restaurants and at 25 farmers markets per week. Sitting at about 3,500 feet, the farm’s high-desert climate is perfect for growing peaches, she adds. The trees thrive in the hot summers and frosty winters, and the dry soil curbs the risk of common fruit-tree fungal diseases. From about the end of June through mid-October, they handpick peaches and box them in-house for shipping, transport to farmers markets or pick-up. Between seasons, they prune the trees, maintain the water emitters, mow the weeds and sometimes take out trees or plant new ones. Challenges include mites when dust is stirred up or peach twig borer during moist conditions. “But the biggest challenge is the weather,” Tracie says, noting it’s becoming more unpredictable. Especially damaging is frost or heavy rain late in the season, which can destroy a crop.
Friendly partnership Among his farmer friends are the Tenerellis, who own a fruit orchard in the Los Angeles County community of Littlerock. Mead regularly buys the family’s stone fruit, including several of his favorite peach varieties. “I think their flavors are wonderful and they’re consistent also,” Mead says. Peter Tenerelli, who immigrated to California from Italy in 1932, started Tenerelli Orchards in 1975 following his retirement. Today it is run by his son John and his family. They grow several crops, such as nectarines, plums, apricots, cherries, pluots and mulberries, but about 25 varieties of peaches fill 60% of the 30 acres they’re currently farming, says John’s wife, Tracie Tenerelli. During peak season, they sell fruit to 30 to 40
Employee Senovio Solorio handpicks peaches at Tenerelli Orchards. Below, John, Tracie and Natalie Tenerelli and her husband Dan Cox all help with the Los Angeles County business.
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Summer 2024
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