Registration for Peach Farm Tour Due May 23

Peach Crest Farm (click on photo for high resolution image)

When Oklahomans hear “Stratford,” they think of peaches, and Susan Bergen means to keep it that way. 

Since her first harvest in 2003, Bergen has brought peaches back to the area with a bang.

On Thursday, May 29 from 5 – 8, Bergen will take visitors on a tour of her orchards, fields, and packing house at Peach Crest Farm north of Stratford, and explain how it all fits together profitably.

Registration, due by May 23, is $10 and includes dinner.  To register, call 918.647.9123 or visit www.kerrcenter.com/HTML/events.html
#fielddaymay29.

The tour will be held rain or shine.  Bring a lawn chair, and wear shoes appropriate for walking in fields.

The Kerr Center is sponsoring the event in partnership with the USDA Risk Management Agency and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

The event will appeal to everyone from novice market gardeners to experienced fruit growers, says Alan Ware of the Kerr Center.

Bergen’s 9,000-tree peach orchard gave its first harvest in 2003. 

An additional 160 acres grows a variety of vegetable crops: cantaloupes, tomatoes, onions, and more. 

Twelve of those acres were certified organic in 2006.

“What you will see is how a non-farming person, with the help of many farming people, has made a farm work,” she says.

During the tour Bergen will discuss her participation in the state’s Farm-to-School program.  Oklahoma Farm-to-School Coordinator Chris Kirby will also talk about how farmers can get involved in the program.

“You will see how we irrigate, integrate and implement what the customer is looking for on this acreage: great tasting produce, grown in environmentally friendly constraints, and sold at a reasonable price,” she says.

The farm’s fresh peaches are sold through a variety of outlets including the Oklahoma Food Cooperative.

Bergen turns the less-than-perfect peaches into canned products, from traditional favorites like peach jam and peach butter, to peach salsa, peach mustard and peach barbecue sauce. 

The canned goods turn waste into income, and a seasonal crop into a product that sells year-round. “It’s been huge in leveling out my cash flow,” she says.