A good year for peaches in Parker County

July 07, 2008 10:11 am

— Carman Williams
cwilliams@weatherforddemocrat.com
Every July, Parker County residents become amateur horticulturalists as they predict the success of the year’s peach crop.
This year, Jon Green has his own prediction for the Peach Festival staple, and it’s a good one.
Green, the ag extension agent for Parker County, was optimistic about the harvest.
“It’s turned out kind of hot and dry and that hasn’t helped the crop any, but a lot of times peaches turn out a little better when it’s not a wet year,” Green said. “It’s not a bumper crop, but it’s been a good year for peaches.”
While most people only focus on peaches while the Peach Festival is in the forefront, for the fruit farmers this is a year-long livelihood.
For this year’s festival, fruit will be provided by County Line Produce, Mama’s Best, Wyler Greenhouses, Alfonso Leal’s Orchard, Hutton Fruit Farm, Dickerson’s Farms and Highland Ranch.
Each vendor has spent months pruning, weeding, spraying and fertilizing their trees for harvest.
Because peaches are such a delicate fruit, they must be fully ripe before they can be picked and will only last off the tree for a few days.
Farmers will be busy harvesting until right before the festival.
While the tenderness of the fruit makes the harvest unpredictable, most farmers have learned the cycles of farming from experience.
With almost 30 years in the peach business, the Hutton family has plenty of that experience to rely on.
Owned and operated by Charles and Lafrieta Hutton and their sons, Gary and Jimmy Hutton, the farm is one of the most well-established vendors at the festival.
Peach farms like the Huttons’ are becoming a rarity, and Lafrieta believes she knows why.
“Property has gotten so expensive that it wouldn’t be feasible to put in a new peach orchard,” she said. “Young people aren’t that excited about farming. They want to work in an office and run computers, but they don’t realize that the computers will start running them!”
Fortunately for the Huttons, the third generation plans on continuing the family peach business. And Parker County can still look forward to some good years for peaches.