, with the exception of closing on Sunday mornings.  When the fruit is not abundant, and the demand is great, we will close earlier in the day, when we feel like the ripest fruit has been exhausted for that day.  Occasionally, we must close a full day or more, in order to assure that our customers will have the ripest, best tasting fruit.

 

When we have adequate fruit and staffing, you will find us also selling at the Fredericksburg Farmers Market.  That market generally runs from May through August (and possibly again in October and November), once a week, on Thursdays from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. on the Marktplatz (Market Square) in the middle of downtown Fredericksburg.

 

Prices

Since our products are not manufactured, and are at the mercy of nature, the quality, size and quantity can easily vary from week to week, especially in our many peach varieties.  Therefore, our pricing is also flexible, reflecting those changing conditions.  Our strawberry and blackberry prices generally remain the same throughout most of their respective seasons.  Prices for pick-your-own are less than if we do the picking for you.  However, due to the need for competent employees to assist customers with picking instructions and supervision, the prices are only moderately different.  We occasionally offer discounts when we want to encourage customers to come out and help us pick an over-abundance of ripe fruit, before it becomes a loss.  Since the demand for our fruit usually is greater than the supply, we rarely have the need to wholesale our products, nor offer reduced prices for customers picking larger quantities.

 

Directions to Marburger Orchard

      Take U.S. Highway 87      5¼ miles south of Fredericksburg
or 16 miles north of I-10.

Watch for our sign.
Turn onto Meusebach Rd. Follow signs to

 559 Kuhlmann Rd.

Mapquest and Google Earth now have us accurately located!  (Other GPS programs apparently are still trying to say we are someplace else!)

Pick-Your-Own!

Peaches:  May-August
Strawberries: March-May
Blackberries: May-June
Vegetables:  June-August

Call or check back here for current information.


(830) 997-9433

 

Join Our Mailing List

(click here)


To see photos from past years at Marburger Orchard in Fredericksburg, Texas

Click below on pictures of Peaches, Strawberries, and Blackberries

 

 

E-mail List

The best way for us to get notices to you about what is happening at Marburger Orchard is by e-mail.  In addition to being the quickest method, it allows us to get information to you more specific to your interests, and is a less costly way for us to stay in touch with our growing list of customers. It also allows us to notify you anytime we might have a special going, such as during an unexpected surplus of overripe fruit.  If you are a new customer, or have never before registered with us, please go to “Join Our Mailing List” above on this page, and register.  Be sure the e-mail address you enter on the form is current, and 100% correct--we do get back a fair number of "undeliverable" e-mails.
 If you are a previous customer, and are already on our mailing list, we would still like for you to fill out this form, if you have never before done so, especially if you would like to start getting e-mail notices, instead of our traditional cards. 
Please, please, please, do not fill out this form more than once!!!  That only creates more unnecessary work for me, deleting the duplications.  Rest assured that if you have checked your name off on our printed customer list here at the orchard anytime in the last couple of years, you are considered an "active customer", and you will get a notice from us (provided you don't have a change of address).  If you think you should be getting a card or e-mail when you are not, first be patient--it may not yet be the appropriate time for notices to go out on that particular crop.  If you are not getting a notice when the crop has started, check with us to be sure we have your correct address.
If you would rather get a card notice, instead of an e-mail, please indicate that preference on the mailing list form. 
We will notify you by only one method or the other, not by both.  At this time, we are sending out only two cards each year, according to your expressed interests, one at the beginning of strawberry season, and the other at the beginning of peach season.  There may be additional e-mail notices under special circumstances, such as unusual crop abundance, or limited time discounts.
We will not give your e-mail address to anyone else, and we will try to use this method of communication sparingly.  We do not want to become another source of annoying spam mail for you!

If you choose not to sign up for notices from us, you can simply check back here on our website on a regular basis.  We attempt to post current updates as frequently as necessary during the harvest season to keep our customers aware of changing conditions.

 


 

Strawberries

 

Peaches

 

Blackberries

More Pictures

click here for Spring 2010 peach bloom pictures

         (Spring 2010 strawberry pictures)     

  (2009 photos!)

  (2008 Pictures at Marburger Orchard)

 

Marburger Orchard is a member of the Hill Country Fruit Council. We have been a Hill Country peach tradition for 34 years! You know it's fresh when you pick your own peaches, strawberries and blackberries! Your vacation or outing to the Texas Hill Country just isn't complete until you've tasted the fresh fruits of our Gillespie  County orchard. Primarily pick-your-own, but sometimes we have already picked fruit available. All our fruit is the best quality fruit nature can provide. We take great pride in our well maintained orchard which provides the greatest ease of picking and family enjoyment!


Click here to go to the Hill Country Fruit Council