Reid Orchards: Peaches Ending, Still Many Pecans

Our thornless blackberry season has now ended, and our peach season is winding down over the next week. We've now finished the harvest season for 5 of the 6 different peach varieties that we grow, and sold all of those peaches. We've been harvesting peaches for 6 weeks now, and have just 1 more week to harvest peaches. We'll still have a few peaches for sale until about Aug. 12, but they will be very limited.

We're now harvesting 'Carolina Gold' peaches, but we only have 4 trees of this late-ripening variety that are now 18 years old, and these trees are less productive now. Like all our peach varieties, it has yellow flesh and is freestone, so the flesh easily comes free from the pit or stone.

We'll have limited amounts of 'Carolina Gold', our latest-ripening peach variety, for sale in late mornings from Aug. 6 until about Aug. 12. We picked this 10-pound box this morning Aug. 5, and it sold 3 hours later.

We harvest all the ripe peaches each morning, and lately they sell out later that morning. Harvested peaches sell for $1.58 per pound + sales tax for #1 fruit with no damage. We also pick some nice #2 fruit, with some surface scarring but no internal damage, that sells for $1.28 per pound + sales tax.

We still have many cracked pecans for sale now until late Sept., and many people have bought some lately. Pecan harvest doesn't start until early Nov., and we start selling our new pecan crop in mid-Nov. Each year, many people come during our main apple season in Oct. and early Nov. and want pecans, but we don't have pecans for sale then. If you'll want pecans before about Nov. 12, come get some in Aug. or Sept. Pecans keep in top condition in your freezer for at least 6 years.

We sell cracked pecans in 4-pound bags, which contain over 3 pounds of nutmeats. The plastic box shows what's inside the bags: over 75% pecan kernels and under 25% shell fragments.

We sell cracked pecans in 4-pound bags, which are over 75% pecan kernels and under 25% shell fragments. Each bag has the equivalent of 6 pounds of in-shell pecans, and when you pick out the kernels, you get 3 pounds or more of nutmeats. Each bag costs $19.70 + sales tax.

We're still open our summer hours, as shown in the sidebar at left, until Aug. 31, but now that our thornless blackberry season has ended, my worker Hannah Helwig and I are busy picking peaches in the early morning, so don't arrive here before about 9 a.m. If I'm not in the sales building when you arrive, ring the bell VERY loudly so I can hear it. (If I am in the sales building, please do NOT ring the bell. Thanks.)

Pears are growing well. We'll start harvesting young 'Harrow Crisp' pear trees (left) in their first year of harvest about Aug. 20, and start harvesting 'Blake's Pride' pear trees (right) about Aug. 28.

Pear harvest will start in a couple weeks on the earliest-ripening European

Updated projected sales dates for all our crops are shown in the sidebar at left under Crop Sales Seasons. That also tells which crops we sell harvested, and which crops we sell pick-your-own.

As always, we take cash or checks for payment, but NO credit cards or debit cards, and no "apps". We don't use a smart phone, and have no phone line to the sales building. So please bring your checkbook or enough cash to cover the amount of produce you want to buy. Thanks.