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Popular Hill Country crop not so peachy
Published June 6, 2009
Hill Country residents looking for home-grown peaches this year may have to change their address to an east Texas ZIP code, or settle for local strawberries, blackberries and vegetables instead.
An early April frost killed the majority of the peach crop this year, leaving farmers and orchard growers scrambling to fill the void left by the devastating freeze.
“We lost 99 percent of our peach crop this year,” said Gary Marburger, owner of Marburger Orchard near Fredericksburg. “The peaches we did save are really small, which usually means too much fruit on the tree, but the seeds are dead and they just fell off the tree.”
Marburger is trying to recoup some of the income lost from the damage by planting and extending the season on strawberries and blackberries.
“The strawberries have done very well,” he said. “We can protect them with big covers. We started picking the last week of February, which was the earliest we have ever started. It’s been a blessing, and they continue to produce blooms. The blackberries got hurt by the freeze — we lost an estimated 50 percent. The berries weren’t there, but the blooms got destroyed.”
Marburger said a misconception people have about peaches is they think the later varieties aren’t affected by an early freeze. That isn’t the case.
“Peaches all bloom in mid-March,” Marburger said. “It doesn’t matter when they ripen, they all bloom at the same time, so the late freeze really hurt.”
Most roadside stands still will have peaches, just not locally grown.
“We have very few local peaches — the freeze got most of them,” said AJ Loth, manager of Burg’s Corner in Stonewall. “But we do have East Texas peaches, and later on we will have some Colorado peaches. They aren’t as good as the local fruit, but we will have a small number of local peaches.”
Loth said the strawberries, blackberries and vegetables made it through just fine and they will be sold in place of peaches.
Dianne Eckhardt, president of the Hill Country Fruit Council, encourages people to call the local orchards to check availability of peaches and other fruit.
“It is a little spotty throughout the county,” Eckhardt said. “I just talked with several growers and their peaches are hit or miss. The later varieties also will be the same.”
The economic impact on the area won’t be fully known until after the season, but most growers have supplemented their peaches with other fruits and vegetables to pick up the slack when the peach crop doesn’t come through like expected.
“It does have an economic impact,” said past president of the fruit council Dan Rohrer. “The freeze didn’t affect anyone east of I-35, and the peaches from East Texas help minimize the impact on the local economy. Some growers have pushed out old peach trees a year or two early and are replacing them new varieties or other fruits. And the strawberries have had a banner year, so that helps as well.”
Rohrer said there still are enough peaches to be found for people still to come to the Hill Country and get local peaches.
For residents looking for fresh vegetables, the spring has been very good and the vegetable crop is looking outstanding.
“We have a growing season through Labor Day at some of our stands,” Marburger said. “We planted some onions in spare beds last year, and those look great. The squash is coming in, and the tomatoes have about another three weeks before they peak. We will have a good supply of vegetables through June, July and April.”
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