A guide to our Peaches

June Lady is our first peach that’s firm enough for shipping. It’s large and sweet, and usually ready in mid-June. Crimson Lady is next, a meaty fruit that’s only juicy when it is completely ripe... the way we ship it. Crimson Lady has interesting overtones of cantaloupe in its taste and texture. Then comes the delicate Gold Dust, with a classic peachy taste and the melting-texture flesh we love in a peach. This is followed in late June by Flavor Crest, the first really big peach of the summer with a beautiful golden shadow background in its skin.

Red Top comes next with a flavor very similar to Flavor Crest in a great mid-season peach; we grow them both to be sure we never have a gap in our picking. Next is Sun Crest, one of the classic peach varieties and in fact immortalized in a poem “Epitaph for a Peach”. Sun Crest has a bit of fuzz so it’s usually peeled, revealing one of the tastiest peaches of the summer. Other farmers are pulling out Sun Crest trees but we’re planting more to spread the word about this great peach!

Next is O'Henry, which you’ll believe is the best peach you ever ate for the two weeks it’s in season. Chefs love to cook with O’Herny because of its perfect sweet/acid balance and the drama it brings to a plate with its big, perfectly tinted sections. Then comes the Cal Red, king of the peaches in every way—huge and sweet, with an amazing purple hue to the skin. (By popular demand, Cal Red is the only peach we sell by variety—but please order early before the season supply is sold out.)

Summerset follows the Cal Red in August. The largest of all peaches, it’s a great way to celebrate “summer set” with a classic peach flavor which (especially after the Cal Reds) may demand just a sprinkling of sugar. The we bid farewell to peach season with Autumn Flame, a slow ripening variety that allows us to prolong our shipping season into September.