In the Peach Capital of Texas, development and cultural shifts squeeze peach farmers
Farming was once a family affair for the Finleys, but, in this generation, there are just a few cousins left to carry on the tradition.
The Finleys own a 100-acre farm near Lipan where they grow peaches as well as tomatoes, corn, zucchini, okra, watermelon and cantaloupes. On the weekends, cousins Natalee and Aaron Finley and Aaron’s wife Alex can be found selling fresh produce at the family’s farm stand on Fort Worth Highway between Weatherford and Hudson Oaks.
Aaron and Natalee started helping out on the farm when they were old enough to walk. Back then, a multi-generational crew of Finley farmers pitched in.
“There are people that have passed on and their kids just didn’t want to do it anymore,” said Alex. “I think it’s just a different generation.”
“People get married. They go to school. Move off, all kinds of stuff,” Natalee added.
Natalee is one of them. She’s at Weatherford College studying phlebotomy.
Aaron and his wife Alex work at the farm and the fruit stand full time. But Aaron hopes his daughter Remi, now 2, won’t follow in his footsteps.
It’s hard work, and if she did, she’d be doing it by herself, Aaron said.
The story of the Finleys is a familiar one among peach farmers in Parker County, dubbed the Peach Capital of Texas by the Legislature in 1991.
Between rapid development and the resulting cultural shifts, Parker County is changing, and its peach farmers are now few and far between.
Dwindling peach farms
When Rees Atkins was growing up in Parker County, “there were probably a dozen peach orchards,” he said. “Now, there’s really just three.”
Of the major producers, there are Atkins’ Aledo farm Rees’s Peaches, Gary Hutton’s farm and Ken Dennis’ Pop’s Peaches, both in Weatherford.
In about 40 years, the population of Parker County has increased more than threefold to 156,764 since 1980, when a mere 44,609 lived there.
In the same time period, the price of rural land has skyrocketed from $725 per acre in 1980 to $9,763 per acre in 2021 in the Fort Worth Prairie, which includes Parker, Palo Pinto, Wise, Tarrant, Hood, Somervell and Johnson counties, according to data from the Texas Real Estate Research Center.
“Now you can sell a 10- or 15-acre tract in Parker County for $30, $50,000 an acre. That’s pretty tough to recoup when you’re planting peach orchards that only produce three or four months out of the year, not to mention the labor you gotta do,” said Rees.
The development has also brought cultural changes to the historically agricultural county.
“I think farming in general has moved out of Weatherford. Part of it is the cost of land, and part of it is just a different trend for people. How many young guys want to grow up and be farmers?” Rees asked.
So why does he do it?
“I’ve been in the real estate business most of my life, but my kids graduated, and I thought, what can I do? I love Parker County, and I love Aledo, and I thought, what can I do to build a legacy? No one’s going to look back and say, ‘There was a great Realtor.’”
‘The peach capital of Texas’
Just like folks say cows are happier in Brenham — where Blue Bell Ice Cream is made — “peaches are happier in Parker County,” said Candy McMichen, a Parker County Master Gardener.
Peaches thrive in Parker County’s sandy loam soil. It provides a “good clay base,” said Hutton. The climate is also perfect for growing peaches.
Parker County’s peach history started with the Johnson family when patriarch J.K. Johnson Sr. planted his first peach tree in 1938, according to the account of his late granddaughter LaDonna Stockstill. Eventually the family maintained a 65-acre orchard with more than 3,000 peach trees.
The Johnson family, with the help of Tom Denman of the Texas Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Stephenville, innovated peach pruning and harvesting.
Johnson’s son J.K. Johnson Jr. sold the family farm to Gary Hutton and his brother and parents in 1980. That’s when they opened Hutton Peach Farm, which they’ve been running for the last 42 years.
In 1991, the 72nd Legislature officially recognized Parker County as the Peach Capital of Texas. That’s about six years after Parker County started hosting the peach festival.
The 37th annual Parker County Peach Festival takes place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in Historic Downtown Weatherford.
Perils of development
The spate of development in Parker County means Gary Hutton has more neighbors but less competition.
When the Huttons opened their fruit farm in 1980, “right here, where I’m at with our fruit stand, there were five other fruit stands just around the corner down the road here, from just within a mile of each other,” Hutton said.
Now they’re the only ones.
“It’s changed dramatically, and there are houses on a couple of the other fruit farms that were around here that are broken up into smaller tracts,” he said.
The transition of land surrounding his farm from agricultural to residential has also set up a bit of a culture clash, Hutton said.
“The neighbors next door might not know what you’re doing,” he said. “They’re not used to that, farming going on right over the fence. That’s a new things for some people.”
In the last 42 years, Hutton has purchased some land from peach farmers getting out of the business. Hutton owns some property a bit farther out and plans to grow peach trees on his more remote tract.
The nearby development imposes additional considerations for farmers, like, for example, well-drilling. When you’re situated near residential development, there are more restrictions as to where you can drill.
This year’s crop
Dallas-Fort Worth saw average temperatures 4.2 degrees above normal in June, the sixth-highest on record, which go as far back as 1899.
The weather has taken a toll on this year’s peach crop.
The peach blossoms bloomed late, so peaches are running late, said Hutton. And the heat has affected the quantity of the crop.
“It hasn’t just been a few days of heat, which peach trees can take,” said McMichen. “When it’s sustained, it’s tough. Plus, now here was are in a drought.”
The sustained heat doesn’t just affect the peach fruit; it’s also hard on the farmers, Hutton said.
Plus, orchards haven’t recovered from the 2021 freeze.
“Those trees are still shocked,” said McMichen.
Due to these kinds of crop variability, Hutton always has a back-up plan.
“It’s a tough deal, and we always had some cows to fall back on if we had a lighter peach crop or something. We always had at least a couple of different crops,” Hutton said.
Satisfying everybody
The Metroplex’s hunger for fresh local peaches hasn’t dwindled with the disappearance of Parker County peach farms.
For Gary Hutton, changes in Parker County means more customers.
“It’s getting close to where it gets hard to satisfy everybody. There’s times when it gets really close,” Hutton said.
Even with this year’s weather considerations, Hutton said there will be plenty of peaches for this weekend’s festival.
With signs, massive inflatable peaches and even a peach-flavored drink at the local coffee shop, Weatherford is ready.
Despite the disappearance of local peach farms, enthusiasm for the quintessential summer fruit remains high. McMichen is optimistic it will stay that way.
“I just don’t see local people turning their backs on Parker County peaches,” said McMichen.
This story was originally published July 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
