Page 11 - Leisure Living Magazine July 2017

Catawba Peaches:
The Perfect Storm
By Brad Schwan, Schwan Orchards, Catawba
Every year I provide an update and a story on Catawba peaches. Over the last several years the update has, more often than not, been a sad one. A late spring snow storm or a short hail storm has spelled doom a couple of times. This year’s story is different. At this
point the summer of ‘17 is looking very good for our local claim to fame. We narrowly avoided a late cold snap that hit the national peach crop hard. It appears that Georgia, South Caroli- na and North Carolina were not as fortunate as us. Most reports indicate that those peach-belt states have lost upwards of 90% of this year’s crop! Barring a hail storm, Catawba is looking at a great harvest.
two main industries for Catawba residents. The peach farming business was supplemented by the fishing industry. There were at least three fishing companies on Catawba Island alone. Employment could be found there until the two to three week
I wondered how
early Catawba peach
growers could survive
with the sole crop that
is so fragile and can be
lost to nature so easi-
ly. With that question
in mind I visited with
longtime peach grower,
Bob Schraidt, looking for an-
swers. Bob’s family farms go back to the days when Catawba was still almost entirely devoted to grape production. However, about the time his grand- parents bought land on Catawba, the grapes were under great pressure from a fungal infestation that forced growers to look for another crop. By the early 1900s Catawba had switched almost entirely to peaches. By 1915 almost one million bushels of peaches were produced in Catawba and surround- ing areas. In those days, as well as today, it was very common for growers to have a “day job” in order to support their passion for helping nature provide a harvest. In the early twentieth century there were
period when the couple of varieties of peaches could be harvested and shipped off. Trucks from bigger cities would show up each morning and their drivers would travel from farm to farm trying to negotiate the best prices. Later that day they would return to load the freshly-picked goods they had ordered in the morning. This process was no small task as upwards of 75% of Catawba Island was covered with peach trees. A fair share of the crop might also find its way to steamers docked at Catawba point. There was some retail busi- ness at local roadside stands but considering the vol- ume of peaches produced, wholesale was the mainstay. By growing mostly a single variety or two the harvest could be narrowed down to
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The 2017 peach harvest is optimistic
a two to three week period. On a year to year basis, crop-destroying storms were heartbreaking but survival was assured by falling back on fishing. The truly “perfect storm”, however, would soon hit and spell the end of the
peach forest that had covered Catawba Island. According to Mr. Schraidt, by the early 1950s most of the established orchards were owned and operated by the original owners. This put their age in the area that might force them to think hard about continuing this very labor-intensive vocation. The children of those farmers had been
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