DAY TRIP TEXAS
Ham Orchards
Story & Photos By SUSANNAH HUTCHENSON
W
hen Ham Orchards opens
for the season, East
Texas rejoices. Ever since the
days when Dale Ham and his
daughter would sell peaches
on the side of the railroad
tracks, the people have come
in droves – all eager for
the sweet taste of summer.
Boasting more than 10,000
peach trees and the infamous
peach ice cream, the little
white store off Old Highway
80 is an East Texas institution.
On a typical summer day,
people emerge from the pickyour-own blackberry patch
covered in sugar and sticky
fingers, carrying gallon-sized
buckets filled with sweet,
12
INSITE May/June 2016
Juicy, full of summer, and picked off
the branches just that morning
hot berries. Lines wrap
around the barbecue pavilion,
people waiting eagerly for
homemade potato salad and
melt-in-your-mouth peach
pulled pork sandwiches. The
store itself is full with jars
of peach preserves, freshly
baked moonshine pecan pies,
and a rainbow array of locally
grown fruits and vegetables.
Homemade peach and
strawberry ice cream beckons
from the back wall, as kids
beg their parents for just one
more sample of creamy fudge.
The peaches are what keep the
people coming back. It’s the
kind of peach that only comes
from a Ham tree – juicy, full
of summer, and picked off the
branches just that morning.
Dale Ham, the orchard
patriarch, didn’t quite grow
up thinking he wanted to
be a peach farmer. He was
a Richardson firefighter for
32 years and also owned a
landscaping business, while
raising two daughters with his
wife Judy. “One day, God put
a desire in my heart to grow
peaches,” says Dale, taking a sip
of his iced tea. “It wasn’t ever
anything I’d thought about. I
hadn’t even been to a peach
orchard, but it was a calling.”
Dale leaned back in his
recliner, eager to tell the story
behind the orchard. He and
Judy bought 22 acres just east
of Terrell in 1979 and planted
100 trees, not knowing what
was going to happen. Every
single one of the trees lived,
and the Hams had so many
peaches they weren’t sure
what do with them. Dale
and his youngest daughter,
Sharien, would set up a card