Stonewall’s called the “Peach Capital of Texas” and every June Stonewall is ripe with fun and festivities.
The third weekend of June is set aside for a celebration of the Hill Country’s sweetest product at the annual Peach JAMboree, a time when the small community shares its fuzzy treasure. The festivities are genuine Texas fun, from a rodeo with bareback riding, calf roping, team roping, and bull riding to a parade and a baking contest at the Fire Station.
Other activities include a fiddlers’ contest (open to competitors), a washer pitching tournament, and, of course, the Gillespie County Peach Queen Pageant. The sweetest event is the Peach Show and Auction, with plenty of prize-winning examples of Stonewall’s crop.
Gillespie County, including Stonewall and nearby Fredericksburg, is filled with orchards where you can pick your own peaches. These shady groves yield their fruit until late July and offer a dozen varieties of peaches. The earliest to ripen are the cling peaches, ones whose fruit clings to the pit. As the summer progresses, varieties such as Red Skin, Loring, and Harvest Gold begin to mature.