by Gary Hutton, a farmer, is aware that the peach pilgrimage occurs in the summer.
Customers from Fort Worth, Arlington, San Antonio, and even Alaska frequently visit Weatherford’s Hutton Peach Farm. Customers have been known to transport their peaches, even though the farm doesn’t.
Hutton remarked of his devoted clientele, “They’re just looking for the fresh fruit and the experience just to get out of town, a place to go.”
According to Tim Hartmann, a fruit crop specialist at Texas A&M University, North Texas has had a limited harvest this summer. Demand for the erratic fruit is still high, despite producers in the Fort Worth area facing a small harvest.
Many types of peaches can be grown in North Texas since the region’s cooler nights and less rainfall result in larger, sweeter, and more vibrant peaches.
However, a peach’s fate is frequently determined by the trials of freezing temperatures and intense heat. According to Hartmann, growers can only harvest slightly more than half of their crop this year because of an inadequate dormant season brought on by rising temperatures.
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Due to the poor yield this year, it has been challenging for vendors to source locally.
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As long as growers are producing, Kyle Sayers, a produce buyer whose family owns and runs a farmers market on East Belknap in Fort Worth, places a high priority on selling Parker County peaches.
Around 60% of the market’s peach sales at this time of year usually come from Texas, with the remaining 60% coming from Georgia and California.
According to Sayers, the market depends on Hutton for its Texas peaches because Cooper Farms, a longtime supplier, isn’t selling outside of its farm this year because of a smaller yield.
Since the Huttons acquired the orchard from another family in 1980, Hutton Peach Farm has operated.
Growing up with cattle, field crops, and a large garden, according to Gary Hutton, contributed to the family’s passion. The farm presented a chance for investment as well.
Hutton, a native of Fort Worth, has watched the market change over time as local fruit booths and growers have moved from rural fields to the city.
We’re all dispersed throughout all of the fruit stalls you drive to these days. Hutton remarked, “We’re not next door.”
Though he no longer has the drive to farm, he now sees development drawing people back to rural regions.
Growers in North Texas claim that despite obstacles, they continue to plant and harvest peach by peach so that consumers can enjoy the unparalleled flavor of a Texas peach that is ripe and nearby.
A career pivot and a gamble
Mary Alice Sattler welcomes devoted patrons to the Denton farmers market every Saturday. Her family’s orchard usually supplies fruit to nine markets. She noted that customers’ enthusiastic comments are a reward for her family’s dedication to provide fresh fruit to the neighborhood.
We have spent the entire year waiting for you.
We adore this fruit.
The best peach ever is this one.
According to Sattler, whose parents run Winona Orchards in East Texas, “people get really excited when you grow fruit locally and make it accessible to your communities.”
However, Sattler noted that the reality of supply disparities occasionally accompanies the special demand for Texas peaches.
The demand is constant, she noted, even though the supply may fluctuate.
While some producers started out as family farmers or gardeners, others jumped right in without realizing they were taking a chance on a crop with unpredictable temperaments.
With little experience in farming or gardening, Sattler’s father planted the orchard in 2007 with 3,500 trees. These days, their orchard provides shade for about fifty acres, with more berries growing next to it.
One of the most sensitive and demanding crops to cultivate is peaches. Growing them is not easy. The fact that so many people are simply saying, “Yeah, let’s do it,” is crazy. “Let’s try it,” Sattler remarked.
From hobby to blossoming business
Jim Herbison, who owns Gemini Peach & Rose Farm in Denton, began peach cultivation as a pastime.
After retiring from a job in chemical engineering, he purchased land in 2008 to cultivate roses, a love of his that has earned him accolades for his rose hybridizations and gardens, he said.
When he realized he had more land than his rose plants could occupy, he switched to peaches.
He claimed that throughout the years, his original 40 trees grew to nearly 200.
According to 82-year-old Herbison, growing peaches isn’t that simple. Growers have to contend with squirrels, birds, insects, and the weather. I assumed that choosing peaches and roses would be a bit of an afterthought and that I wouldn’t need to do much. But I soon discovered otherwise.
He now operates a pick-your-own-fruit business and claims to have more clients than peaches.
On Saturdays, Herbison frequently witnesses a queue of automobiles waiting to pick peaches.
He enjoys interacting with his clients, giving them advise on roses and peaches, and serving families by setting up picnic tables and a swing beneath an American elm tree that is 250 years old.
“I try to meet people where they are, and that’s why I’m successful,” Herbison said.
Herbison views his farm as a commodity for his local clients, as do the majority of large-scale growers in the vicinity of Parker County, which has an annual peach festival that attracts thousands of people.
Because the state produces less peaches than it consumes, Texas is a net importer of peaches, a sign of high demand that local growers are unable to satisfy.
Since some customers exclusively want Texas fruit, larger vendors like Central Market also give preference to local goods, according to Nichelle Sullivan, public affairs manager at Central Market. Throughout the season, the chain of grocery stores uses a network of producers from all around Texas.
Due to the restricted season this year, local growers who typically deliver straight to the Fort Worth store are unable to do so, therefore Camp County and Lubbock County provide fruit for the store, according to Sullivan.
According to Hartmann, the Texas peach industry benefits from marketing itself as a regional and local product.
According to Hartmann, you may select it when it’s fairly ripe because it doesn’t need to go very far or sit for very long. Since it will be the closest thing to choosing a ripe, velvety peach straight from the tree, such fruits will have the finest flavor.
That s not always the case for many grocery stores, Sattler said.
According to Sattler, the one thing that degrades a peach more quickly than anything else is leaving it on a truck for two weeks. When you re getting a grocery store peach and it tastes like cardboard, there s a reason for that.
What are growers favorite ways to eat a peach?
Winona Orchards market manager Mary Alice Sattler s favorite way to eat a peach is ripe and over the sink or in one of her homemade peach tarts.
Jim Herbison, owner of Gemini Peach & Rose Farm, loves his homemade peach ice cream. I m not a chef, but I can mix things pretty good. I haven t found anyone yet that said they didn t like my ice cream.
Gary Hutton, owner of Hutton Peach Farm: Eating a really fresh peach right off the tree. I take some home and put them on the kitchen counter and let them ripen. I ll go wash one off and just eat it over the sink.
Hannah Dollar is an audience engagement fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her [email protected].
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