Pick Your Own Peaches

Peach Season is upon us! We are picking Sentry, a delicious yellow cling-stone peach. Freestones will ripen in late July.

Tweet, Tweet

Okay, guys, we are now on Twitter! Become a follower so you'll know when the donuts are hot, when the peaches are ripe, and if there are any celebrity sightings.........

http://www.twitter.com/ChilesPeachOrch

Chiles Peach Orchard in the News

Our local monthly paper, The Crozet Gazette, featured the Girl Scout event we held back in May. Thanks for the coverage, Gazette! Click the link below for the June edition - you can read about this story (page 8), as well as other news in Crozet and Western Albemarle County.

http://www.crozetgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/crozet-gazette-june-09.pdf

Staff Member Accomplishments!

3 of our summer staff at Chiles Peach Orchard graduated from Western Albemarle High School tonight! Courtlyn and Lizzy are pictured, and Leah escaped before I could get her picture. Congrats and Best Wishes to Courtlyn, Lizzy, and Leah! Coincidentally, all 3 will be attending VCU in Richmond begining in August. Be sure to congratulate them next time you're in the market!

The peaches are growing!

We're anxiously watching the peaches grow here at Chiles Peach Orchard! Our crews have been through the orchard, thinning the smaller peaches off the trees, so that those that are left can grow to a good size (did you know that peach growers generally have to thin off about 85%-90% of the growing peaches?). We should have some early peaches ready to harvest in about 3 weeks. The peaches pictured here need a little more time than that!

Strawberry picking is still happening - the berries are GREAT this week! Time is ticking away on strawberry season, so hurry out to get yours soon!

Memorial Day Weekend

The sun has finally come out, and the strawberries are ripening. While we have fewer strawberries this year than in year's past (due to the cool, wet spring), the berries we have are beautiful. The weather should be nice this weekend, so we hope you will come to visit! You can buy pre-picked strawberries, our ice cream parlor is open (homemade strawberry milkshakes - Mmmmmm!), we have fresh baked berry pies, apple pies, and homemade fudge! We'll offer pick-your-own strawberries as long as there are berries to pick

Don't forget the strawberry donuts! . Hope to see you this weekend!

Celebrating Girl Scouts

On Saturday we hosted over 110 girl scouts from the Virginia Skyline Council, along with their leaders, parents, and siblings, for an educational and fun day! The girls spent almost 2 hours at different learning stations - they studied and learned the history of our orchard, the different jobs that are necessary at our farm, how important honeybees are to local agriculture, and the life-cycle of the strawberry plant. After their educational time, the girls rode a tractor-pulled wagon to the strawberry patch to pick a pint of strawberries to take home. Each girl scout filled in a questionnaire, showing off what they had learned, and received a patch for participating in the day!

We were fortunate that the rain held off! Everyone loved the day, and we are already making plans for a bigger and better event next year!