Featured Image: Courtesy Pearson Farms
Lawton Pearson walks the orchards at Pearson Farm every day. He studies growing techniques, monitors weather patterns, and hand-picks peaches straight from the tree. It’s his favorite way to eat them.
“There’s no better place I would like to live and work than in the middle of an orchard,” Lawton says. “When you see a loaded orchard of fruit, it’s awe-inspiring. Those trees are like little pieces of art, every one of them. You see order, not chaos.”
He’s the fifth-generation Pearson to farm Fort Valley soil. The legacy started in 1885 when Moses Winlock “Lockie” Pearson relocated his family from Woodbury, Georgia, sensing the region’s level ground and fertile soil could help him join Georgia’s peach boom. He planted peach trees on land that would become Pearson Farm.
In 1906, Lockie died at 48, leaving his wife Emma to raise a dozen children and run the farm. Their oldest son, John, continued farming, added more land, and increased peach plantings. The family kept adapting, building, and moving the legacy right along.
Today, Lawton and his brother Lanier represent that fifth generation. Lawton spends his days in the orchards while Lanier handles marketing and operations, making sure more people know about and love the results of his brother’s labors. Their parents, Al and Mary Pearson, are still involved—Al shares the farm’s history through Tree Talks, and Mary’s recipes form the basis of Mary’s Kitchen.
The sixth generation is already showing interest. Lawton and Lanier’s children work in the farm store, join their dad in the field, and run social media pages.
Over the years, one key thing has kept Pearson Farm growing, and it’s not fertilizer. It’s adapting.
“The ability to adapt to customers’ needs is something that is usually overlooked and yet, I think, is one of the main reasons that Pearson Farm is continuing to grow after 141 years,” Lawton says.
When his dad and grandfather packed peaches, they had a standard ¾-bushel box. Now, if you look into the packing shed—a converted schoolhouse built around 1900 on land the Pearson family donated—you’ll see technology that allows them to pack hundreds of different ways based on what a customer needs.
Farm store customers need something different than online customers, who need something different than wholesale volume orders. The Pearsons recognized that and adapted in order to deliver Georgia peaches in whatever format works best for their people.
“We know we have delicious Georgia peaches, but that doesn’t matter if we can’t get them to people,” Lawton says. “The fact that we’ve been willing to adapt to those changes while still offering the highest quality peach is a testament to our family and the legacy that’ll be here long after I am.”
In yet another adaptation, the farm added pecan trees in the 1930s. Now Pearson Farm manages both peach and pecan orchards using similar machinery and methods, although peaches do require far more attention.
Lawton doesn’t take lightly what it means to be the fifth-generation Pearson farming this land.
“Every day that I walk these orchards, I’m thankful that my great-great grandparents laid the foundation they did and that the generations before me kept that legacy alive,” he says. “It wasn’t always easy for them, and it’s not always easy now, but I hope that decades from now the Pearsons are still just as proud to be Georgia farmers.”
The farm operates on more than 2,000 acres of peach orchards and 4,000 acres for pecans. During peach season—May through August—the Fort Valley packing shed is packed with folks looking to experience Georgia agriculture firsthand.
Self-guided tours of the peach packing facility are available, and the farm also makes peach ice cream and cobbler on-site. Pecans peak from September through April.
“Peaches are a finicky crop, and the process of growing will change based on the social, climate, tree, and many other factors,” he says. “Honestly, just let me grow them for you, and it’ll save you a ton of stress.”
Fair enough. I’d say after 141 years, the Pearsons know what they’re doing.
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