CHICO — Kimberly Buckmaster set her alarm to 6:30 a.m. Wednesday and arrived at University Farm at 7:30. Already, there was a line of folks as eager as she for the Chico State’s annual U-Pick Peaches event, which wouldn’t open for another half-hour.
She sat in her car reading a book, “all the while thinking of peaches,” she said a bit later in the Chico State farm’s orchards. Buckmaster was “all excited” to start harvesting for Vectors, a local nonprofit that serves veterans, and for her family in Eureka.
“At $20, all you can pick, I’m picking all I can pick!” she explained while placing ripe fruit into boxes stacked on a flatbed cart. “There’s nothing better than sharing fresh fruit.”
That’s the idea behind U-Pick Peaches. A couple days each summer, the University Farm welcomes the public to harvest the crop. The event raises money for the College of Agriculture, whose students work the fruit trees, but it’s also a means to connect Chicoans with farming — and each other.
“I am enjoying this,” said Ricardo Orellana, the new director of University Farm. He arrived three months ago, so it’s his first U-Pick Peaches event.
“It’s one of our priorities now to see more tours, events and community engagement, because we believe this farm can be used as a tool to bring people together, have moments for relaxing and to learn something — like about peaches, for example.”
The variety available this year is the Fay Elberta peach, described as a large, yellow-skinned freestone with a slight red blush that’s popular for canning. Weather affected the crop; fruit lay strewn along the rows of trees. Thus, Orellana said, the farm decided to charge a flat fee rather than per-pound.
Last year, the cost was $2 per pound, and pickers harvested 21,000 pounds. Orellana did not have an early projection for this week’s U-Pick, which was scheduled to wrap up Thursday but sold out in four hours.
‘It’s been a blur’
By the time vehicles started heading up Nicholas C. Schouten Lane toward the orchards, the queue extended past the gate and all the way to Hegan Lane. Tammy Bowles, a University Farm employee working at the entry tent, couldn’t even estimate the number of pickers in the first hour.
“It’s been a blur,” she said.
Singles, couples, friends and families roamed through the trees with boxes provided by the farm to protect the fruit. Some brought carts; Tayler Walton used the stroller of 8-month-old Weston, “our peach holder.”
Walton also brought Dusty, 4, and Morris, 2, who picked peaches with her. It was their first time at the event.
“It’s awesome,” Walton said. “The kids love it.”
Nearby, Jana McQueen and Joanna Murrietta-Harold — also first-timers — waded through branches to find the right fruit. They work together in Chico State’s College of Education and came to bring peaches to their colleagues.
“This is amazing,” McQueen said. “I love seeing all the people out here, and it’s a beautiful morning.”
The event was new to Matthew Christopher and 4-year-old Gryphon, who quickly got the hang of peach-hunting. Gryphon grabbed the literal low-hanging fruit, then emerged from the branches to show his treasures.
Chris M. Tinker has come before but usually misses U-Pick Peaches. This time, he heard the date from a friend and arrived early.
At the end of a row, Lisa Odell enjoyed the fruit of her labor by biting into a round, ripe peach.
“You gotta enjoy these moments,” she said. “Peach season is so short.”
For more information on the farm’s peaches, call the peach hotline at 530-898-4989.
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