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Texas drought has led to fewer but sweeter peaches

The Texas harvest was delayed three weeks this year because of a mild winter, and the drought the state has faced this summer has led to fewer peaches.

FREDERICKSBURG, Texas — You may have noticed something missing from local grocery stores this summer: Texas peaches.

Most of the peaches you may have seen in the produce section are from California.

The Texas harvest was delayed three weeks this year because of a mild winter, and the drought the state has faced this summer has led to fewer peaches.

But it's not all bad news.

Lindsey Jenschke's family farm in Fredericksburg has been growing peaches since the 1960s.

“It’s a 24-hour a day job. It’s a seven-day-a-week job and it’s a year-round job," Jenschke said. "We also do pick your own then we move into blackberries and peaches.”

She took us on a tour through her family's orchards to show us how this year is unlike any Hill Country farmers have seen.

“We are really dry right now and it’s been tough," she said.

The Jenschkes drilled two new wells this summer so that about half of their trees can be on a round-the-clock water drip to keep them alive.

“We average about 28 inches of rain a year," she said. "I think we might be at about five and a half right now.”

During any normal summer, customers can roam the Jenschke orchards and pick their own peaches from the trees, but because the trees are so stressed from the drought, that part of the business had to be canceled.

“Fredericksburg has kind of, it’s just known for the quality of the peach, it’s a very great tasting peach," Jenshke said.

Just up the road in Stonewall, Kristen Restani is behind the register at her family's peach business, Burg's Corner.

Quarter-bushel boxes of peaches have been placed throughout the store with a sign nearby telling customers what's different about this year's peaches.

“Texas is traditionally hot, but it got very hot for a long time," said Restani. "What you find is that slows down the ripening process.”

“The peaches are maybe a little bit smaller because the trees are just very stressed and thirsty.”

The drought has done more than just alter the appearance of the peaches, it's also made them the sweetest any of these Hill Country growers say they've ever tasted.

"Their sugar is just off the charts, so they’re about as sweet a peach as you can get," Jenschke said. “We use a refractometer that measures the bricks of sugar in our fruit, and these are all testing 20 percent or higher on bricks which is very very high.”

She says its not just one type of peach that's sweeter this year, it's all of them.

“We’ve tested multiple varieties of peaches and they’ve been testing higher than any other season," she said.

Although their sugary taste, this season may be pleasing to peach lovers. But the lack of water that caused the fruit to be so sweet is really bad for the health of the trees.

For the farmers whose livelihoods depend on the quality of their annual harvests, they need next year to be wetter.

“A whole lot of praying," Jenschke said. "We’ll get through this year. It’ll rain one day and we will be back on track.”

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