July 14, 2003

NASHVILLE - Recent weather trends made trouble for many of Tennessee’s farmers, but for the state’s peach growers, everything’s “peachy.”

Tennessee’s peach crop is, by virtue of geography, an unpredictable commodity. West Tennessee is usually responsible for 75 percent of the state’s crop.

“We’re just a little too far north, just a little high in elevation from the Cumberland Plateau on through East Tennessee to have a dependable crop there,” says Tennessee Department of Agriculture marketing specialist Laura Fortune. “Middle and East Tennessee’s peach crop tends to get ‘thinned’ by a late frost. The fact that Tennessee peaches can’t be counted on every year makes the crop that much more appreciated, because the taste of a Tennessee peach is worth waiting for—it’s just unbelievable.”

This year’s crop can make believers out of thousands of consumers, because the combination of a long, wet spring followed by the blazing summer sun have made for an especially large, sweet peach crop throughout most of the state.

Pam Killon of Flippen’s Fruit Farm in Obion County manages the family’s 120 acre peach orchard. “Our peaches have excellent size this year; the warm weather is making the crop better and better,” says Flippen. Flippen produces semi-cling and freestone peaches and expects to have the freestone variety available until the middle of September.

Freestone or cling-free peaches are considered “user-friendly” because the peach flesh doesn’t adhere to the seed, but both varieties can, cook and freeze well.

In Middle Tennessee, Forgie’s Fruit Farm sells peaches grown there in Lewisburg. “The majority of the crop is Red Haven,” says Vickie Forgie, “but we also have equal amounts of Contender, Harvester and several Belle of Georgia peaches, which are white.” Forgie operates the 11-acre operation with her husband, Bill. “Most all of our peach crop came in this year, and the peaches are looking real good,” says the grower. “Our Harvesters ripened before the Red Havens this year, but both are ripe and ready for consumption now.”

Dennis Fox owns and operates The Fruit and Berry Batch in Knox County. East Tennessee’s typically cooler temperatures yield later crops, and Fox is looking forward to seeing most of his varieties mature in the coming couple of months. “I have two varieties already in. My peach crop will consist of Sun Havens, New havens, Rangers, Red Havens and a few Cumberland Valley Nursery Whites.”

“Tennessee peaches are a treasure because of all the ingredients— rich Tennessee soils, climate, careful farmers and capricious weather—that it takes to produce a crop,” says Fortune. “When you can get them, don’t miss the opportunity.”

To locate Tennessee peaches, visit www.picktnproducts.org and click on the “Tennessee Peaches” banner.