Rosa is a prominent part of the photo for a few weeks in March around parts of Edgefield, Saluda and Lexington counties, and that time came last week for thousands of acres.
“We had a perfect season for growing peaches – a bit damp, but we’re actually … 10 days late last year, in the flowers,” said Jerry Watson of Watsonia Farms, which includes 480 dedicated to acres of peach in Monetta, with pumpkin, peppers, eggplant and tomatoes, among other important offers spread across Aiken, Saluda and Lexington counties.
The setting now includes “the most beautiful set of flowers I remember having,” said Watson. “We are very lucky. We have a beautiful harvest coming and everything looks very good.”
He, like some of his colleagues, added that “everything can change in a penny” due to factors such as a cold snap. Pruning peaches and planting vegetables are the focal points of the moment, Watson said.
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Shot in the arm on the farm
Buses full of migrant farm workers are now on the move, and activity in recent days has included workers to help remove some – not all – flowers from certain varieties of trees, to help improve fruit size and quality in the coming months.
Sarah Oswald Scott, from the extension service at Clemson University, remade the past few months.
“We had a good winter in terms of meeting the refrigeration requirements for varieties grown in the state. The trees are reaching their flowering stage, which is on track for this time of year. We still have the potential for cold weather, so some flowers can be damaged if temperatures stay below 36 ° C for an extended period of time. However, we do not need 100% of these flowers to produce a good crop for the season, “she wrote.
A prominent local resident pointed out that strolling is an important factor when flowers are at their peak.
“Many tourists come here just to see the peaches in bloom,” said Pat Asbill, mayor of Ridge Spring.
“In our town, you couldn’t find a place to park on Saturday, because people were here to see the peaches in bloom and, in addition, they come in all colors of pink – from lavender to deep pink – and they love to see all color. ”
Plum blossoms are a bonus at the moment, “and they are white, so they make a nice contrast,” she added. “We appreciate the peach season, not only for our farmers, but also for our stores and the city. It attracts a lot of people to the city.”
The largest peach producer in eastern California, Ridge Spring’s Titan Farms, provided the host location for an unusual event on Saturday, with more than 800 farm workers available to receive their first of two COVID-19 vaccines – “a wonderful event”, in the assessment of Chalmers Carr III, owner, CEO and president of Titan.
Dozens of volunteers, including students and staff at Augusta University, helped provide COVID-19 vaccination services, as well as staff at the Carolina Health Centers, based in Greenwood.
“The Ridge”, as the local peach-growing area is known to some, was represented by buses full of workers with employers like Titan, Costa Layman, Dixie Belle, Big Smile and Cotton Hope.
“This is not just for migrant workers,” said Carr, in the middle of Saturday’s action. “This is for … American citizens too, who work in the agricultural field. When I was told we were going to do 200 servings an hour, I said, ‘No, I can’t believe it’, but it’s over if I don’t think they’re doing it. “
Several translators took part in the effort, with an emphasis on helping Spanish speakers to go through the process as smoothly as possible. Helping to fill this gap was Hector Picon, a sophomore medical student at Medical College of Georgia.
“I like to help the Hispanic community,” he said. “It is a very vulnerable community, and … in Georgia and South Carolina, their numbers are really huge on these farms, so coming here to try to repay them is very important to me.”
Pam Cromer, professor of nursing at Augusta University, pointed out that medical and nursing students also participated in the effort. She said, “Help us. Help them. Help the agricultural workers. Keep our communities healthy. It’s a win-win situation.”
Elena Prendergast, director of the university’s program for clinical nurse leaders, made similar comments.
“This is the first time that we’ve really had such a big meeting of all the farms coming together. I think the best thing about it is that all of these students came in their own time. They weren’t getting anything for it.” she said. “They were not getting any credit for that, but what we are showing is that as a university, our students are already being instructed to give back to their communities, and several of us, like me, are Hispanic, so this is a community that it is very close and dear to my heart, as are some of our medical students. “