Grandma Stage’s Peaches

It took Ryan close to a decade to convince his grandmother to save the bruised fruit to sell at a discount as seconds for pies and canning.

With no formal education, Gladys learned a lot about agriculture while working for John Archer, co-owner of Archer-Pierce Motors during the 1930s and one of the largest fruit farmers in North East in the 1950s and ’60s. What she didn’t learn from Archer, she taught herself, and then she passed that knowledge on to her family.

Stage explains that he had a very close relationship with his grandmother, living with her at various stages of his life, from early childhood to his turbulent teenage years and off and on to take care of her later in life. When Stage met his partner, Carolyn Karash, the farm was where he felt at home. He would invite Carolyn to work alongside him, planting peaches, cleaning up limbs after trimming and helping at the roadside stand. After Gladys passed in 2020, he and Carolyn, a full-time nurse practitioner, pooled their resources to buy the house, and with it, the peach farm.

Over the years, Stage’s peach trees have been replenished—peach trees typically have a 12-year lifespan. They are always Redhaven dwarf trees on a Lovell root. The number of trees has doubled every 10 years, and the family, including Ryan and Carolyn’s four teenage boys, currently maintains 400 trees on approximately four acres. During picking season, they sell their fruit at a roadside stand on Route 20 between North East and Harborcreek.

With a pause in the conversation and coffee refilled, I ask, “What’s so special about growing peaches in North East? And why always Redhaven on Lovell rootstock?

Stage explains that, as is characteristic of the soil along the southeastern shore of Lake Erie known as the fruit belt, the ground in North East is predominantly gravel with plenty of drainage. “That’s good for producing better crops as well as extending the lifespan of the trees,” he says.

With a little bit of research, I learn that Lovell is one of the most highly recommended rootstocks for peaches. It is a vigorous root, resistant to bacterial canker and cold-hardy. As for the variety, the choice is simple. According to Stage, “Redhaven peaches are the most delicious.”

Given the unseasonably hot day and early evidence of budding leaves outside, I ask Stage if he is concerned about a changing climate. He replies that over the last three decades, there have only been three years when they have not had a peach crop due to an early freeze.

“But you can see a shift in the weather,” he says. “The last few years have been riskier than in the past. We are getting warmer weather sooner.”

To mitigate the risk, he explains that installing irrigation to mist the trees, about a $10,000 investment, should help protect the peaches from frost damage. If the blossoms are covered in mist when the temperature drops below freezing, ice forms an insulating barrier around the buds, protecting them from getting any colder. He’s still looking into the feasibility.

For Stage, peach farming takes up about two-and-a-half months out of the year. There are three major time-intensive stages during the growing season. First comes pruning and removal of the fallen limbs in the early spring. The four children help with this.

“In July, you assess the density of the new crop,” he explains. “You want to have one or two peaches every hand width away on every branch—this is Grandma training.” He holds up his hands in demonstration. “Then, the tree can sustain the crop without the branches splitting, and the peaches are a decent size.”

It takes two to three weeks to thin the trees of excess peaches. Lastly, picking takes place over another two to three weeks starting in early August.

Peaches are fragile and are all picked by hand. Taking over for Gladys, Ryan, Carolyn, his mother and his aunt now do the picking. It’s a labor of love. Last year, Stage estimates the four of them picked about 25,000 peaches. Their efforts generally yield enough money to pay the property taxes with a little bit left over.

Along with a handful of other small family peach farms along the Pennsylvania and New York border, Grandma Stage’s Peach Farm is a staple in the community.

“We do this for the customers who, for the last 30 years, have come from two to three hours away, from as far as Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, to buy our peaches,” says Stage.

“And Carolyn and I do this for my grandma. The last conversation I had with her, hours before she died, I promised to take care of her house, her peaches, and her dog.” At this, Ryan pauses and tears form in the corners of his eyes. His love for his grandmother and her peaches is palpable.