Is it really mid-July? That means we are two-thirds of the way through our Peach (and Nectarine) season, which started this year right around May 1st and will likely end by Labor Day.

Much like the Strawberries, Apricots and Tomatoes, 2025 is shaping up as our best season ever for Peaches. All the trees are loaded and the fruit is big, pretty and delicious. I would love to take credit for all of this, but as usual, it likely has much more to do with the Goldilocks weather that we have been enjoying for months.

July is a great example:  It’s our hottest month here in terms of the average temperature, so it follows that it’s usually the hottest month at Terra Firma. Last year we saw the thermometer hit 110 degrees on multiple occasions in July, and we suffered through 21 days where the high temperature met or exceeded 100 degrees. This year, we’ve only had couple of “hundos” and the forecast for the next two weeks has no hot weather.

But I digress. Our long Peach season is the result of an idea we had 20 years ago to have that fruit in your boxes for as long a season as possible. We also wanted to have “real” Peaches that provided an alternative to the crunchy, bland supermarket versions. Instead, we chose varieties that ripen to a soft, juicy texture and feature complex flavors and a good “balance” of acidity and sweetness.

You likely know by now that our Peaches don’t arrive in your boxes ready to eat. We’ve learned over the years that we can’t harvest them that way and have them arrive in your kitchen intact rather than bruised and beaten. Instead we try to pick them a day or two before that point. The nice thing about Peaches is that they will finish ripening themselves at room temperature as long as they’re not picked too green. Keeping them in a paper bag with other fruit will help speed the process.

At this point we have 10 acres of Peaches and Nectarines, having started with zero. There are 50 rows of trees in the orchard, almost every one a different variety. Each variety ripens over about a week, during which we time we pick them three times. Some weeks we have as many as three different varieties ripening; other weeks there is only one.

And we’re still planting more. Three years ago, we planted several more rows of Peaches that ripen in late April and early May. They made it into your boxes for the first time in 2024. And this year we planted a variety that ripens in October. Next year, we will put in three varieties that ripen in mid-late September. Eventually our season may last until Halloween.

We hope you’re enjoying this, our best-ever Stone Fruit season. It would be easy to forget that it won’t last forever, but there are only about 6 weeks left. So if you’re wanting to “preserve the season”, make sure not to wait too long to order some fruit in bulk.

Thanks,

Pablito