Stratford — When Craig Pullen started growing peaches in 2011, he had to contend with a February freeze that killed much of his crop.

A frost hurt the crop in late March while Craig’s peach trees were in bloom. A tornado and hail struck the crop in April, followed by drought and grasshoppers in the summer.

The weather has been much better this  year and Craig is pleased. Because the winter was mild, many of his 13 varieties of peaches are hitting their peak at the same time.

Craig said he will be ready for the annual Stratford Peach Festival, set for July 21, at the Stratford City Park.

“We are looking forward to having a lot of people at the peach festival to enjoy this good crop that we have,” he said Friday.



Growing peaches

Craig and his wife, Linda Candales Pullen, are the third generation to own and operate Pullen Peaches near Stratford.

Linda’s family, the Smarts, moved from Arkansas to Oklahoma in the early 1900s and acquired the 30-acre property. They leased the property to a peach grower named Gary Carter, who planted the orchard and grew peaches until he died of leukemia about three years ago.

Carter’s wife continued operating the farm after his death, but she later sold it to the Pullens. The couple took over the farm in 2011.

“We were faced with the decision of whether to make hay or peaches,” Craig said. “Gary was a good friend of ours and I thought he’d not like us making hay. So we kind of took the orchard and ran with it.”

Craig said he didn’t know a lot about growing peaches at first, except for the information he had gleaned from watching Carter work in the field. He watched Carter performing certain tasks but didn’t know why he was doing them.

When Craig took over the orchard in 2011, it was in bad shape because the trees were stricken with scale disease. However, with the help of experienced growers Lewis Perry, Dewain Hinkle and Tim Blackburn, he nursed his trees back to health.

“They gave me a lot of experienced advice on how to care for these trees, and the trees have made a remarkable comeback,” he said.

Craig and his son, Toby, own and operate Air Comfort of Southern Oklahoma, a heating and air conditioning contract company. Craig started growing peaches as a hobby, but it has turned into a second job.

In the spring, Craig works in the orchard from 4 p.m. until about midnight each day. He gets up around 4 a.m. the next day and makes plans for his crews of pickers, then goes to work at Air Comfort at about 7:30 a.m. When he leaves the office, he returns to the orchard.

He said his crews play a key role in his success.

“My hands aren’t any trouble at all,” he said. “They just carry on and really do what needs to be done.”



Healthy peaches

Craig’s orchard foreman, Patrick Clark, and Clark’s assistant, Jacob Gollihare, were busy picking peaches Friday morning. The two boys reached into each tree, plucked peaches off the branches and dropped them into a basket before moving on to the next tree.

After a visitor arrived at the orchard, the boys climbed into the back of Craig’s vehicle and sat next to boxes of peaches. Craig took the visitor on a short tour of his 30-acre orchard, describing the different varieties of peaches.

Craig parked next to a Red Globe peach tree, and the boys hopped out of the vehicle and began picking. Meanwhile, Craig strolled over to another Red Globe tree and pointed to some of the peaches.

He said growing peaches takes a lot of work, which includes spraying the trees with insecticide, pruning the trees and thinning the crop. He must also control weeds, fungi and insects to make sure his trees remain healthy.

“It’s a little grown up now, but we try to keep the weeds killed out from them where the tree can get the full nutrition of the soil, instead of the weeds getting a lot of our nutrition that would go into the peach,” Craig said. “And it really shows in the taste of the peach if you do all those things versus not doing them. You don’t have nearly as quality-tasting fruit.”

Craig got his first lessons in caring for peach trees in 2011, when he took over the orchard. This year, he is learning about selling his fruit.

He said the drought and other extreme weather made his first year difficult. But this year, he is reaping the rewards of his work.

“This is the year of jubilee,” he said.