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Texas Agriculture Archive

July 5, 2002

A Passion For Peaches

By Lana Robinson
Field Editor

The old adage, "The harder I work, the luckier I get," is true for Tim and Kathy Cooper, owners of Cooper Farms in Fairfield. From May through mid-August, the Coopers' premier peaches, blackberries, tomatoes and other fresh produce are sold at the Waco and Tyler farmer's markets and their own roadside stands along Interstate 45, as far south as Conroe and north to Ennis and all the major points—Huntsville, Madisonville, Buffalo, Fairfield, and Corsicana—in between. Cooper Farms' fresh peaches and blackberries are also found in Wal-Mart stores in Hillsboro, Mexia, Conroe, Huntsville, Jacksonville, Tyler, Palestine and Waco and a number of North Central Texas H-E-Bs. But it wasn't luck that got them there.

In their early forties, the Coopers put in lots of hours and go the extra mile to market their crops and maintain business relationships. They understand that it isn't just a matter of working hard to get an outlet for your products, but also working hard to keep them.

This is the Coopers' third season to market to H-E-B, with current supplies going to six stores in Waco plus stores in Ennis, Corsicana, the Plano Central Market and the Fort Worth Central Market.

"They have asked us to come to the Central Market on Central Expressway in Dallas as soon as it opens. The people at H-E-B have been really wonderful," says Kathy Cooper. "They have helped us grow into it. I especially admire the way they pursue the Texas grower: they approached us. We didn't go looking for H-E-B. They came looking for us. Ron Smith knew they were going to be expanding to the Dallas area and set up a meeting wanting to buy from Texas growers. H-E-B gives their produce managers a lot of leeway to buy from the grower direct, and not have to buy from the warehouse."

Again, it wasn't luck that H-E-B came to the Coopers. Their presence and prowess in the marketplace, and reputation for growing high-quality fruits and vegetables, caught the attention of the San Antonio-based supermarket giant. Tim and Kathy Cooper are among a growing band of Texas fruit, vegetable and nut producers who provide farm-fresh produce to H-E-B's 245 retail stores in 122 Texas communities. One of the largest regional food retailers in the business, H-E-B makes an effort to buy locally-grown farm products and has teamed up with Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs to promote Texas products through the GO TEXAN program.

"Because it's closer to the market, the Texas-grown produce is fresher," says David Koehler, produce manager for the H-E-B store in Hewitt, who receives twice-a-week direct deliveries of peaches and blackberries from the Coopers during the harvest season. "Our customers prefer it. We would buy even more fruit, vegetables and melons from local farmers if it was available. But they have to be serious about it to meet our demand."

The Coopers, as well as other H-E-B growers, must meet the food retailers' vendor requirements to pass muster. Some produce—tomatoes for example—must be stickered by the seller in order to be sold in H-E-B stores. Some vendors, like the Coopers, make deliveries directly to the stores. Others bring their produce to the San Antonio warehouse for distribution. There is some red tape, and H-E-B is picky about the produce they buy, but there are grower opportunities for those willing to comply.

"We conduct safety inspections on all our farms. We know where our produce is coming from," says Hugh Topper, H-E-B produce procurement manager.

In addition to some 12,000 peach trees, spread across 150 acres, and 10 acres of blackberries, the Coopers grow watermelons and black-eyed peas, and most recently put in a fig orchard, which is producing this year. They have 32,000 sq. ft. of greenhouses for year-round tomato production.

"We will be selling H-E-B our peaches, blackberries and figs, but everything else is for our own market. We can't compete on greenhouse tomatoes with the big commercial growers out of Canada and Far West Texas. However, we did supply the H-E-B at Ennis greenhouse tomatoes last winter," says Kathy. "Greenhouse plants, amazingly, last a long time. We seed a tomato crop in August and they start producing in October. Those plants go all the way through June. We'll be harvesting off the same plants for those nine months."

The Coopers have summer greenhouses, modified, shorter versions of the larger structures, with tall, wet walls to provide moisture when temperatures rise on summer days.

"We plant the summer crop in early spring. We have greenhouse tomatoes all summer long. We grow those to have on the table with our peaches at our roadside stands. We rely on another tomato grower to supplement our market," Kathy explains. "We also make several trips to the Dallas Farmers' Market each week to buy produce from other growers—good squash, cucumbers, and beans and other things we don't grow to make them available to our customers."

Blackberry vines are head high at the Cooper's Freestone County farm.

"We have Rosenburg as well as Navaho, Apache and Arapaho—the thornless varieties," notes Tim.

Tim, who is now 44, has been picking peaches since he was 13. He started out working for another grower. He subsequently established his own orchards in 1978. Over the years, Tim has expanded his 10-acre operation to 200.

The Coopers grow cling and freestone peaches, with the harvest beginning around May 1 and continuing through the middle of August. Some of the varieties include June Gold, Centinel, Harvester, Red Globe, Redskin, Loring, Jefferson and Carimac.

Drip irrigation supplies moisture to the orchards and berry vines, but the Coopers have appreciated the benefits of additional rain this spring.

"This is the biggest crop we've ever seen. The good rainfall came at a time when we were about to stress our irrigation systems," says Kathy.

So far this year, they have managed to avoid fungus and insect problems.

Tim frequently attends fruit growers conferences to stay abreast of the most up-to-date varieties and management techniques, and seek additional help, from time to time, from land grant university professors.

The Coopers hire help to tend to the greenhouse crops and to plant and harvest field crops. Tim oversees the farming operations and Kathy does most of the marketing and a lot of the direct deliveries to H-E-Bs and Wal-Mart stores.

"A lot of teachers and college kids sell for us at our roadside stands," Kathy adds.

The Coopers' two children, 12-year-old Ben, and Elizabeth, 9, also help out on occasions with deliveries and roadside stand marketing.

"Ben recently sold 75 pecks on a Sunday afternoon by himself at the stand here at Fairfield," Kathy reports.

In late June, the Coopers' purple hull and black-eyed peas were prime for picking.

To keep their customers advised with regard to which crop is ripe when, the Coopers post information on their website: ww.cooperfarmspeaches.com.