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peaches; this year the figure expected to be about 2 million. Things are bad.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Thomas Lee of Washington, who owns and operates a 26-acre peach orchard. “I don’t think anybody dead or alive has seen this. There’s never been anything like it. It’s just a failure.” What really hurts the growers is that they have to keep taking care of the trees, which means putting money into them, even though there will be no return on the investment, according to Lee.
There are a few peaches on each tree, Lee noted, “but when you’ve got just a few they don’t size right, they don’t even taste right. ”
Thomas Lee’s son, Bryant, when asked about this year’s peaches, said “...it’s as if they’ve already been picked, and the ones on the tree are deformed. It’s one of the worst crops I’ve seen since I’ve been alive. The only good thing about it is that it gives us a break.” Had the season been typical, growers would now be scrambling to harvest and sell their peaches.
“Now we would be in full force,” said Bryant. But, according to his father, “God Almightly picked them for us.” Of the few peaches that made it, it was the early varieties that survived best: such as Blakes, Red Haven and Sun Haven. So far the Lees have sold about 11 bushels at a price of about $10 per bushel. Last year, said Bryant, a bushel sold for about $6 or $7.
Normally the Lees would hire 6 to
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