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Fruit growers in western Massachusetts assessing crop loss after May freeze

Fresh-picked apples.
Nancy Eve Cohen
/
NEPM
Fresh-picked apples.

A late-season frost in the early hours last Thursday has hit some western Massachusetts fruit farmers hard.

The freeze came when apple trees were blooming or just past bloom and the tiny, tender fruits were starting to develop.

University of Massachusetts Amherst extension educator Jon Clements said apple growers are still assessing the damage.

"I don't want to be too, too bleak because we just kind of have to wait and see," Clements said. "I'm pretty sure there will be apples. It's just not going to be a full crop."

Clements estimates about a third of the apple crop was destroyed state wide.

Peter Mitchell of Headwater Cider in Hawley said at his orchard it dropped to 27 degrees and lasted about six hours.

"It was just constantly cold and the duration of the cold caused even more damage. I'd estimate we lost about half the crop," Mitchell said.

He estimates it will cost him a third to a half of his income.

Naomi Clark of Clark Brothers Orchards in Ashfield said the damage from the frost on her 65 acres of apple trees is widespread. However, it's too soon to calculate the damage.

She said crop insurance might cover some of the expenses of growing.

"It's not like it makes up for losing your crop, but it helps it hurt a little less," Clark said.

The freeze to apple trees comes after most of the peach crop in Massachusetts was wiped out in February, when unseasonably warm temperatures dropped to well below zero.

Mitchell calls it "climate chaos."

Clark, who is part of the fifth generation in her family to run the farm, said it's become more difficult to predict weather patterns.

"Years ago we had a little bit of a sense," she said. "You still didn't know for sure, but things were a little bit more predictable. And now you just have these extreme swings and you just don't know what to expect."

In the aftermath of the May freeze, Clark said she's trying to remain optimistic about this year's crop.

Meanwhile, the owners of Black Birch Vineyard in Hatfield posted a video on Facebook showing candles flickering beside grapevines. They were lit in an attempt to protect the vines from freezing.

The vineyard estimates it lost about 70% of its yield for this fall.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
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