You may have been a little surprised to see the first peaches show up in your CSA boxes in mid-April — so were we. 2026 saw the earliest-ever start to our peach season at Terra Firma. That was the result of the hot weather we experienced in March, which created near-perfect conditions for pollination and fast growth of the immature fruit. Combined with cold, foggy weather in December that ensured the trees had an ideal dormant period, that made for a huge crop of fruit.
When the weather turned cool and rainy in April, I expected it to have the opposite effect and slow the growth down, but it did not. So I was pretty surprised when, on a rainy-day walk around the farm on April 10th, I noticed the first peaches were already ripening. That presented a bit of a problem: the peach orchard is nowhere near an all-weather road, essentially by design. We have never had to access the orchard for harvest during wet weather before, as it almost never rains during the season. Luckily, it dried out quickly and we were able to pick some fruit a couple of days later.
We designed and planted Terra Firma’s peach and nectarine orchard specifically for the CSA. Almost every row of trees is a different variety, each one ripening in succession over 4 months. We harvest each variety over 5-7 days as they ripen, and then move to the next one. You probably notice this on a week-to-week basis, even though most of the varieties we grow look somewhat similar to each other (with the exception of the Donut Peaches) — which is why we don’t usually identify them by name. Most years, there is a lot of variation between the varieties on the amount of fruit they are bearing but this year, it’s been a bumper crop across the board.
Some years, we’ve had a gap of a week or two between when the “Early” varieties finish ripening and the “Main season” varieties start. Until this year, I had always believed that this was due to the weather just prior to ripening, but this year showed us that it has nothing to do with that. Instead, it’s all about the number of weeks that have passed since the trees of finished blooming. As a result, we have been racing through the season. Every variety is ripening almost a month earlier than usual.
What this means is that not only will TFF’s 2026 peach season have started early, it is also going to end early. As I write this, we are harvesting a variety of peach that normally ripens in early August. And the “August Glo” nectarines that we normally harvest in mid-August are beginning to ripen as well. The peaches that we usually harvest in September will likely be ready weeks before that.
So while it was fun to have both strawberries and peaches at the same time, we’d rather have peaches and nectarines to harvest later into Fall then start in April. But that’s a minor complaint about what has otherwise been a stellar stonefruit season, with a continuous harvest of big, tasty peaches and nectarines. And even if peaches finish in August, we’ll still have fruit in September: table grapes, watermelons and cantelopes.
Thanks,