Local peaches are being picked and packed now

PENTICTON – The Okanagan peach season has arrived. 

B.C.Tree Fruits marketing manager Chris Pollock says packinghouses have just begun to pack.

“Consumers will start seeing our peaches in stores starting now,” he said today, July 27.

Pollock says B.C. Tree Fruits packs multiple varieties of peaches but don’t market them according to variety.

“In terms of popularity, consumers really do like freestone peaches, which gives them the ability to can them as well,” he says.

Peaches are classified according to how strongly the flesh of the fruit “clings” to the peach pit when it is ripe.

The most popular Okanagan variety of peach is the Redhaven, grown in the valley since the late 1800s.

Other locally grown varieties include the Cresthaven, O’Henry and Glowhaven peach.

In general, ripening times are mid-July to early August in the South Okanagan and late July through August for the Central and North Okanagan.

B.C. Tree Fruits recently installed a new, multi-milion dollar state of the art peach packing machine at its Oliver packing facility.

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