Early varieties of peaches in Chilton County have started to be harvested and sold.

“The peaches are doing great,” Chilton County Research and Extension Center Director Jim Pitts said. “The ones we are picking right now are really nice in size, and good quality peaches.”

Early varieties should be available in the coming weeks including clingstone peaches, in which the flesh of the peach clings to the pit, such as Flavor Rich, which Pitts said is popular.

“Everyone seems to really like the Flavor Rich peaches,” Pitts said.

Varieties available later in the season are freestone peaches, in which the flesh easily separates from the pit.

The 2015 peach crops logged roughly 1,200 chill hours for the season, which bodes well for the crop.

Chill hours are counted by the Extension Center, which measures the amount of hours peach trees spend under 45 degrees for one complete hour, or a chill hour.

Pitts said the chill hours are necessary in order to produce a plentiful crop.

Peach trees must be exposed to cold weather in order to keep the buds from opening too early, which prevents the buds from being damaged by being exposed to a potential late freeze.

Although the peach season is a “tad bit” later than usual with peaches about a week late, Pitts anticipates a better crop than last year.

“We have a lot more peaches around this time than we did last year,” Pitts said. “So far, things are looking really good and we are going to have a good peach season. We are starting to pick them and they are looking really, really, good.”

The Chilton County Extension Office provides a directory each year of peach farms throughout the county.

To view the list, visit www.aces.edu.