Local peaches sweet for economy (and eating)

Agriculture

YANTIS — The Rushing’s peach orchard in Yantis is just about to close out their season with the last of their tasteful red skin peaches ripening. According to owner Sheila, the pick-your-own or buy ready-picked combo orchard has maybe one or two weeks in August left.

Although the Rushings spent several years living in Austin, they’re happy to be back home in Yantis, where Sheila now lives on the farm that has been in her family for nearly a hundred years.

“Fresh peaches off of a tree are going to be so much better than peaches you ship anywhere,” Rushing said. “The flavorful peaches have been lost because of shipping and…the commercial market, you could not ship our peaches because they would be ruined.”

You would never find the cultivar the Rushings grow, red skin peaches, in a grocery store, according to Rushing.

“The ones you find in the grocery store…they have very little flavor, even after they get soft,” Rushing said. “They get mealy because they’ve been in cold storage for so long. Nothing stays in our refrigerators over two days.”

However, Rushing says, peaches grown in California may stay in cold storage for months before it reaches a consumer.

The reason peaches have moved away from smaller farms to larger farms in other states, Rushing says, is because they’re difficult to grow and maintain.

“There’s not a lot of people raising peaches anymore. They’re difficult to raise,” she said.

Overall, this year has been difficult because of the early, heavy rains that lead to a possibility for root rot, Sheila said. However, the Rushings try to maintain their trees with minimal pesticides.

It’s been a long road from dream to reality, says Sheila’s husband, Craig.

“What were we thinking? That we were just going to stick a stick in the ground and we were going to come back and peach cobbler would be hanging off the tree? There’s something to do every day if you have the willpower to get out here and do it,” Craig said.

However, it’s important to the Rushings to provide a local crop to their local community.

“I see this post on Facebook about some truck coming in from somewhere far away with peaches, and apparently they don’t even have the peaches…I just want to shout, ‘We’ve got the best peaches right here!’” Sheila said.

Sheila referred to a July 25 visit from Fresh Farms, a fresh fruit delivery service based out of South Dakota. Scheduled to deliver Georgia peaches and Washington cherries at the Trans Texas Theater, the service had run out of peaches, to the disappointment of many locals who had pre-ordered and pre-paid. “It’s about small economies. We started out as small economies in our area. It’s egg and butter money, and there are big box stores that have come and taken over that from us,” Sheila said. “When I was a kid in Sulphur Springs, when you needed things, you went to different stores and these were all owned by families.”

“There are a lot of things here, other Texas producers,” Sheila said. “Dairies, tomatoes, honey — it’s jobs.”

For more information about Rushing Orchards, call 512-964-9206.