A year after crops were wiped out, Okanagan stone fruit growers enjoy banner season

Okanagan stone fruit is abundant and especially tasty this summer.

2024 was a disaster for stone fruit farmers in the Okanagan.

A January deep freeze wiped out peach and apricot crops for all growers, and drastically reduced the number of cherries they could put to market last summer.

“It was really heartbreaking and expensive for any farmer, because you have to take care of the trees for another 12 months before you’re going to get a crop out of them,” said Jennay Oliver with Painters Fruit Market.

Fast forward one year, and those same farmers are having a banner season. Stone fruit is abundant and especially tasty this summer.

“Everybody’s really excited. There’s nothing like biting into an Okanagan-grown peach,” said Oliver. “So that is what everybody’s coming out for. They’re coming to pick their own, and they’re coming to experience the orchards again.”

“Our customers are all really happy,” said Angelique Slade Shantz with Rose Hill Orchard. “You know the saying absence makes the heart grow fonder? I think that’s definitely been true with the fruit this year.”

The farmers all say the weather this year has created a perfect growing season.

“It’s just been an absence of negative factors. So we haven’t had the extreme cold that we saw last year, and we haven’t had a heat dome,” said Slade Shantz. “So it’s just kind of a perfect confluence of circumstances to have a huge crop, and then also really good quality fruit.”

Alan Gatzke, who has run Gatzke Farm Markets for 37 years, said he’s never had a year like 2025. “We had a few challenges over the years with the relocation of the highway. But we are having sales days that blow the doors off of even our best days before the highway moved,” Gatzke said.

Not only is the quality top notch, growers said local fruit is what British Columbians are looking for right now.

“I’m convinced that there’s more people willing to specifically buy B.C. fruit, and are capable and willing to pay a fair price for it. So all of those factors are contributing to be just a banner year here in 2025 at the farm,” Gatzke said.

Farmers know Mother Nature is unpredictable, and anything could happen next year.

“It’s a bit of a roller coaster if you’re a farmer, and we’ve been through it,” said Oliver. “And right now, we’re kind of right at that peak.”

British Columbians have another few weeks to enjoy the peak deliciousness. Stone fruit season typically ends in September.