Keeping Georgia off your mind

BELMONT -- "You bring me good luck," Ken Nicewicz calls out from underneath a canvas awning that shades his produce from the blistering sun at the farmers' market here. He cheerfully fields questions and banters with customers while peeling change off a thick wad of bills.

A prospective buyer inquires where Nicewicz gets his peaches. "They're from our farm in Bolton!" he exclaims, flicking his thumb toward a bold hand-drawn Nicewicz Family Farm sign stuck on the red van behind him. When the incredulous man bends down to inspect a crate of the fuzzy, fragrant fruits more closely, Nicewicz's mouth twitches with barely contained amusement.

It's not luck that draws the customers to Nicewicz's display on this late summer day. More likely it's a warm breeze redolent with the smell of the sun-ripened fruit, seducing suburbanites to ask themselves if they dare to buy a peach. Boston isn't exactly peach country, so questions do seem entirely reasonable.

Nicewicz (pronounced nish-way) is the third generation in his family farming in Worcester County. He and his three brothers, David, Alan, and Tom, work full-time growing 15 varieties of peaches, as well as nectarines, apples, plums, pears, blueberries, and assorted vegetables, on the 100 acres their Polish grandmother purchased in 1929. Their mother, Vera, manages the farmstand in Bolton. In the fall, when the farmers' markets begin to slow down, the Nicewiczs will ramp up for the pick-your-own apple season at the farm.

Fall seems far away, even with the first apples of the season for sale at the market. This is Nicewicz's first time working the market in Belmont, although his family has sold produce there for two years. Beside him his friend of 10 years, Chath pierSath, quietly informs one eager shopper that squeezing a peach only bruises it. Nicewicz whispers, "The squeezers drive Chath crazy."

Gumby and Pokey action figures sit sentinel next to a digital scale pierSath uses to weigh produce. "Good luck charms," he explains with a shy smile.

The two met in 1997 during a farming project for Hmong farmers in the fertile Bolton Flats. PierSath, an accomplished painter and poet who escaped the Khmer Rouge as a child in 1979, spends half the year working on the Nicewicz farm. The money he earns goes toward a school he's building in Cambodia, where he spends the other six months.

Since a variety's harvest runs only two short weeks, growing multiple varieties at the farm extends peach season into late September. Thus there's a peach for everyone: freestones and clingstones; yellow peaches and whites; soft, syrupy-sweet peaches; taut-fleshed fruits with an acidic bite.

At the Belmont market, two varieties are on offer. One is Canadian Harmony, a large freestone peach that's both firm and juicy, the other a semi-freestone called Earliglo that's also firm-fleshed.

It's been a good year for local peaches, reports Nicewicz, who is president of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers Association. A mild winter provided the trees with the chill hours they need to produce, and there were no spring frosts to damage delicate blossoms, one reason why Massachusetts isn't the ideal place to grow an outstanding peach.

Beyond the tricky climate issues, there's the ever-present threat of insects and disease that plague stone fruits. The Nicewiczs hired an integrated pest management consultant to help reduce the amount of chemicals used on the trees.

"As much as we do," says Nicewicz, "we still can't do them organically."

Belmont resident Iona Hunedy stops by the stand to buy peaches she'll eat out of hand later on. "I miss being around farms and orchards," says Hunedy, who is originally from upstate New York. "It took me 15 years to be able to walk into a grocery store to buy an apple. We used to pick them in our neighbor's orchards. Here," she says, nodding toward the market, "you know how your food will taste. This brings it all back."

Hearing this pleases Nicewicz. "We get a lot of kids coming out to the farm," he says. "They get to see a family working together to bring the freshest fruits and vegetables to their families." He smiles and adds, "While keeping our sanity."

Luck is definitely overrated. And so are Georgia peaches.

Nicewicz Family Farm, 116 Sawyer Road, Bolton, 978-779-6423, or go to nicewiczfarm.com; the family sells at 10 farmers' markets in the area.