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BOONVILLE — The smell of fresh peaches lingered over the 10-pound boxes on the porch of a small cabin just off Highway 98.
"We need some peaches," said Marilyn Fletcher as she and her husband approached the cabin, which is part of Peach Tree Farm.
- Sharron Toellner and her son Brad sell peaches from their farm, Bell Fruit Farm in Boonville, on Saturday morning at the Boone County Farmers Market. This was the first batch of Red Haven peaches from the farm, harvested Friday. "These are the early ones," Brad Toellner said. "Some are not quite ripe yet."
- Russ Walker buys a box of peaches from Diane Knutson, a volunteer seller with Peach Tree Farm, on Saturday at the Boone County Farmers Market. "I'm just going to eat them," Walker said when asked about his plans for all his peaches. He looked at his box and clarified, "Well, my family and friends are."
“Well, we’ve got them,” responded Dewayne Murray, who was manning the stand.
That might be an understatement. Peach Tree owner Bruce Arnette is experiencing a bumper crop of peaches this season. He said that in his 21 years of orchard ownership, this is the largest crop he can remember.
"The morning is a frenzy of people that are worried about not getting peaches, which is not the case this year," Arnette said
Arnette said his workers have been harvesting between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds of peaches per day. Last season, they were harvesting between 1,300 and 1,400 pounds per day.
"This doesn't happen often, and probably won't for another 20 years," Arnette said, attributing the combination of rain and hot weather as the reason the peaches are ripening faster.
The orchard at Peach Tree Farm has about 2,200 peach trees in 20 varieties. The different varieties ripen at different rates, which allows the farm to harvest peaches from late June through late August.
Demand looks to be high. Arnette said that even with the large crop, the orchard still sells out on weekends.
At the Boone County Farmers Market on Saturday, Brad and Sharron Toellner of Boonville brought peaches from their own orchard to sell. Brad Toellner said that this season looks to produce a sizable crop.
Boxes of peaches started to disappear from the back of their pickup truck soon after the market opened at 8 a.m., and the Toellners said they expected to sell out of what they brought to that morning’s farmers market.
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