Peach growers say this year’s crop is tasty, beautiful and abundant.
Dry weather, the bane of just about every other crop in North Carolina these days, is actually a boon for peach growers.
“Dry weather is giving us the best flavor we’ve ever had,” said Watts Auman, who runs the Auman orchards on N.C. 73 near West End.
Fellow orchardists agree.
Art Williams, who raises peaches with his wife, Jan, on N.C. 211 at Eagle Springs, says they irrigated their orchard just enough to give the fruit some size, but not so much it would impair the flavor.
“They’re pretty, and dry weather usually makes ‘em sweet,” Williams said.
Ken Chappell says that even the early peaches, which often are not as sweet as the later ones, had exceptional flavor this year. He too farms at Eagle Springs.
This is peak season for peaches, and all three growers said they have plenty of customers.
Peak season will continue until mid-August, but peaches will be available at least through the middle of September, according to Auman.
Although a late freeze in April nipped the peach crop, this year the orchards escaped serious damage.
“It’s not a full crop this year, but last year my crop was zero,” Auman said.
Williams said his wife’s crop is almost 100 percent, and Chappell said he is harvesting at least 90 percent of his trees.
Moore County peach orchardists typically sell most of their peaches directly to retail customers at their own produce stands. Some peaches are sold through produce markets in Greensboro and Raleigh, and some are sold wholesale to buyers who visit the orchard.
Moore County peaches are not shipped to markets outside North Carolina.
That’s good news for Tar Heel peach lovers but bad news for folks in Maine and Wisconsin.
“We have what is known as the orchard-run peach,” Chappell said. “We don’t cool them or defuzz them. We just put them in bushel baskets and sell them like they come off the tree.”
Chappell scoffs at supermarket peaches, which are picked a little green, cooled and defuzzed before they reach store bins. Flavor is impaired by the time the customer buys them at the supermarket, he says.
Auman says he sells all of his peaches from his own produce stand on N.C. 73. No Auman peaches are shipped or sold wholesale.
Williams says he and his wife sell some peaches wholesale to buyers, but “all of ours go to fresh markets in North Carolina.”
The trick to providing a really good peach, they say, is in harvesting peaches just as they begin ripening when flavor is at its best, but before they become so soft they spoil quickly.
Auman, whose orchard contains 7,000 trees, says Norman, Nectar and Winblo are the varieties ripening and available for sale this weekend.
At the Williams orchard, the main varieties available now are Winblo, Contender, Carolina Belle and Loring. They harvest from 3,500 trees.
Chappell, who has 40 acres of trees, says the latest varieties ripening are Winblo, Carogem, Loring and Contender.
How do the peach people eat their fruit?
“I slice ‘em for oatmeal and for ice cream and for shortcake, and I eat a lot of them raw, just like they are,” Auman said.
Chappell says his family eats many peaches raw but adds that his wife freezes some and they occasionally make ice cream.
The Williamses put their peaches into ice cream throughout the season and sell their product at a special “parlor” beside their produce stand on N.C. 211. Their farm, Kalawi, is named for the first two letters of their first three children’s names, but the ice cream is named for their youngest child, Ben.
