LUMBERTON, N.C. — North Carolina may not be known for its peaches, but Robeson County is home to a century farm that's been growing peaches for 25 years.
What You Need To Know
Geraldine's Peaches and Produce is known for tree-ripened peaches
It has more than 3,000 peach trees on the farm, covering around 15 acres
This year's harvest suffered from late freezes and cut the peach season in half
Geraldine Herring and her husband are the head of three generations of the Herring family who love nothing more than being in their orchard, but the peaches on the coastal plain had a tough go this season.
“Normally our season would start mid-June and go till about mid-August,” Herring said. “This year we had nothing in June at all, and we probably didn't start harvesting peaches until about the first week of July.”
In a typical year they continuously have ripe peaches for two to three months, and they pick basket-loads daily – but this season their harvest window was slashed in half thanks to some late freezes this spring.
“What happens is when they are blooming, getting ready to set the fruit, then when that freeze comes it hits the bloom and the fruit in there,” Herring said.
“It's those freezes after the warmth that really affect them, and if we hit the dry spells with a lot of heat they ripen more quickly, which closes that window of time as well,” said Brooke Herring, Geraldine's daughter and the farm's manager.
Other agriculture industries have suffered from dry spells this season, but peach trees are resilient in that respect due to deeper roots. Even so, finding peaches in the orchard ready to be picked began to seem like finding a needle in a haystack the closer they got to August.
“I've heard people say farming is probably the biggest gamble there is,” Geraldine Herring said. “You don't have a choice but to put money in and then you hope that you're going to recoup some of it or all of it or more.”
They have 27 different varieties of peaches in their orchard, with the goal of spanning the entire season with ripe peaches. Although they knew what they were signing up for, there truly is no end of work on a farm.
“After years of doing this we know people by first names, last names, we know a lot of our people and faces. We get familiar with them, and they're familiar with us,” Brooke Herring said. “They see us in our work clothes and our boots, this is really what we do. We're in it eyeball deep too, so we're not just getting it in from anywhere, and they can tell that.”
All of their peaches and many other fruits and vegetables from their farm can be found at Geraldine's Peaches and Produce Roadside Market in Lumberton. If you happen to visit on just the right day you might even find a fresh batch of Geraldine's homemade peach ice cream.
“We pride ourselves on making sure that people do know that if you buy something from us, we grow it, no matter what it is,” Geraldine Herring said. “You can't just quit, it's kind of like we were speaking before, it's just a risk and a gamble you gotta take.”
