For many Texans, a trip to Fredericksburg usually means one thing — heading home with a bag of fresh peaches. This year, growers said Mother Nature didn’t quite cooperate.
Fredericksburg and the surrounding Gillespie County area in the Texas Hill Country are home to some of the state’s most well-known peach farms. But this season, the fruit didn’t show up the way it normally does.
Along U.S. Highway 290 at Jenschke Orchards, rows of peach trees that typically are full of fruit look a lot more bare this year.
“In a good season, some trees can produce up to 50 pounds of peaches,” Lindsey Jenschke, owner of the farm said. “But this year, many produced little to none.”
Growers said it started during the winter, when trees are supposed to build up “chill hours” — the amount of time temperatures stay below 45 degrees — and it’s what peach trees need to properly reset and produce fruit.
Fredericksburg peach trees usually need about 650 to 900 chill hours.
Instead of steady winter cold, temperatures climbed into the 80s in February, which caused the trees to react like spring had already arrived. One month later in March, a hard freeze dropped temperatures at the orchard to below 23 degrees and hit the trees right as they were developing.
“In that freeze, we lost about 90 percent of our crop,” Jenschke said.
That mix of warm spells followed by a sudden freeze heightens concerns for Hill Country growers, as it’s been harder to predict in recent years, with some seasons bringing strong harvests and others falling short.
The impact is also felt beyond the orchard itself.
Fredericksburg’s peach season usually drew visitors from across Texas looking for fresh fruit and the “you-pick” experience.
Jenschke said they had to take that option off the table entirely.
Although the orchard still sells other products, Jenschke said turning customers away when they come expecting peaches has been one of the hardest parts.
“They come in anticipating seeing peaches on the table,” Jenschke said. ”It’s a disappointment for us too.”
For anyone lucky enough to find a Fredericksburg peach this summer, Jenschke said not to take it for granted.
Even with a tough season, growers said the industry continues to adjust as weather patterns become less predictable, and they’re hopeful next year brings a stronger crop.
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