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TRANSACTIONS 33 BUSINESS IS PERSONAL 34
Business
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. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
Y ELLOW BAY — At the fruit orchard along Flathead Lake, a galaxy of golden orbs is blushing red right now, and Dan Getman can hardly con-
trol 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 ripe- ness, because you can’t get the full a- vor 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 micro- climate provides just the right condi- tions for growing peaches, which is no easy task in a northern climate like Mon- tana’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,” Get- man 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, e ort and resources into the orchard, which sits on rocky soil that he enriched by tilling in ve 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 tak- ing 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, raspber- ries, 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
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SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM