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Flathead Peach Pickers

At Getmans’ Orchard in Yellow Bay, an unlikely bumper crop of peaches is ripe for the picking

By Tristan Scott
Dan Getman picks peaches at his orchard in Yellow Bay on Aug. 30, 2016. Greg Lindstrom | Flathead Beacon

YELLOW BAY — At the fruit orchard along Flathead Lake, a galaxy of golden orbs is blushing red right now, and Dan Getman can hardly control himself.

He’s been obsessively tending to his peaches, an unusual crop for a Montana fruit farmer to grow, and which require an inordinate amount of time and attention.

“Basically, I’m spending my days going from tree to tree and checking on ripeness, because you can’t get the full flavor from a peach that’s been picked too early,” Getman said. “I check every tree twice a day. I’m a nutcase, though, but it’s only because I’m crazy about peaches and I really like them ripe.”

At Getmans’ Orchard and Vineyard on Yellow Bay, a unique, hyper-local microclimate provides just the right conditions for growing peaches, which is no easy task in a northern climate like Montana’s. But a fortuitous suite of geologic and geographic novelties has converged at Getman’s, and it’s helped him, and his passion for peaches, to persevere.

“Flathead Lake is a heat sink, and we are right in the middle of the lake,” Getman said. “So it’s the perfect climate for peaches.”

On the eastern edge of his orchard, a scalloped swale encourages natural air drainage, while the bay protects his fruit trees and vineyard from the prevailing winds.

That’s not to say that Getman hasn’t invested an exhaustive amount of time, effort and resources into the orchard, which sits on rocky soil that he enriched by tilling in five semi-truck loads of compost.

Today, the soil is soft and loamy, so much so that Getman can hand-harvest his potatoes.

“This wouldn’t happen if I was not taking care of the soil,” he said. “This is not an accident. Every time you get a peach like this, it’s because I’ve been paying attention to every tree and every peach.”

Indeed, the branches sag under the weight of the fuzzy, golden-hued fruit, but Getman won’t pick a peach until it’s completely ripe and ready.

He also grows multiple varieties of sweet cherries and tart cherries, raspberries, apricots, plums, pears, and apples.

Getman is proud of all his fruit, but it’s the peaches that stand out.

“Oh, they’re totally sexy,” he said.

A retired builder, Getman has kept a garden since he was 4 years old, so his transition to full-time fruit farmer was a natural progression.

“My dad grew tomatoes. He would trellis them and they’d grow 10-feet tall,” Getman said. “When I was 4, he gave me a little packet of seeds and I started my own tomato garden. I though that was pretty good magic and I’ve had a garden ever since.”

On a recent weekday, Getman made deliveries to area schools in Bigfork, Kalispell and Polson, which are among his biggest customers.

“It’s a great program that’s designed to get some real food into the students’ hands,” he said. “They were eating their apple slices out of little sealed plastic bags. Now they recognize what they were missing.”

Getman said he especially enjoys the schools’ crunch day, where every student in the valley, at 2 p.m., takes a synchronized bite.

“You can hear that crunch echo through the valley,” he said.

Teaching students about soil ecology and farming is Getman’s favorite aspect of owning an orchard, and he estimates he hosted 800 visitors in August, including loads of families.

“First, I introduce them to the trees, and then I tell them about the soil—the life that’s in the soil and the life that goes into the tree and the life that pushes out a bud and a flower and eventually the fruit,” he said. “And when you eat that fruit, that same force of life that came from the earth and entered the tree, it enters you. They get a kick out of that.”

He tells them about the origin of peaches and pronounces their Latin name, Prunus persica, and he teaches them the perfect technique for peach picking.

“To pick a peach, you want to give it a nice full hand and a little tug and a little twist and it’ll come right off,” he said. “And that’s the lesson on how to pick a peach.”

And, of course, he hands out a few ripe peaches for them to enjoy.

“It’s just got such a nice gush when you bite into it,” he said.

To arrange a visit to Getmans’ Orchard or place an order, call (406) 871-5499.