Warm weather in the South and cold weather in the Midwest knocked out a significant number of the nation’s peach crop this year, leaving a shortage across the country. Despite the chatter and hustle of a dozen or so workers, the production line at Flamm Orchards in deep southern Illinois sits mostly quiet this summer. A cold spell in late December knocked out a vast majority of the 300-acre farm’s peach crop.
“To have a loss as bad as we’ve had this year, it’s very rare,” said Austin Flamm, the farm manager of the family orchard. “This is the worst loss we’ve had in about 16 seasons.”
There are so few peaches that Flamm Orchards is processing their fruit by hand and selling very little wholesale to grocery stores.
It’s been a tough year for the fuzzy fruit, not only in southern Illinois, but in the big peach-producing states of Georgia and South Carolina. While cold weather affected the peach crop in Illinois, warm weather was the culprit in the southeast — all of which is leading to a national shortage.
Although California leads the U.S. in peach production and had a solid crop this year, Kay Rentzel, the executive director of the National Peach Council, said losing peaches from the South has an impact.
Source: kcur.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-adyna
Categories: Kansas, Crops, Fruits and Vegetables, Nebraska, Crops, Fruits and Vegetables