Peach Crest Farm has impact on county

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A family from Houston Texas takes advantage of the abundant peach crop at Peach Crest Farm in Stratford Monday. The orchard at the farm is one of seven participating in the peach festival in the city park this Saturday. Cali Hyde

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July 14, 2010

Ezra Mann Pauls Valley Daily Democrat The Democrat Wed Jul 14, 2010, 04:36 PM CDT

Pauls Valley — Many people who go to their local market these days may never have an idea of where the produce they buy comes from.

However, pick up a piece of squash or peach over the summer at a grocery store and you may be enjoying the fruits of labor from Peach Crest Farm in Stratford, according to George Driever, farm manager. Whether you find it at Wal-Marts in South Central Oklahoma along the lines of Pauls Valley and businesses like Homeland, there aren’t many places that don’t have a chance to sell the fresh stuff.

“One of our goals is to be sustainable and give people in the state of Oklahoma fresh produce,” said Driever, who previously spent time working with Oklahoma State University agriculture programs. “The reason I came to work here was to grow vegetables that are not only healthy, but you know where they came from.”

Though the land was farmed before the orchard came along, Peach Crest became what it is now not long after Floyd and Susan Bergen moved to Garvin County in 1999. Floyd had grown up as a part of a farm family in Beaver County and Susan, who is originally from Boston, came to appreciate the way of life after coming to the state in the 1980s.

“I love to see the little kids find that perfect peach,” said Susan Bergen. “He taught me the love of the land.”

While the farm as a whole is about 345 acres, around 9,000 peach trees are dedicated to 72 acres, said Driever. The year has been fantastic for peaches, which is a vast improvement over last year when a late freeze killed a majority of the crop.

Much of the work is made possible thanks to hired workers who pick not only peaches, but the many other crops grown on the remaining acres, noted Driever. Like the other orchards near the city it plans to have a stand at the Stratford Peach Festival this Saturday and both Susan with her peach pie as well as George with his peach tacos will be taking on judgmental taste buds in the scheduled cookoff.

“There’s a lot of manual labor here and it can put a crimp on things, but it allows us to ship the freshest product,” said Driever, adding that vegetables barely missing grocery standards are still at least donated to prevent waste. “I work in all aspects of the farm... I wouldn’t ask my employees to do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Peach Crest will also offer people a chance to pick trees surrounding their market store, which sells items made from their peaches like barbecue sauce, at 10219 U.S. 177 during the festival, said Bergen. People traveling from all over will often stop by like the family from Houston that came in Monday to take home at least a case.

Some of the other crops grown on the land include other fruit trees such as apple or pear, green beans, purple hull peas, mustard greens and bell peppers, said Driever. There are 400 hens providing plenty of eggs as well and the products made from the peaches are made in Tahlequah by the Cherokee Tribe.

When supermarket shelves aren’t being stocked by what comes off the farm’s plants, the operation participates in programs like the Farm to School program where they sell them cantaloupes, which is sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, said Driever. They also offer to sell produce to anyone throughout the state via the Oklahoma Food Co-operative.

“We like to call ourselves a farm for all seasons,” said Bergen. “We pick peaches from the end of May to the beginning of September.”

More information:580-759-3635 and www.peachcrestfarm.com

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