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Ah, sweet, sweet August, when days, nights are just peachy
August 13, 2008
Ah, Sweet, Sweet August, When Days, Nights are Just Peachy
Farmers' Markets'
DENISE MILLER
For the Albuquerque Journal
Editor's note: Every other week, Denise Miller of the New Mexico Farmers' Marketing Association spotlights local growers and their crops, along with tips about how to cook the produce.
It's prime peach time in New Mexico.
Sure, you can buy early peaches, late peaches and even mid-winter peaches shipped from far away, but if you want drippy-sweet New Mexico peaches, now is the time to head to your local growers' market.
Is a peach just peach? Not according to Angelina and Levi Valdez, whose 12 acres of orchard in Velarde are home to more than 300 peach trees, including about 17 varieties.
"I like to go from one peach to another, though my mother, who lived to be 93 years old, always preferred the clingstone and said they were the sweetest," Levi says one recent morning at market.
Pick a perfect peck
Levi gets up early to pick the fruit in his orchard, and this time of year he starts with plums and works his way to peaches later in the day, when they're soft and ripe. He learned to color-pick from his father, and now after many years of doing this, he says it's fairly easy to tell exactly when they should be picked.
Levi planted most of the trees in his orchard 15 years ago when he was getting ready to retire from a lifetime in education, most recently as the dean of continuing education at Northern New Mexico Community College.
He still doesn't miss a chance to educate customers, whether it's about the fruit he grows or northern New Mexico culture. He and Angelina know a great deal about both, and they can trace their Velarde and Penasco-area roots about five and seven generations back, respectively. With a twinkle in his eye and a Cheshire cat grin, Levi admits part of the reason he loves going to market is because he's a talker. Angelina, on the other hand, is a worker who never stops serving customers, unpacking boxes and straightening up the market table. Her work ethic seems only natural after she described how her grandmother, always a perfectionist, use to say, `We'll make adobes while we rest.' "
Levi says the most difficult part of the fruit business for him is spring, when he worries about whether the crop will freeze. This year he estimates he and Angelina lost 70 percent of their fruit crop due to late freezes.
Married 50 years, the couple's combined energy and comportment is as sweet as the fruit they bring to market. When I ask whether he thinks his grown children will take over the orchards some day, he gives a long pause and evasive answer. It's clear he hopes they will.
FEATURED GROWERS: Angelina and Levi Valdez, Rancho LLAM Farm
FEATURED CROP: Peaches. High in vitamin A, vitamin C, dietary fiber and potassium, peaches are also rich in phytochemicals that act as antioxidants. They are also naturally low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium.
WHERE YOU'LL FIND THEM: Santa Fe Farmers' Market (Tuesdays); and periodically at the Taos Farmers' Market; Los Alamos Farmers' Market; and Albuquerque Growers' Market
SEASON: Now through early October
