Minnesota Prairie Roots

EVERYTHING WAS PEACHY at First English Lutheran Church in Faribault on Tuesday. Literally.

Boxes of stacked peaches awaited pick-up in the basement during the annual peach sale benefiting the congregation’s youth. They’d sold 560 boxes delivered from family-owned Noland Orchards in Colorado.

“People love Colorado peaches,” said Ane Mentz, church administrator. And they must given the sale of seven pallets, or 11,200 pounds, of the stone fruit, if you’re counting. That’s the max First English could order and they sold out of the 20-pound pre-ordered boxes.

Buyers included the piemakers at Trinity Lutheran Church, blocks away from First English. The volunteers will make homemade pies from 10 boxes of peaches purchased during the sale.

Another buyer, a home brewer, bought 20 boxes of peaches to craft beer. He’s been buying for years, upping the quantity each season, said Mentz.

And, in the past, a local restaurant ordered peaches to create menu items.

First English sells the 20-pound boxes for $38 or half a box for $19, a substantial reduction from the going fruit truck rate of $60, according to Mentz. The church keeps the price lower, she said, because they want to offer fresh fruit and healthy food to people “without breaking the bank.”

For some 20 summers, this congregation has been selling Colorado peaches, which usually arrive in early August. This year the peaches came early, Mentz said, due to a short winter and early blooms.

Buyers arrived Tuesday to pay for and pick up their peaches from youth and other volunteers. Youth ages three to seniors in high school bank their money for upcoming church-sanctioned activities like mission and camping trips.

Phoebe Sanchez, who helps with Sunday School and who was assisting at the peach pick-up, recently returned from a church trip to Montana. That’s just a skip of a state away from Colorado and Noland Orchards, source of all those fresh peaches in the basement of First English.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling