Tour de Peach

While the pros were battling it out in Europe on Saturday during the Tour de France, we Middle Georgia cyclists pedaled our way to four peach farms over 105 miles in the Tour de Peach.  The contest here was: who has the best peach ice cream?  I took a highly scientific approach to determine the winner.

The four contenders were Dickey Farms, Pearson Farm, Brown Farms, and Lane Southern Orchards.  I created an assessment form to objectively evaluate the peach ice cream at each location:

Science has never been so delicious.  I must confess that I had been to all of these farms before except for Brown Farms.  This implies bias.  However, my previous research did not quantify the data.  Thus, I had confidence in my experimental procedures.

The ride started at 8:00 A.M. in Warner Robins.  Although I had invited others to become researchers as well, I’m not aware of any who conducted their own official experiments.  Perhaps a lack of funding kept them from adding to the body of research.  (The ride was free, but we did have to pay for ice cream at each place.)  Regardless, it was sure to be a peachy day for both cycling and ice cream.  Allez!  Allez!

First, we stopped at Dickey Farms in Musella.  For years my Macon cycling friends have talked about riding to Dickey Farms for peach ice cream in the summertime.  I got to go there for the first time about a month ago, on the Peaches & Lakes 200K permanent (see my blog entry dated 6/8/15).  Their ice cream was so delicious then that I greatly anticipated it on the Tour de Peach.  I also knew that it would set the bar high for the other contenders.  Sure enough, I gave Dickey Farms a 5 in every assessment category.  It breaks away from the pack with its intense peachiness.

Next we went to Pearson Farm.  I had gone there recently for the first time, too.  On the way to a job site at a landfill, I noticed a sign for peaches at Pearson Farm near Fort Valley.  It was a hot day, and I started thinking about how good some peach ice cream would be.  I figured they probably had ice cream as well as fresh peaches and decided to stop on my way back to the office.  While I was at the landfill, I asked the operator if he knew whether Pearson Farm had peach ice cream.  He said yes, but there was no need to go there; Brown Farms was just a couple of miles down the road.  Excellent!  I went to Brown Farms, but unfortunately, they didn’t have any ice cream that day.  Bummer.  At least I could revert to my original plan of going to Pearson Farm.  It hit the spot then, and it hit the spot this past Saturday, too.  I gave it a 4 in every category.  It’s an all-around good peach ice cream.  Another bonus is that you can watch fresh peaches go by on a conveyor belt as they are prepared for shipping.  Incidentally, several of my comrades ordered a muscadine slushy.  Now, I love muscadines almost as much as I love peaches.  Looks like another visit to Pearson Farm for a muscadine slushy will be in order when my work next takes me to that area.

The third stop on Tour de Peach was Brown Farms.  This time they had ice cream – yea!  It looked beautiful, having flecks of peach throughout.  It was more frozen than the soft-serve at the first two farms, but that wasn’t a minus; the texture was creamy and delectable.  The only downside was that it didn’t taste particularly peachy.  If it had, it would have been vying with Dickey Farms for the yellow jersey.  Or should I say, peach jersey?

Finally, we got to Lane Southern Orchards, only about 10 miles from the end of the ride.  Riding on mostly flat terrain, our group had been keeping up a fairly intense pace, about 20 mph.  By this point, most of my cycling companions were severely wilting (or worse, cramping) in the heat, and a few decided to forgo the last stop altogether and simply finish the ride.  Several of us needed a water refill, though, and I wanted to complete my peach ice cream research.  Lane is the largest operation of the four farms that we visited.  In addition to peaches, it has all kinds of peach products, other produce, and various gift items.  Because of its close proximity to I-75 and significant advertising, Lane draws numerous tourists passing through.  Saturday was a prototypical hot summer day; the place was packed.  The restaurant line snaked across the store.  It would have taken quite a while to get ice cream, and so I didn’t get to try my last Tour de Peach sample.  Lane Southern Orchard DNFed, or technically probably DNSed.  Isn’t that the pits?  At least I had had Lane’s peach ice cream before.  It’s good (come on, is there really any bad peach ice cream?) but not quite as good as the other three.

Dickey Farms stands atop the peach ice cream podium!

Clockwise from upper left corner: Dickey Farms, Pearson Farm, Brown Farms, empty peach yogurt container from that morning's breakfast since the line was too long at Lane Southern Orchards to wait for peach ice cream