Georgia produces approximately 140 million pounds of its official state fruit each year. Today, while the majority of the commercial peach farms are concentrated in central Georgia around Fort Valley, Augusta played a key role in the history of Georgia’s evolution of becoming the “Peach state.” 

Augusta was home to “Fruitland"Nurseries” – the largest peach farm in the South in the 19th century, owned by a Belgian horticulturalist Prosper J. Berckmans, who  became known as the Father of Georgia Peaches. Over Berckmans’ 50 years of extensive research on peaches, he planted more than 3 million peach trees and produced over 300 kinds of peaches and many other kinds of fruits and trees on his Fruitland property. During his lifetime, he had introduced or improved three of the five main varieties of Georgia Peaches. Fruitland was also the first to ship Georgia Peaches out of state in 1858.

After his passing in 1910, the land was eventually purchased and transformed into the most famous golf course in the world. Berckmans’ original residence still remains on the course today as their clubhouse.