Peach Festival

Birds sing. Insects whir. Farm machinery hums. And children call out and laugh as they search for the rosiest fruit on the trees.

At least, that’s what Jen Herbrandson’s daughters and niece are doing. Herbrandson, of Chandler, and her mother-in-law, Ruth, have brought the girls on a morning peach-picking expedition at Schnepf Farms. The fourth-generation working farm and agritainment empire in Queen Creek opens its orchards four days per week each May for pick-it-yourself produce.

Schnepf also hosts its annual Peach Festival the next two weekends. The popular event features carnival rides, pie-eating and pit-spitting contests, food samples and chef demonstrations. There’s also a Peachy Pancake Breakfast available each morning, and the farm bakery churns out fresh peach cinnamon rolls and pies.

The farm grows six varieties of peaches in eight orchards. Despite brutal frosts over the winter that took a quarter of the peaches in some orchards, there’s still plenty of fruit on the trees, says owner Mark Schnepf. Poppy apricots are also ripening now, and both fruits are available for picking during the Peach Festival.

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