Golden standard

Porter’s Livesay Orchards celebrates its 50th peach season

The Livesay Orchard sprawls across 100-plus acres of land in Porter, 30 miles southeast of Tulsa, where the gold standard of Oklahoma peaches are grown. The largest orchard in the state, it’s home to dozens of peach varieties, in addition to watermelons, squash, onions, blackberries and other garden staples. 

“We’re about two and a half miles north of the Arkansas River, which creates great conditions for peaches. Go a little further any direction, the soil sometimes isn’t as well drained,” said Kent Livesay, who owns the orchard with his brother, Steve. “And our elevation is high enough that we are up out of the river bottoms, which keeps us away from the frost.”

The farming roots run deep in the Livesay family. Kent and Steve’s great uncle, Austin Livesay, bought the orchard in 1966, and the land was passed from one generation to the next. This year, they’ll celebrate their 50th peach season. 

Oklahoma experiences erratic weather, a mixture of bitter cold and blistering heat. For the most part, this works to a peach’s advantage. Porter is located just far enough from the river to have soil that is densely packed with nutrients, but also sandy enough keep water can flow freely.

“That quick warm up is what signals to peaches that it’s time to bloom and the extreme heat helps the peaches ripen,” Livesay said. “But it gets risky in the spring, with us warming up in the 80s in March, then dropping to 25 degrees. Once it goes below 30, it gets dicey.”

The orchard does have some methods to combat Mother Nature’s cool breath. 

“If it’s not very windy, then we can use helicopters to help keep the warmth of the earth circulated. In fact, we used helicopters on Easter Sunday this year.”

The use of helicopters may not seem like a high-tech farming method, but these farmers are university-trained horticulturalists and plant experts.

“I have a nephew that just graduated a couple years ago with a plant science degree. And my son Kyle is currently a horticulture student at University of Arkansas,” Livesay said.

There are over 2,000 kinds of peaches today, many of them engineered in university classrooms and through breeding programs. 

“The Red Haven was developed around 1945 at Michigan State University and I believe the Loring—which is one of our most popular peaches—was developed at a Missouri university,” Livesay explained. “The Alberta peach was created before the Civil War, whereas the Glen Glo is relatively new variety. But, not many public universities are developing new peach varieties today.”

The Loring is the most common type of Porter peach found in grocery stores, but the Livesays grow about forty varieties. Each variety behaves differently than the next.

“We pick on one variety for about two weeks, and hopefully we time it where we’ll have another variety ready to go after that.”

But much like Mother Nature, there seems to be no method to manipulate how it will all unfold.

“All the trees bloom at basically the same time in the spring,” he continued. “However, there is no relationship between the day they bloom and the day they are ripe. Some of the peaches that we’ll pick in September may have bloomed the same day as another variety we picked in May.”’

And just to make things trickier, this peach season arrived early at Livesay Orchards. 

“The warm spring really speeded things up. Our Red Havens are usually picked in late June, but they started picking in mid-June.” 

Prime peach season is roughly mid-June through September, with varieties changing weekly. Livesay said those interested can call the orchard to find out what is being picked that day. A bushel of grade-one peaches—those with no imperfections—is a little over $30. The price is lower for the grade-two peaches, which may have bruising, but are perfect for baking. Guests can also save a little money and pick their own peaches right off the trees out front. 

According to Livesay, those hunting for the perfect peach should look for “a creamy gold to yellow under color.” The “blush,” or red part of the peach skin doesn’t indicate ripeness, but the variety. Peaches should be “soft to the touch, but not mushy,” and should be handled delicately. 

“I always tell my employees to handle the peaches like they were eggs,” Livesay said. 

The Porter Peach Festival this year will be held July 14-16 and will celebrate all things peachy, from cuisine to culture. But if you want to travel directly to the source, Livesay Orchard is open Mon. through Sat., 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

For more from Angela, read her article on The Barstream, the bar that sidles up to you.