Our new irrigation system has emitters that cast water in a 6-foot radius and is far more efficient than the old drip irrigation. We have using cardboard and shade cloth as a weed barrier underneath growing trees and are shifting to pheromone-based insect control. Some commercial sprays are necessary to be sustainable in this part of the country, but we are very, very choosey about everything that is used in our orchards and minimize inputs. We are fanatical about ripeness and post-harvest handling so our peaches are at their best for you. Our customers call them “over-the-sink-peaches” and laugh about enjoying their juicy goodness. Most every peach we have is sold within 28 hours of harvest. From their farm with beautiful produce, their fantastic bakery, delicious smokehouse and finally their distillery, its a cant miss. Our peaches are sweet, juicy and tree-ripened. We grow about 24 different varieties and harvest each one for about 10-14 days before moving on to the next variety……Rich May, Candor, May Sweet, Derby, Caroking, Cary Mac, Saturn/donuts, Blazeprince, Winblo, Majestic, Sugar Giant, July Prince, Contender, White Lady, Carolina Gold, China Pearl, August Prince, Flame Prince, Big Red (please note some of these were planted before our time and are educated guesses). During peak harvest, picking goes on from first light, and often into the evening hours, making for long days. At harvest time, though, our seasonal picking crews may number as high as 70 workers. Our peaches begin ripening about Memorial Day and the season generally lasts all summer long until Labor Day. Orchard work at Golden Harvest is a year-round activity, and we have several full time staff workers to look after the trees. Except for the old Gala apple trees, the new apple plantings are young and frankly kind of scrawny at the moment, but this high-density orchard should be yielding apples for market and cider-making in a couple years. Explore Washington food through the growers, markets and businesses that call. In December 2013, we bought a farm in Cameron to expand our apple acreage and set up commercial cider production. Welcome to the Washington Food & Farm Finder, your guide to Washington farms. David Vernon of Century Farm Orchards carries on the nursery work that Lee started and has been our best source for old Southern apple trees. We are so grateful to apple hero Lee Calhoun of Pittsboro who with his wife Edith researched and collected cuttings of apple trees, ultimately saving and documenting 400 apple varieties grown across the South from Colonial times to World War II. So the prettier apples are sold for fresh eating, mostly at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market where we are entering our seventh season, and the others get crushed and pressed in small batches. Our Southern heirlooms, old favorites such as Grimes Golden, King David, Buckingham, Smokehouse, American Golden Russet and Stayman-Winesap are primarily multi-purpose apples with great flavor and wonderful to eat fresh or press for cider. We planted about 50 vintage apple trees in the winter of 2008-09 and now have about seven acres of apples with over 65 varieties, mainly Southern heirloom and cider apple varieties, as well as some Gala, Pink Lady and GoldRush.
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