Porter Peach Orchard Says Winter Weather Has Disrupted Harvest

Oklahoma’s largest peach grower, Livesay Orchards in Porter, is facing a shortage of peaches.

They said this year’s winter weather disrupted its harvest, as it grows more than 100 acres of peaches every year.

“It might have killed half the crop before it even bloomed, we had a lot of trees that either didn’t bloom or had very sparse blooms on them,” Livesay said.

Patience plays an important role for any farmer, but for Livesay Orchards owner Kent Livesay and his family, this situation is testing their patience.

“Close to one of our latest freezes on April 21st and that further reduced the crop pretty significantly,” Livesay said.

Livesay said the freezes that happened in February and April killed nearly 80 percent of his peach crop, and he now faces a significant loss this year.

He said the weather is always a concern for Oklahoma’s farmers. Livesay said they will still have a large selection of produce, but peaches are what they’re known for, as people from all over the state come to Porter to buy them.

Kyle Livesay works alongside his father to help provide thousands of customers with peaches every year.  

“We may not be open many days this month, but hopefully we get more in the middle of the month we will see what the crop is really going to look like,” Kyle said.

“Customers are aware of what happened to their own plants in February, so they are aware that the peaches could be hurt,” Livesay said.

Livesay said there’s always a risk in growing crops and they’ll just have to wait and see if they will have enough peaches for their customers. The business plans to open later this month.