Western York County farmers assess peach freeze damage, prepare for berries

Western York County growers are still assessing damage from a late-season cold snap that killed several varieties of early peaches, but they expect to be harvesting spring strawberries in a few weeks.

“We’ll have peaches here, but it won’t be a bumper crop by any means,” said Black’s Peaches owner Arthur Black, who said he lost two or three varieties in the freeze the last weekend in March.

Black feared he may have lost as much as half of his crop or more, but said he’ll have a better idea of the damage in coming weeks as the later-season varieties develop fruit.

He was hopeful some of the late-blooming varieties, protected somewhat from the cold by a tight, compact bulb, would be salvageable.

But he said not much can be done to save a crop after the damage from a late-season cold snap has been inflicted.

“It’s pretty much a one-shot deal,” he said.

Both Black and Sam Hall with Bush-N-Vine said they expect to soon pick strawberries, which escaped damage from the freeze.

“The berries were in pretty good shape,” Black said.

Hall said berries are coming along well.

“They are looking really good; they’ve got lots of blooms and we’ve got some green fruit out there right now,” he said.

“The weather we’re having this week is perfect for them,” Hall said. “Seventy-five during the day, give or take some degrees, and 50s at night is just perfect weather for strawberries.”

Hall said Bush-N-Vine also lost some of its peaches in the freeze, “but we still have a pretty good crop. If you don’t lose a little in the freeze, you have a bunch to thin, and it will be smaller peaches.

“We have a good crop still, and they’ll have a good size to them because we don’t have to thin them,” Hall said.

The Peach Tree owner Ben Smith also said he lost a couple varieties, Georgia Bell and Loring peaches. “But I’m well satisfied,” Smith said. “It could have gotten them all.”

All the growers are moving forward with plans for the spring and summer produce season.

Black said his farm expects to begin planting tomatoes next week, and Hall said Bush-N-Vine has finished sign-ups for its Summer I season of a Community Supported Agriculture program.

The CSA program, in which buyers register in advance to buy a weekly box of fresh seasonal produce, has grown each season, Hall said, with about 200 to 250 buyers in its fifth year.

The CSA program has five seven-week seasons. Hall said registration for the Summer I season finished last week. Summer II, the next season, is “the back end of summer,” he said. The deadline to sign up for that season is May 15.

Hall said Bush-N-Vine has broadened the diversity of its fruit and vegetable crop for the CSA program, with vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, lettuce and spinach, as well as fruits including raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.

“We didn’t grow all that before the CSA, but that’s what people are interested in,” he said. “And sometimes we have a little available at the stand of some of those vegetables.”

He said the farm probably will have pick-your-own strawberries toward the end of April. And he said it plans special events like music and barbecue on Saturdays in April and May.

This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 11:34 AM with the headline "Western York County farmers assess peach freeze damage, prepare for berries."