There will be virtually no Okanagan-grown peaches for sale this summer due to a cold snap in January wiping out the crop. (Photo 170881908 © Valmedia Creatives | Dreamstime.com)

By Pete McIntyre

No peach season

Expect less Okanagan fruit for sale this summer – and higher prices

Jul 4, 2024 | 5:00 AM

You won’t see any peaches, apricots or nectarines from the Okanagan on store shelves this summer, but growers in Washington state will pick up some of that market.

Some cherries from the valley will be available, but consumers will have to be prepared to pay more.

Lake Country growing legend Alan Gatzke — who runs the family-owned Gatzke Orchards — called it “another challenging year, but not the worst.”

He said the damage was caused by a cold snap in January which wiped out most of the buds on stone-fruit trees throughout the Okanagan.

“There is going to be this vacant feeling in peach season,” Gatzke told Vernon Matters.

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Alan Gatzke of Gatzke Orchards in Lake Country (Vernon Matters photo)

Gatzke said he’s been working with DeMille’s in Salmon Arm to get those fruits trucked up from Washington to sell at direct-to-customer outlets like his.

“We’ve got some farm friends in and around Wenatchee that we hope to be able to farm direct, load onto his truck, with the same kind of fruit that we have. The California [fruit] just isn’t the same.”

Gatzke said the fruit grown in Wenatchee and Quincy, Washington, “looks, smells and tastes like ours.”

“I’ve already got Washington state apricots, and they’re actually quite lovely,” he remarked.

Gatzke said the fruit will be higher priced than normal.

“We’re selling cherries for five bucks a pound. Never done that before.”

He expects most of the peach, nectarine, apricot and other tree fruits will recover.

“We feel that the orchard, for the most part, will recover to 90 per cent next year. The trees are having a great rest, those that have survived, and will see lots of fruit buds being developed.”

A report this week from CBC News said one family-owned tree-fruit farm in Kelowna removed more than a hectare of peach trees this spring and planted table grapes and corn in an effort to salvage the growing season.

Gatzke, who runs a farm started by his grandfather Leo Gatzke in 1929, said while some orchards have no cherries, he is currently picking two of the 15 varieties they grow, and says the cherries are bigger than normal.

“The size is making up the tonnage per acre. So in some years, you would need 10 cherries to make a pound, this year it’s only going to take six cherries. The number of blossoms that died from the winter, it’s making up from some of that fruit, but only in orchards in the valley bottom. The upper benches, we have some orchards that have no cherries on them.”

Gatzke said earlier this week, he had a tractor with a blower running all night, to blow the rain off the cherries to keep them from splitting.

“The sun was shining and it was raining at the same time which is the worst for splitting. And the fact that the cherries are large, they’re even more susceptible.”

The veteran farmer said the impact of the lost fruit will be ‘immense” on the Okanagan, noting the need for less labour and transportation.

He says pears are at 50 per cent of normal and certain varieties of apples, like Galas, had half of the buds that didn’t set, but said it’s too early to speculate on that crop.

As for the summer tourism season, Gatzke said B.C.’s new short term rental rules could impact the numbers, but the Rail Trail has had a significant impact on bringing visitors to Lake Country, and specifically, the isthmus between the two lakes in Oyama.

“There can be like 300 bikes leaning up against every post and building and there can be a thousand people mulling around on the isthmus. I never remember seeing it like that.”