Palisade Peaches Hit Their Peak a Month Early This Year

The cherries are already gone. Not slowing down. Not winding up. Gone.

Gwen Cameron co-owns Rancho Durazno out in Palisade, and back on June 26 she told folks the cherry crop "already came and went, which is pretty wild." Her words. And here is the part that matters if you have been planning your whole peach run around the August festival like most Front Rangers do. You are going to miss the best of it.

Cameron said peak peach season would show up almost a full month early this year. She was already pulling early-season peaches off the trees in late June. The whole Grand Valley harvest is running about three weeks ahead of a normal year, per the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel on June 27. Apricots off the trees. Cherries done. Peaches early.

So if you have a Palisade peach trip circled on your calendar for August 21, I have news. Buckle up, because the timeline moved on you.

Why everyone thinks the crop is dead (it is not)

Let me clear this up first, because the rumor got loud this spring.

You probably heard a spring freeze wiped out the Western Slope peaches. Everybody heard that. Your neighbor heard that. It got repeated so many times people just accepted it. Here is the thing. It was greatly exaggerated. The Colorado Sun ran the real numbers on May 9, and an estimated 80 to 90 percent of the peaches growing around Palisade survived and are thriving. Cameron reported a full crop of both apricots and cherries this year. Full crop.

So no, the peaches are not dead. They came in early and they came in strong. Which is honestly the better problem to have, except it means the clock is different than you think.

The real deadline

Here is where it gets specific. A grower named Sanders told reporters that all the commercial peaches "will be done by the third week of August, which is when the semis are heading out of town." Third week of August. That is the same weekend as the festival.

Read that again. The trucks are pulling out of town right when 14,000 people are showing up to celebrate the fruit.

There will still be peaches at the local stands after that. The late varieties like PF 25 and O'Henry run September into early October. But the freestone favorites, the ones you actually want, the Red Haven and the Blazing Star and the Glohaven, those peak from mid-July through August. Right now. Late July. This is the window.

Most people do not realize how short the whole authentic Palisade season really is. It is roughly late July to late September, and that is it. Everything else labeled "Colorado peaches" at the grocery store is suspect. Some supermarkets slap a Colorado tag on out-of-state fruit and charge you like it came off a Grand Valley tree. If you want the real thing, buy it directly from the growers. Palisade calls itself the Peach Capital of Colorado for a reason, with the orchards packed into the Grand Valley across Mesa and Delta counties.

Okay but what about the festival

Look, the 58th Palisade Peach Festival is still happening, and it is still a great weekend. It runs Friday and Saturday, August 21 and 22, at Riverbend Park. Friday goes 3 to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

You get the signature peach-eating contest. A car show. A parade. Peach cuisine everywhere and a marketplace stacked with local vendors, artisans and food trucks. Denver's own Velvet Daydream is booked for the Peach Jam Stage, along with the Sean Moon Band. And there is an America 250 and Colorado 150 commission drone show planned for the weekend, which should be a sight.

One logistics note, because this trips people up every single year. You cannot park inside Riverbend Park. Handicapped and staff only. Everybody else shuttles in. With about 14,000 people rolling through, plan for that or you will spend your afternoon circling.

So go to the festival. It is a party and it is worth it. Just do not go expecting to eat the peak of the crop, because by then the semis are gone.

What I would actually do

Here is my honest take. Do both, but flip the priority.

Make the peach run now, in late July, when Cameron and the other growers have the freestones at their absolute best. Drive out, buy direct from the orchard stands, get a box or three (which is dangerous for me, because Hayley and I go through them faster than any two people should). That is your sweet window and it will not wait for August.

Then, if you want the whole spectacle, come back for the festival weekend or catch Palisade Peach Days, which returns for a third year with a Peach Days Parade, the Just Peachy 5K and 10K, the Lions Club Pancake Breakfast, and orchard "Feast in the Field" farm-to-table dinners paired with local wines. That dinner in the field is the move if you ask me.

But the fruit itself? That story is being written right now. The trees do not care about the festival schedule. They ripened early, and the best peaches you will taste all year are hanging in the Grand Valley this week.

Go get them.