Eckert's Peach Festival

There’s a special kind of excitement that fills the farm at the start of peach season. Long before sunrise, our crew heads into the orchard to begin harvesting the first peaches of the year. I rarely sleep well the night before—I’m always too eager to see that first load of fruit come in. The first pick is usually light. We begin with early cling varieties and slowly build up to larger harvests. At Eckert’s, we harvest each tree up to five times, spaced a few days apart. This approach takes more time and labor, but it’s the only way to ensure each peach is picked at the peak of ripeness. Once a peach is removed from the tree, it stops producing sugar—so the longer it can stay on the branch, the better it tastes. In those early days, our team focuses on training and precision. It might sound simple, but identifying perfectly ripe peaches requires a skilled eye. Here on the farm, we’re...