Excerpts from an interview with Jeff Blood of Blood Orchards
by Ascha Lee, December 12, 2019
As their website says, the Blood Family is "bringing a family tradition back to life." Salt in the ground water in 1984 ended more than a century of growing peach trees on the Blood Family property. There were orchards on the family's ground from 1872-1989.
In 2014 Jeff Blood, the fifth generation, and his family moved back to the family ground. A year later, they began the orchard replanting process with a test patch of several varieties of peaches. In 2019 they celebrated a wonderful peach harvest!
Jeff is helped by his dad. He explains, “My dad is 87, he’s one of the main reasons that I can do this. The care and maintenance of the trees, it’s all passed down from him. I wouldn’t be near where I am today if I didn’t have him around. During the summer, it’s pretty much constant questions to him.”
The orchard is a legacy of generations of the Blood Family. “It’s a huge responsibility. Every time I walk into our store, my grandfather, great grandfather, and great-great grandfather look at me (portraits on the wall)… it’s an awesome feeling to be back out there and to be on the same land that they were on."
Blood Orchard has over 600 peach trees, 70 apple trees, 25 cherry trees and now 100 sandplums as well as pumpkins for the fall pumpkin patch.
by Ascha Lee, December 12, 2019
As their website says, the Blood Family is "bringing a family tradition back to life." Salt in the ground water in 1984 ended more than a century of growing peach trees on the Blood Family property. There were orchards on the family's ground from 1872-1989.
In 2014 Jeff Blood, the fifth generation, and his family moved back to the family ground. A year later, they began the orchard replanting process with a test patch of several varieties of peaches. In 2019 they celebrated a wonderful peach harvest!
Jeff is helped by his dad. He explains, “My dad is 87, he’s one of the main reasons that I can do this. The care and maintenance of the trees, it’s all passed down from him. I wouldn’t be near where I am today if I didn’t have him around. During the summer, it’s pretty much constant questions to him.”
The orchard is a legacy of generations of the Blood Family. “It’s a huge responsibility. Every time I walk into our store, my grandfather, great grandfather, and great-great grandfather look at me (portraits on the wall)… it’s an awesome feeling to be back out there and to be on the same land that they were on."
Blood Orchard has over 600 peach trees, 70 apple trees, 25 cherry trees and now 100 sandplums as well as pumpkins for the fall pumpkin patch.
Photos by Travis Mounts Photography.
