Published: July 26, 2006 11:39 am      

Fruit Paradise

‘I try to freeze them, but I end up eating them all’ — a longtime customer

A Harrah orchard-growing family’s success has spread with their notoriety, pulling in customers from Oklahoma City and as far as Texas to experience fruit fresh off the tree.

A third-generation peach grower who has branched out, Rick Dye and his wife DeeAnn opened Sun Berry Orchard approximately five years ago, according to Tammy Davenport who picks and sells their fruit.

“Rick got his degree in agriculture,” Davenport said. “He studied apples in the Netherlands and was in Seattle too. It’s his specialty.”

Dye is the nephew of James and Bill Spencer, who both own and operate their peach orchards in close proximity to Sun Berry. Dye also has a brother who grows peaches a short distance away.

Sun Berry, which is just ending its blackberry season, which Davenport says begins in the first week of June and ends in the first week of August, will have apples for the first time around Sept. 1, including Fuji, Mollies Delicious, Valstar and Gala. Though the farm didn’t grow the raspberries this summer that they often have, Davenport said they would be back next year.

A 17-year resident of Harrah, Davenport first picked and sold peaches at Bill and Jan Spencer’s Windrift Orchard. She began to pick for the Dyes in the morning and they hired her on to sell some of the fruit. Throughout the summer, the orchard pays teenagers to pick at $1 per bushel as well, Davenport said.

James Spencer, who owns Spencer’s Orchard, sits on the property of his father who was the original orchard owner.

The family has had a lot of success in an area where others have not. According to Luther winery owner Richard Kennedy, who The Sun spoke to in May, orchards is a tough business and for that reason, he had gotten into wines.

Some orchards, however, like Oklahoma wines, are catching on. Bea Coats expresses the views of a number of Oklahomans, “It reminds me of the farm I grew up on.”

“I try to freeze them but I end up eating them all,” Carol Smith, of Oklahoma City said. Smith and Bea Coats have both came regularly over the summer. According to Coats, she has been coming for years, and no one else’s fruit tastes so good.

Lloyd and Nancy Mitchell say they live near Will Rogers Airport in southwest Oklahoma City. While they have been coming for the blackberries for some time, it was their first time to try the peaches and nectarines. They buy some of each.

A special guest that Davenport greeted Tuesday was the director of a special Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma program. Urban Harvest’s goal is to collect $150,000 lbs of fresh produce to add to the millions lbs of food that the food bank provides for Oklahomans annually.

“We began as a community garden association,” Director Bruce Edwards said. “The food bank sort of adopted us and set up a paid directorship.”

The program works with Oklahoma farms and 25 community gardens in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area to combat the shortage Edwards says there always is in fresh produce at the food bank. As long as their are enough fruit for customers as well, Urban Works can have a part of their crop, Davenport said.

“Go back into those Johnboys and just clear them out,” Davenport tells Edwards.

Sun Berry Orchards is located at 5665 N. Luther Road, in Harrah. For more information, call 405-454-1415 or 405-243-7892 during regular business hours. To volunteer with Urban Harvest, call Edwards at 972-1111 ext. 108.