Rows of healthy but fruitless peach trees at Ferjulian's Farm in Hudson. Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
HUDSON, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Rows and rows of healthy peach trees sway in the sultry July breeze in Hudson, stirred by cars on busy Main street. The trees look strong and healthy, and there's only one thing missing: the peaches.
There isn't a single fruit on the trees in Eric Ferjulian's orchard. Ferjulian's Farm operates a large and popular farm stand on the side of the road, and one of their main attractions every summer is bushels of fresh-picked peaches. But uncommonly cold weather in the winter put that idea out to pasture.
"There's not a peach out there. When my guys were pruning the peach trees back in April, you could tell right away," Ferjulian said.
The reason is simple, but it may be hard to recall in the heat of mid-summer. On the weekend of February 3, a frigid blast iced the the region with temperatures of about 11 below zero. It proved to be too much for the young buds on the trees, which froze.
"We sell almost everything we grow from the farm stand. We're gonna take a big hit," Ferjulian said.
The story is much the same with growers around the state. Jim Ward of Ward's Berry Farm in Sharon said he also lost his entire crop. The cold struck fast, but it was fatal for his profits.
"It is devastating...and it's crazy because it's only for one day or 12 hours," Ward said. "Most perennial plants are unhappy with real crazy variations, yoyoing from subzero up to hot," he continued.
Ward had been warned about losing some peach crops, but this was only supposed to happen once every decade or so. Instead, this is the second time he's lost the whole crop since 2016. Eric Ferjulian was also under the impression that extreme weather like this is happening more often.
"My family has been farming for about 75 years, and I've been doing it for about 40. 20 years ago it happened maybe once...this is kind of rare," he said.
To make matters worse, a late May freeze hit many other crops like apples, blueberries and tomatoes, so farmers like Ferjulian and Ward are really needing to tighten their belts this year.
WBZ's Chaiel Schaffel has (CSchaffelWBZ) has more:
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