Peaches, nectarines and blackberries ready for the picking at Taylor's Orchard

Photo by Randy Moll Spencer Youngblood, 1, picks a peach while helping her mom and dad at Taylor’s Orchard in Gentry on Friday. The orchard is open to those who wish to pick their own peaches, nectarines or blackberries but also has the fruit avaialble at the fruit stand for purchase.
Photo by Randy Moll Spencer Youngblood, 1, picks a peach while helping her mom and dad at Taylor’s Orchard in Gentry on Friday. The orchard is open to those who wish to pick their own peaches, nectarines or blackberries but also has the fruit avaialble at the fruit stand for purchase.

GENTRY -- Peaches, nectarines and blackberries are now ripe at Taylor's Orchard in Gentry, and the orchard is open Monday through Saturday for those who wish to buy freshly-picked fruit or go out in the orchard and pick their own.

The trees were weighed down with ripening nectarines on Friday, making it an easy task to pick a box or bucket full in little time at all.

"Be sure to bite into the nectarines with a garden hose handy or over the kitchen sink," said Bill Taylor, owner and caretaker of the orchard, "because they're juicy and the juice will run down your face."

And the blackberry bushes were loaded with berries too -- many of them still red but a good number also a deep purple or black and ready to pick. Taylor said he expected his rows of bushes to be producing ripe blackberries throughout the month of July.

And, the nice thing about picking the berries there is the grass is cut and trimmed and there's no need to be wading in the weeds and getting chewed up by chiggers and ticks to get your fill of berries.

Peaches were also abundant. And with all the varieties ripening at different times, it's possible for the orchard to offer fresh peaches throughout the summer.

Visitors to the orchard were picking some of the earlier varieties of peaches on Friday, but the red havens -- a favorite freestone peach popular for eating, baking and canning -- were beginning to ripen on the trees.

And with July 3 being a holiday for many, numerous families and visitors were enjoying the afternoon, picking fruit. For the children, it was a real treat and an experience they will likely long remember.

Taylor said his orchard will be open through September. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The orchard is closed on Sundays.

Whether going out and picking your own in the well-kept and mowed orchard or buying fresh-picked fruit at the stand, visitors can expect an abundance of very sweet results when they visit Taylor's Orchard.

The orchard is located on the southwest edge of Gentry on Taylor Orchard Road, at the corner of Marion Lee Road. (From the intersection of Arkansas Highways 12 and 59, take Highway 12 west to Pioneer Lane south, to SWEPCO Road west, to Taylor Orchard Road south. Turn west on Marion Lee Road, and you'll see the sign at the corner of Marion Lee and Taylor Orchard Roads. All the roads are paved until you reach the orchard.)

For more information, call Taylor's Orchard at 736-2004.

General News on 07/08/2015