E-mail
Print
During a good harvest, Bruce Arnett, his wife, Judy, and their six children begin work at 4:30 a.m. to pick and sell hundreds of pounds of peaches.
Eager customers line up by 9 a.m., the doors open at 10, and peaches are picked until noon.
- Arnett’s children, Mason, left, and Hannah water the flowers. Their mom, Judy, had to teach summer school this year because of the lost crop. Arnett said that in a better year, the entire family would be out picking.
- About 2,000 peach trees grow at Peach Tree Farms and each tree would normally produce over 110 lbs of peaches, which amounts to about 2 bushells. During a fruitful year, these trees would be filled with orange wonders and costumers would be lined up by 9 am to buy them by the pound.
- Farm owner, Bruce Arnett, sprays grass killer on his pumpkin patch. The fall festival begins the first week in October, which includes farm tours and pumpkin picking, and will be the family's primary source of income this year.
“We run hard,” Arnett said. “We sell all retail and sell out every day.”
This year, however, Judy is teaching summer school, and Bruce stays busy pruning the trees, feeding fish in the pond and refilling a small pool for the kids.
That’s because Missouri suffered a total loss of its peach crop this year, said Eileen Nichols, secretary-treasurer of the Missouri Farmers’ Market Association.
Farmers in southern regions were affected more because two weeks of warmth preceding a freeze allowed the trees to bud. Nichols said that other Missouri farmers have had two or three poor years but never a total crop loss.
“Webb City Farmers’ Market is a producer-only market, meaning we only allow farmers to sell what they grow,” Nichols said. “However, this year this rule was exempt for the first time in history for peaches.”
Seven orchards in southwest Missouri sent a grower to California, and peaches are shipped once a week from California farms to Monet for retail sales, she said.
Scott Beggs, president of the Missouri Peach Merchandising Council, said his family has been in the business since 1923. “This is the first time we have seen a total loss,” he said.
Beggs expects the peach crop to recover next year.
A portion of this report first aired Thursday during “News At 10” on KMIZ/Channel 17 ABC, Columbia.
Comments