Last Four Peach Varieties!

  Friday evening, July 30, 2010:  This weekend should still be great picking in our four last varieties of the season.  We should have enough fruit to be open 8 to 5 on Saturday, and 1 to 5 on Sunday.  However, if we get a larger than expected crowd, we could be closed early on either of those days.  The Dixiland variety still has fairly good picking, with a lot of soft-ripe, ready-to-eat peaches hanging on the trees (and dropping!).  Dixiland is our most popular late season peach variety.  I would describe it as a milder flavored, less acid ("sweeter" according to the definition of some), very loose freestone variety.

The Jersey Queen variety is also good picking, but is beginning to decrease in size and quantity, after heavy picking this week.  This peach tends to be a little more acid, or tangy.

The Ouachita Gold and Fayette varieties are now at the peak of their production.  Ouachita Gold is a beautifully round peach, with a distinctive flavor, and a predominantly yellow, rather than red, flesh.  The Fayette is typically very large in size, and tends to stay very firm, even with full color.

We are quickly approaching the end of this year's peach season, and will probably finish the first or second week of August.  Don't delay!  Not much time left to get some "real peaches", or to stock up, until next summer!

The weather has definitely "heated up"  --  all the more reason to come out to pick early in the morning, along with the advantage of having the best selection of ripe peaches for the day.

  We have made several fungicide spray applications to the orchard since the brown rot decay problem that we were having on the fruit, during the very wet spell associated with Hurricane Alex, and this, along with drier weather, seems to have significantly reduced the problem.

Pick-Your-Own Peach Prices

Peach prices are not static for the season, but instead vary with each variety, according to the size, quality, and stage of harvest of the fruit.  The current prices are:

Dixiland :   $35 per ½ bushel (apx. 25 lbs.), $1.80 per lb. for smaller amounts

(Our block of Dixiland, with predominantly smaller fruit is priced at $30 per ½ bushel)

Jersey Queen :   $30 per ½ bushel (apx. 25 lbs.), $1.55 per lb. for smaller amounts

Ouachita Gold :   $30 per ½ bushel (apx. 25 lbs.), $1.55 per lb. for smaller amounts

Fayette :   $40 per ½ bushel (apx. 25 lbs.), $2.00 per lb. for smaller amounts

(Sorry, no credit cards  --  cash or checks only)

  For those that do not want to pick their own peaches, we try to keep a selection that we have picked available for sale at our counter (although this has become much more difficult to do since my field workers have already gone home to Mexico for the rest of the peach season).  The price of this fruit is naturally higher than the pick-your-own prices.  If you want already picked half bushels, it is best to call, and order in advance.  Half bushel boxes of peaches that we have picked for you are generally $12.00 per box more than the pick-your-own price.

Hours

  We are usually open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday.   This earlier opening time (different from strawberry season) is due to the longer, hotter days.  This allows our customers to "beat the heat" by coming while the day is still cool.  For the time being, we will continue to close at 5:00 p.m., unless we sell out of ripe fruit earlier, in which case we close when we are sold out for the day.   We are usually open on Sundays, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.  I attempt to update the daily crop prospects here regularly, and on our phone answering machine (830-997-9433); so, check the conditions before coming.

    Also, please understand that our days and hours of operation are governed by nature, and by the volume of customer traffic.  Since we want our customers to have only the very ripest, sweetest fruit, we close when we feel like that kind of fruit is no longer available for the day.  Sometimes the fruit needs an extra day of ripening, particularly after being over-picked on a weekend.  This may mean that we need to be closed entirely on a Sunday or Monday, to allow time for recovery.  Another uncontrollable factor is the weather.  We close if there are thunderstorms with lightning, if there is prolonged rain, or if the field has become too muddy.  However, with our sandy soil, we can usually be open again within a couple of hours of a light shower, especially since the walkways between between our peach rows are grass-covered.

Peaches

Peaches are our primary crop!  So far, everything is pointing to this being a fantastic peach season, with the best crop, and the healthiest looking trees that we have seen in quite a few years!

  We have 13 varieties, ripening between late-May and early August.  Each variety lasts approximately two weeks, with the peak of production being in the middle of that two weeks.  Since the ripening dates for each variety vary from one year to the next, based on constantly changing weather conditions, I can only estimate  the ripening dates for the varieties.  I will be continuing to revise these estimated dates as I see changes occurring.

     "Estimated" Peach Ripening Schedule

         Variety                Approximate Dates

  Regal                                         finished  

   Gold Prince                                    finished         

Gala / Sentinel                                  finished        

     Harvester                                      finished         

            Cary Mac                                       finished                

             Bounty                                        finished              

                    Redglobe                                     finished                      

                     Majestic                                      finished                      

              Dixiland                               July 17 – Aug. 2          

             Jersey Queen                         July 23 – Aug. 6              

          Ouachita Gold/Fayette                 July 26 – Aug. 10               

  Due to the excessive fruit set in the peach trees this spring, we had an extraordinary task of "thinning".  This is the task of removing as much as 90% of the developing peaches, so that the remaining fruit can grow larger.  I hired a mechanical shaker in late April to assist us in this huge job, but our three field workers still had to follow up, spending an average of an additional 30 minutes on each of 2500 trees!  Those "big" peaches wouldn't have happened without their hundreds of hours of labor!

  We survived several "close calls" with freezes this spring that could have destroyed our crop.  The biggest threat during May was the possibility of hail, associated with spring thunderstorms.  While the north side of Fredericksburg got pounded by a 30 minute hailstorm in mid-May, our orchard, as well as all the other major orchards in the county did not.  The incessant rain June 28th to July 3rd, associated with Hurricane Alex, did cause significant spoilage and loss of fruit, but barring any further such rain events, the remainder of the peach season looks outstanding!

Blackberries

  The blackberries had a "bumper" crop this year, but are now finished. 

Vegetables

  Due to the overwhelming work associated with a tremendous peach crop, we could not afford the time required to plant, maintain, and harvest a large vegetable garden this year, in addition to all the other work.  Most of the vegetables that we have had the last couple of months have now pretty much "played out", some due to the excessive rains that we had recently.

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Fredericksburg Farmers Market

Thursdays, 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Marktplatz (downtown Fredericksburg)

Although we expect to be too busy at the orchard to be a regular vendor at this market most of this year, we encourage you to check it out for all the wonderful vegetables, meats, breads,  and other products which we don't produce.

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