![]() We first started selling peaches out of the Gladiator outside of a denim shop in Nashville, imogene + willie. Stephen: Initially we brought peaches from back home to our Nashville friends and quickly knew by their reactions and demands for more that we needed to bring this quintessential summer experience to the rest of our community. Tell me about the first time you guys loaded up the Gladiator with peaches as a means to share them with other folks? ![]() After talking with him a bit, he made the unlikeliest of agreements to straight up trade me the Gladiator in exchange for my ‘95 Thunderbird! We had no idea at the time but that truck became The Peach Truck and it’s still an icon for our brand that is seen as our mascot. I came across a guy selling a ‘64 Gladiator but couldn’t afford the price he was asking for it. Stephen: A year before The Peach Truck had even come into existence, I needed a new vehicle and really wanted something fun like a Jeep. To this day, I still find myself counting down the days until peach season, there’s truly no other fruit like it! Tell me about the Gladiator! What is the story there? To so many people around the country, a fresh peach is a rare gem that everyone appreciates and looks forward to year-round. I quickly learned after moving away from my hometown to Nashville that a fresh summer peach is nearly impossible to find outside Peach County. Stephen: Not only are peaches special to me as a nostalgic childhood memory, but equally so as an adult. Peaches hold a special place in our family, that connection to past, present and future. I instantly understood what he’d been talking about and why he was so passionate about the peaches of his childhood. Jessica: I had never experienced the joy of a fresh Southern peach hours off the tree until Stephen brought me to the farm in Fort Valley while we were dating. ![]() What makes the peach a special fruit for you guys? It was that childhood experience of fresh, local peaches that drew me back after moving to Nashville. It’s no wonder the county is named Peach County, Georgia! Many of our family friends were farmers that grew peaches so it was very common to have a box of peaches dropped off on the porch from the farm nearby. Peaches are a way of life in that area, every major peach farm is right there in a little town. Stephen: Absolutely, every summer of my childhood in Fort Valley is imprinted with memories of peaches grown in the orchards all around me. Jessica: Seattle, WA You grew up eating locally-grown peaches? We reached out to Stephen and Jessica just ahead of the Truck's visit to Louisiana, to learn more about their journey. So, on their next visit back to Georgia, the couple loaded down their ‘64 Gladiator with the delicious gold, and brought them back to Nashville to share with friends and neighbors. Ten years later, “The Peach Truck” is now a nationally touring endeavor, which delivers fresh-from-the-tree Georgia and South Carolina peaches to homes all across the country. Growing up in Fort Valley, Georgia, he said,“peaches are a way of life.” And the ones at the grocery store were not cutting it. When Stephen Rose moved to Nashville with his wife Jessica, he immediately knew something was missing. “People started asking how they could get peaches outside of Nashville and outside of Georgia, so we started thinking, and The Peach Truck Tour was born.Stephen and Jessica Rose, owners of The Peach Truck, started their business ten years ago when they realized a nationwide demand for fresh, high quality, Southern peaches. “As more and more Nashville customers tried The Peach Truck’s fresh Georgia peaches, we heard time and time again of how it elicited an emotional reaction - taking them back to a special time or memory when they had enjoyed a peach in the past,” Stephen says. You can also pick up a copy of “The Peach Truck Cookbook.” In addition to fresh fruit, The Peach Truck sells pecans, jam, peach cobbler filling, BBQ sauce and peach salsa. The area has mineral-rich red clay, cold winters and hot summers, which provides ideal growing conditions for peaches. He grew up in Fort Valley, Ga., smack dab in the middle of the Peach State. Stephen Rose doesn’t play favorites he says the best peach is the one in your hand. They travel on refrigerated trucks to scheduled tour stops, where they’re sold within hours of being picked by the 25-pound box.įrom mid-May to mid-August, Georgia peach farms cultivate more than 40 varieties, such as Elberta, Flavorich, Fiesta Gem, Harvester and Flame Prince. The sweet treats are hand-picked when tree-ripe and immediately cleaned, graded and packed into half bushels.
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