“An apple is an excellent thing, until you have tried a peach.” —George du Maurier, British illustrator and author.

Peaches were a favorite of the native tribes makinG their homes in Indian Territory long before Oklahoma became a state. Travelers through the area reported peaches as one of the foods offered by their Indian hosts. Peaches were also an important crop to settlers who moved into the area with the land runs. According to one early account, peaches were being shipped out by railroad carload as early as eight years after settlement. Porter, Stratford and Guthrie were some of the areas where peach Production was reported early in the history of our state. In 1904, Ben Marshall, a Creek man from Porter, received a gold medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition for the quality of his peaches. Commercial production of peaches in the state took off after that.

Peaches need a reasonably fertile, well-drained soil to grow. Major problems for growing them in Oklahoma include unpredictable weather, disease and insect pests. Spring storms bring hail and high winds which may cause limb damage and loss of fruit during the critical growing period. Peach borers damage trees, and other insects can cause the fruit to be unattractive to customers. Extreme cold temperatures in the winter can affect production, but in most years peaches are a good crop in Oklahoma. Peach production includes spraying regularly for pests and pruning the trees as soon as the leaves start dropping in the winter. Orchard work also involves grading fruit, choosing and setting out new trees, fertilizing and thinning the tiny green fruit so each peach has space to develop.

The first ripe peaches appear in June. Most of the peaches grown in Oklahoma are consumed within the state and must be hand harvested. Because consumers want peaches with few flaws, harvesters must exercise care in harvesting and handling to avoid bruising. Most of the peaches grown in our state are sold from farmers’ markets, roadside stands or directly from the farm. Some grocery stores in the state sell local peaches as well. There are two basic types of peaches. One is the clingstone, in which the flesh of the fruit clings to the stone, or seed. Most clingstones are taken ripe from the field and canned within 24 hours of picking. The other variety is the freestone, which can be loosened from the pit with relative ease. These are the fresh peaches most often found in grocery stores. Some popular varieties grown in Oklahoma include autumn Gold, Candor, Cresthaven, Elberta, Fairtime, Glohaven, Loring, Nectar, Ouachita Gold, Ranger, Redhaven, Reliance, Sentinel, Starks Encore, and White Hale. Peaches are sometimes called “stone fruits” because of their pits.