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The Sweet and Spicy Story of How a Peach Stand Became an Internationally Known Aggie Brand

For over 55 years, Mark Wieser ’63 and Case Fischer ’87 have built Fischer & Wieser Specialty Foods on a foundation of fruits, flavors and family.

By Lydia Hill '21

Current photos by Josh Lewis '14; historical and product photos provided by Fischer & Wieser

August 20, 2025

It was sunset in the Fischer & Wieser peach orchard, and as the heat of the early June day began to dissipate with the rays sinking over the Fredericksburg landscape, it was the perfect time for a tour. Mark Wieser ’63 and the other half of the guiding force behind Fischer & Wieser Specialty Foods, Deanna ’88 and Case Fischer ’87, talked with me and my coworkers as we strolled among the rows of trees, all labeled with the names of mouthwatering varieties like “Royal Zest” and “Flavorich.” 

It was clear our hosts were in their element. Mark and Case inspected the branches bursting with fuzzy red and yellow fruit with a familiarity that comes from decades in the peach industry. Case’s propensity for customer service was on display as he carefully selected peaches for each person to try, and as Mark happily dispensed facts about peaches and peach-growing, it was easy to see that he had spent 15 years as a teacher. 
 

“Look at this.” Mark held up a freshly picked peach that had a chunk missing. “The birds have gotten to this one. Birds don’t make a mistake, so you know it’ll be good,” he said before taking a juicy bite. 

The trees brought to mind another fact Mark had shared earlier in the day: “Peach trees are more like shrubs. You have to mold them into trees.” 

It seemed the perfect analogy for Fischer & Wieser Specialty Foods. Through careful pruning and other horticultural techniques, the trees surrounding our group had been patiently guided into the flourishing, peach-laden trees we were admiring. In the same way, the Fischer & Wieser story is one of careful effort, hard-working persistence, and the guiding influence of family—and Aggieland—that turned a dream and a roadside peach stand into the thriving, internationally loved brand it is today.
 

Peachy Keen

Throughout his life, Mark Wieser has worn many hats: teacher, county judge, peach farmer and businessman. Case and Deanna describe him as the creative and merchandising brains behind the company, and though the 84-year-old is semi-retired today, he still holds the title of Fischer & Wieser founder and chairman of the board and can still be seen riding a tractor around the farmstead.
 

The youngest of five siblings, Mark Wieser '63 (center) grew up helping his mother, Estella, gather and sell peaches from their orchard and enjoying her homemade jams and preserves.

He’s also a natural storyteller, and when asked about his background, he weaves a fascinating tale of his family’s history, complete with extra historical tidbits and a delightfully dry sense of humor that reflects his German roots.

When his dad, J.B. Wieser, arrived in Fredericksburg in 1917, he didn’t intend to change the trajectory of the tiny town, whose unpaved roads were a far cry from the bustling tourist destination it is today. But that’s exactly what he did in 1926 when he attended a meeting of local cotton growers. 

“Like the rest of Texas, the Pedernales Valley grew cotton at the turn of the century,” Mark explained. “But after World War I, cotton prices collapsed.” When those who loaned to the local farmers began to worry about their return on investment, they called 450 cotton growers to a meeting. As the county attorney, J.B. went into the meeting planning to just observe, but he left having planted the idea of switching from cotton production to peach growing, a suggestion inspired by Fredericksburg’s similarity to the peach-producing climate of his home in Germany. 

Soon, some farmers were trading their cotton fields for peach orchards, and J.B. felt obligated to try a taste of his own sweet and sticky medicine. He purchased 60 acres, planted 400 peach trees and moved his family to their new fruit farmstead. 
 



Estella Wieser’s Original Peach Preserves​

Ingredients: 

  • 1 cup ripe peaches 
  • 1 cup sugar 
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice 


Directions: 

  1. Peel the peaches and cut them into bite-sized pieces. 
  1. In a pot, combine the peaches and sugar in a 1:1 ratio (1 cup of sugar for every cup of peaches), along with the lemon juice. 
  1. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil on the stove, stirring often. (Fun fact from Mark: You can tell it’s reached a rolling boil if it keeps boiling even after you stir it.) 
  1. Lift the spoon out of the pot occasionally to check the consistency of the drops. When the drips start forming a longer column on the edge of the spoon before dripping away—a sign known as sheeting—turn off the heat. 
  1. Pour the preserves into an 8-ounce glass jar, seal it, and briefly turn it over to sterilize the inside of the lid.  
  1. Enjoy! (Fun fact from Mark: Sugar is a preservative, so if the preserves eventually develop mold on the top, the sugar will protect everything underneath—just scrape it off and enjoy the rest!) 

The youngest of five kids, Mark remembers early mornings at 10 years old when his mom, Estella, woke him up to trudge through the orchard’s needlegrass and cockleburs to help carry bushel baskets full of the peaches she carefully picked. Then, she’d send him to the side of the highway to sell their harvest. “One day, I sold out before noon and made $85, which would be about $850 today,” Mark recounted. “I was so excited.” 

But when a high-school-aged Mark told his dad he wanted to become a peach farmer, “that was the wrong thing to say,” he recalled. A firm believer in education, J.B. insisted his youngest son follow his older brothers’ footsteps to Texas A&M University.  

So, despite his protests that he didn’t want to attend college, off to Aggieland Mark went. 

There, the discipline and camaraderie of the Corps of Cadets began to shape him into the future leader of Fischer & Wieser. After a shaky start studying chemistry landed him on scholastic probation, Mark found better success majoring in history. But he also found a way to feed his dreams of peach prosperity by auditing horticulture classes.  

“Sending me to Texas A&M was the best thing my dad ever did for me,” Mark said. “It’s an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.” 

After graduating, Mark became a teacher in Seguin, Texas, but he spent the first paycheck he got on peach trees. Wanting a unique way to attract would-be customers, he purchased an old log cabin and moved it log by log to his family’s 60 acres to become his one-of-a-kind roadside peach stand. He then filled it with peaches and his mother’s peach, wild plum, pear and mustang grape jams and jellies he had grown up enjoying.

In 1969, Mark’s dream finally became a reality when Das Peach Haus opened its doors. Throughout its early years, it became a successful little stand, and its offerings grew to include vegetables from local farmers, pecans and more jellies like those made from agarita berries. But someone would soon enter the picture to unlock a whole new world of potential.

Finding His Jam

That key took the form of a high school student, Case Fischer. Today, at age 60, Case serves as Fischer & Wieser’s president and CEO and is the company’s main visionary force. He talks about all aspects of the company—from its history and products to its values and future—with a passion that’s remained undimmed since he first entered the Fischer & Wieser story in 1979 as a part-time employee of Das Peach Haus.

As a 15-year-old, Case worked in the orchard and the storefront, and it didn’t take long for Mark to realize the Fredericksburg native was something special. “I remember sitting in the office and hearing Case out front greeting people, and he was so personable,” Mark recalled. “He started showing up more than his regular hours, and I told him, ‘I can’t pay you to be here this much.’ He said, ‘I don’t care. I just want to be here.’”

As he saw customers’ attraction to the way their products were grown, harvested and jellied all on the farmstead, an idea began to sprout in Case’s mind. Finally, his senior year, he entered Mark’s office and announced, “I think we can do something with these jams and jellies.” Mark’s answer, though more favorable than his dad’s response all those years ago, had the same message: “I told him, ‘Okay, but you’re going to Texas A&M first,’” Mark recalled.
 

As a teenager, Case Fischer '87 began working for Das Peach Haus, where he helped with tasks like tending the orchard, interacting with customers and making apple butter.

So off to Aggieland Case went. Meanwhile, Mark went to sit on the county bench for a four-year term as the newly elected Gillespie County Judge.

Though he enjoyed his agricultural economics major and the university’s extracurricular opportunities, the pull of the peach orchard was strong. At the end of his junior year, he bid Aggieland goodbye to officially become Mark’s partner and turn Das Peach Haus into Fischer & Wieser Specialty Foods. But another devotion soon brought him back to the university: Deanna Simonsen. He had met the Houston native at a college party, and they began dating. After returning to Fredericksburg, the two talked nightly, so much so that Mark asked Case if he had found the one. “He said yes,” Mark recalled. “So I told him to get his butt back to College Station!”

Case obeyed, and as Deanna completed her modern languages degree, Case began taking graduate-level food science courses, with the help of Dr. Al Wagner ’69. “He contacted the food science department and got me into every class I wanted to take,” Case explained. “If it weren’t for him, Case never could have taken those classes and learned things that enabled him to start the company,” added Deanna, who today serves as the business’s chief experience officer.

Finally, in 1988, the couple married and returned to Fredericksburg, and Fischer & Wieser began in earnest.

Spicing It Up

Today, the Fischer & Wieser farmstead has become a destination for 150,000 people a year. During our two-day stay at the farm, visitors could be seen enjoying the view of the property’s peaceful pond surrounded by pine trees J.B. Wieser planted in the 1940s from seedlings he got from Texas A&M. People are often surprised to learn that Mark and the Fischers live right on the property, and visitors have a good chance of running into Mark during his daily afternoon visits to Dietz Distillery, another farmstead offering run by Case and Deanna’s oldest son, Dietz ’15.
 

Mark purchased the original log cabin that became Das Peach Haus for $150 and moved it log by log to his family's property. It still stands on the farmstead today.

The original Das Peach Haus log cabin is still there, as well as today’s larger storefront, which is a 1913 Lone Star Brewery warehouse that Mark moved to the farm in the 1970s. Inside, visitors can sample wine, take culinary classes and, of course, taste many of the business’s 150-plus jam, jelly, sauce, soup and fudge products, including ones containing the peaches, plums and pecans that come straight from the farmstead’s orchards.

But in the early days after Mark and Case first launched the company, all they had was their jams and jellies, their peaches and the “can-do” Aggie Spirit. Their store attracted visitors during the summer peach season, and business picked up again around the holidays as people sought their products for Christmas gifts.

Knowing they needed a new approach to turn their seasonal operation into a year-round success, they began taking their products on the road. At every kolache festival, junior league festival, rattlesnake festival or Christmas market event around Texas—and even some national food events beyond the state—you were likely to find Case and Deanna, Mark, or all three sharing their products with consumers or with local retailers looking for new food items to carry in their stores.

When he wasn’t on the road, Case was in the kitchen cooking up new flavors. “I brought all the knowledge from those Texas A&M food science courses back with me and began trying to develop unique products,” he explained. Soon, new tastes like jalapeño peach preserves, onion jelly (made from a Texas A&M-developed onion variety) and an onion glaze joined their product lineup.

When Case began working on a spicy raspberry sauce in 1996, it was a trusted foodie friend and fellow Aggie, the late Rusty Fenton ’82, who suggested he add chipotle peppers—a smoked, dried jalapeño that was gaining popularity among chefs but was yet unheard of among the general population.
 

Fischer & Wieser's original roasted raspberry chipotle sauce launched the brand to national fame after winning a 1997 sofi Award. It remains the company's best-selling product after nearly 30 years.

When Fischer & Wieser debuted the roasted raspberry chipotle sauce that fall at Fredericksburg’s Oktoberfest, festivalgoers were so fired up with the sweet, spicy and smoky combination that people were buying bottles at a time. The following year, Mark and Case entered it in the Specialty Food Association’s sofi Awards, which Case describes as “the Oscars of food.” Much to their elation, it was named the outstanding new bestseller of the year.

“For us still being new to the specialty food business, the award meant the world and was confirmation of a job well done,” Case said. “And it set off everything,” Mark added. “It gave us instant status all over the U.S., and people started calling. Everyone wanted to try it.”

The ensuing buzz not only landed Fischer & Wieser space in such popular chains as Costco and H-E-B but also helped launch the fruited sauce category in grocery stores everywhere. Since then, their single sofi has grown to 13, and this June, Case was inducted into the Specialty Food Association’s Hall of Fame. And while many companies through the years have tried to capture some of that magic with their own versions of a roasted raspberry chipotle sauce, Fischer & Wieser’s remains the original. Nearly 30 years later, it’s still their best-selling product.  

Recipe for Success

Since then, Fischer & Wieser has continued to innovate along with the food industry and consumers’ shifting tastes. But their values remain the same as they’ve been for over 55 years: faith, laughter, top quality, integrity, supreme service and family spirit. Many of these were handed down from Mark’s mother, like the company’s commitment to integrity that they’ve maintained through her original satisfaction guarantee policy.
 

The Fischer & Wieser family from left to right: Dietz Fischer '15, Case Fischer '87, Deanna Fischer '88, Jenny Wieser ’86 ’97, Elle Fischer '18, Simon Fischer and Mark Wieser '63.

The company is proud to remain Fredericksburg-based. Its production plant is located just down the road from the farmstead, but one day, they hope to expand and add a plant directly on the property so that visitors can watch their favorite jams and jellies being made.

Underlying all their business philosophies is a focus on connections—with their nearly 100 employees, with their local community and with the people their company serves. “We’ve developed friendships in the industry and with our customers that have grown as we have,” Case said. And through the unavoidable tough times of operating a business, it was often these relationships—and Mark and Case’s willingness to embrace the possibility of failure—that have seen them through.

This value for connections goes hand-in-hand with their emphasis on family. They remain a firmly family-owned-and-operated business. Mark’s niece, Jenny Wieser ’86 ’97, is the company’s chief operating officer, and all three of Case and Deanna’s kids are involved with the business—Dietz ’15 as master distiller and orchard operations manager, Elle ’18 as vice president of retail operations, and Simon as specialty sales manager. It’s a legacy in action that brings tears to Deanna’s eyes and pride to Case’s voice—and Mark’s too. Though the Fischers and Wiesers may not be related by blood, their bonds are as deep as the roots in their orchards.
 

“As I look back at everything we’ve gone through, I’m really blessed to have had Case Fischer in my life. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him,” Mark said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better son. He and Deanna are fantastic, and their kids are my grandkids. It’s hard to describe the joy at watching the second generation come on board and knowing that what Case and I started will continue into the next generation.”

And, of course, this sense of kinship extends to the Aggie family. There’s a fair share of Aggies working at the company, and Mark and the Fischers enjoy visiting Aggieland for football games and providing Aggies with internship opportunities. “Texas A&M is still home,” Mark shared. “I’m so proud of what the university has become. It was the right school for me and is for so many people.”

Though my coworkers and I only spent two days with Mark and the Fischers, it was plenty of time to see their values on full display. They made us feel like family, welcoming us to the farmstead with a hospitality and down-to-earth genuineness that was mirrored in every person we interacted with. We left feeling like we had known them for years.

Of course, we had to stop at the storefront on our way out, and we returned to College Station laden with Fischer & Wieser peaches, jellies and sauces to enjoy and share with friends and family. But long after those jars are empty, it’ll be the memories we made at the farmstead of laughter, connections and joy that will remain. And maybe that’s been the real fruit of their business all along.
 

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