Palisade Couple Retiring from Peach Business

Sometimes the Internet works in funny, global ways. This is a story originally filed by KKCO NBC11. But it was picked up by freshplaza.com, a fresh produce web site based in the Netherlands, probably through an RSS feed. Anyway, NBC 11 writes that, after a lifetime of hard work:

"Bonnie and Leroy Ball of Ball Fruit are retiring and selling their orchard. 11 News Reporter Jessica Zartler has more on their last harvest. Bonnie Ball says she's always loved watching the peaches grow. It's how she measures the seasons.

"'I'll be sad in a lot of ways but just because it has been such a good life,"'she told 11 News on Wednesday. She and her husband, Leroy, have built a life on the Palisade fruit. They have spent a lot of time and sweat growing each tree. The same care the ball's take with their orchard, they take with their customers. It is after all Bonnie's favorite part of spending 61 years at the Ball's fruit stand.

"Thats the thing I'll miss the most, the people that come in and visit with me," said Ball. She and her husband have been married for 58 years and she knew when she married Leroy, she was marrying the orchard. "Leroy was born into it, in the house right across the street. It's in his blood."

You can read the rest of the transcript here.

Thank you, Bonnie and Leroy. Ball Fruit will be missed.