ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Dickey Farms:
One Peach
of a Place
Sprawling enterprise harvests peaches all
over Middle Ga., including Monroe County
Dickey said he’s been working
at the packinghouse, the main
attraction in Musella, since he was
old enough to walk. After completing high school, he received a
finance degree from the University
of Georgia before returning home
to work alongside his father in the
family business.
“My dad was just great to
work with,” Dickey said. “I loved
farming. I love what I do. Living
right here and working right here,
it’s kind of a unique opportunity
to do that. I really don’t take it for
BY RICHARD DUMAS
T
he Dickey Farms’ peach
packinghouse, which is
the oldest continuously
operating one in Georgia, might
be located in Crawford County,
but the business has a long, successful history in Monroe County
as well.
Dickey Farms’ owner Robert
L. Dickey III said about one-third
of the approximately 1,000 acres
where Dickey peaches are grown
are located in Monroe County.
Also, for more than 50 years,
Dickey peaches have been sold
at a stand in Culloden at the
intersection of Hwys. 74 and 341.
Most of those peaches have been
sold by one woman, Nannie C.
Haygood, who turned 100 years
old last fall.
Like Haygood, Dickey has
been in the peach industry for
a long time. Dickey, a Crawford County native, is a fourth
generation peach grower. His
father Robert L. “Bob” Dickey II,
who is 86 years old, still works
every morning at the packing
house, and the younger Dickey’s
wife Cynde is “really the glue that
holds things together,” he said.
“She’s always been all-in,”
Dickey said of his wife. “And I
couldn’t do it without her. I really
couldn’t.”
78
Robert Dickey
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