What started as a way for Eliot Lundt to make money in the summer between college terms has quickly turned into a full-blown peach business, complete with stand employees, cold storage, and freight delivery via Mile Hi, the same company that works with McDonald's.
Back in 2024, Lundt's plan was to work as a fly fishing guide in Wyoming, but it quickly became apparent that the job wasn’t going to work out. He’d been promised room and board, which did not materialize, and was barely making enough to cover his expenses. After a couple of weeks, he moved back to Park Hill and set his sights on a new endeavor: selling Palisade peaches right here in Denver.
He made a list of every farmer in the Palisades and called each one until he found the Clark Family Orchards. They were willing to sell him 25 boxes as long as he came and picked them up.
“I decided it was worth a shot,” says Lundt. “So my dad and I went out there and loaded the car up to the ceiling.”
From there, Lundt started setting up roadside stands on thoroughfares like Montview Boulevard and at Stanley Marketplace, and he went door to door, dropping off flyers for home delivery at every single house in Park Hill.
"I got at least 25,000 steps a day for two weeks,” says Lundt.
Through these efforts, Lundt went through that batch of 25 boxes in the first week and started traveling west every week to restock. Sometimes he and his dad would even make a trip of it, stopping in Marble to camp and fish.
Unlike peaches you get at the grocery store that typically need some time to ripen, the farmers he partners with pick the peaches when they’re almost ripe. Then, the peaches will go from farm to stand or doorstep in two to three days, giving customers a near-perfect peach.
Last summer, he turned his family's dining room into cold storage, tarping off the room and installing an AC to keep the peaches at this peak freshness for longer. This year, he has spots in a cold storage warehouse and has also scaled up for more potential sales.
He’s partnered with a second farm, Mesa Park Fruit Co., and also hired friends to run additional roadside stands. You can also find his peaches at the Cherry Creek Fresh Market each Saturday, in addition to Palmer Lake and Palisade Park Amphitheater.
Lundt does about half his business at these stands, and the other half is through home deliveries, which are free in Denver. Through all of this, his parents, brother, and girlfriend have been incredibly supportive, turning it into a bit of a family business.
Growing up, Lundt fondly remembers his mom buying two to three boxes per summer from stands around town, and to this day he eats a lot of peaches during the summertime. He loves to put them in the oven in a cast iron skillet with cinnamon sugar and butter to really caramelize the peaches and then eat them with ice cream—and he’s also a fan of peaches on a pizza with arugula, balsamic, and ham.
His absolute favorite is to freeze some peaches at the end of the season and have his dad make a peach pie in the winter.
“Maybe I eat too many peaches in summer,” says Lundt.
In addition to being a peach fanatic, Lundt is also an Environmental Science major trying to do his part to run a sustainable business. He’s looking into carbon credits to offset the peaches’ journey to Denver and also donating a portion of the profits to restoring the Colorado River. He uses recyclable and compostable packaging whenever possible and is looking to create his first line of merch with a low-impact partner.
“I’m just trying to be as creative as the farmers,” says Lundt.
He is of course referencing how adaptable they must be to withstand unexpected freezes and hailstorms—and to get peaches to ripen as smoke from the fires blocks the sun. It’s a tenuous ecosystem, but so far his partners have had a good harvest this year and will hit that peak size and sweetness this month.
To find a stand or order peaches, head to ParkHillPeachBoys.com or follow him @parkhillpeachboys on Instagram.
Park Hill Peach Boys’ Fresh Peach Pie
Ingredients:
The Very Best Pie Crust* (recipe to follow)
1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp. Lemon juice, sprinkled over peaches
6 cups fresh peaches, peeled, sliced
2 tbsp butter
Directions:
Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Stir in sliced peaches, lightly, coating with sugar-flour mixture. Pour into pie shell and dot with butter. Place top crust over pie. Pinch and seal crusts together. Make slashes in top crust. Bake in a 375° F. oven for 40-50 minutes till crust is golden brown.
*The Very Best Pie Crust
Because butter melts fast, use extremely cold water for pie crusts, and never use a food processor, because the friction will heat the butter and cut the chunks too small
This recipe makes two pie crusts. If the pie you choose to make only calls for one, save the other in the freezer.
Ingredients:
2½ cups unbleached flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
¾ cup ice-cold water
Directions:
Mix all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into your dry ingredients until the butter is divided into marble-sized pieces.
After butter is cut into the mixture, slowly add water, and mix with your hands until the dough sticks together and can be formed into a ball. Chill in the refrigerator for two hours before rolling.