table talk / By Bob Doran

Peaches and sunshine — Willow Creek summer, in fruit form

(July 26, 2007)  Jacques Neukom doesn’t sleep well when there’s thunder and lightning over the mountains. Not in the summer, anyway, when the peach trees in his orchard are laden with sweet, juicy, luscious gems so ripe they would drop from the trees on their own if no one picked them.

And he wasn’t exactly having the relaxed, sunny summer afternoon lunch we’d planned at his place in Willow Creek. Gentle drops of rain were falling as we scooped up gobs of a very delicious, very organic guacamole with corn chips, and sipped wine from jam jars (a fine Vinatura red, also organic). It was short of a full-on shower, but enough to change the topic of conversation.

GALLERY >

While rain does not affect green peaches, it can spell disaster when the fruit is ripe. The rainwater wells in the indentation where the stem attaches the fruit to the tree. When it flows out and down the crease in the peach, it leaches out color and a yellow line develops.

“Then the second day the line becomes indented,” Jacques explained. “On the third day the rot starts.”

There was talk by some on his small crew of rushing off for a quick pick, but as suddenly as it had started, the rain stopped. So instead of dashing to the orchard we ate butter lettuce and pasta salads, then dove into a big bowl of sliced peaches Jacques’ wife Amy had been peeling when we arrived. Suffice to say, the peaches were delicious, the perfect prelude for a tour of the orchard.

The air had that fresh-rain-on-raw-earth smell as we headed into the original orchard, 81 trees on one acre planted by former timberman Dave Chezem. Jacques figures the orchard is “perfectly situated … on a knoll, so the air flow is fabulous.”

“Chezem kind of retired to Willow Creek and raised alfalfa and peaches,” Jacques said. “He’d share peaches with his friends and family.”

Jacques has added considerably to the collection of older peach trees, which range in age from 30-40 years. (“Some are older than I am,” he noted.) At this point he has over 700 peach trees in three main varieties — Redhaven, Suncrest and Elberta, each type baring fruit at different times.

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