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In the summer months, signs along Texas highways usually advertise fresh local peaches. But this year, Texas farmers say the warmest winter on record since 1895 has hurt their summer peach harvest. From Houston Public Media, Natalie Weber reports.
UNIDENTIFIED VENDOR: So you have a great weekend. Thanks for coming by.
NATALIE WEBER, BYLINE: On a hot, bright Friday afternoon, Bridget Stunz is buying produce at the Peach Creek Country Market, about an hour southwest of Houston.
BRIDGET STUNZ: I was here last week, and I'm here again. Whenever they got peaches or, you know, they're getting the cantaloupes in and the watermelon, I'll come.
WEBER: Many of those peaches, however, may not be from Texas this year. That's according to Jeff Pavlock, the store's owner.
JEFF PAVLOCK: So what we've been doing this year is we've been carrying a lot of South Carolina peaches. The Texas peach crop was wiped out.
WEBER: Pavlock says it's always a bit of a challenge to grow peaches in Texas. The fruit trees need chill hours, a certain number of hours where winter temperatures stay below 45 degrees Fahrenheit but above freezing. This year, he says, peach trees didn't get enough chill hours, and a late spring freeze also wiped out much of the harvest. That freeze was followed by heavy rains and fungus growth.
PAVLOCK: It's like one week you'll get a peach in that'll knock your lights out, and the next week, you got to deal with the brown rot. And that's from all the rain.
WEBER: It's hard to say exactly how many peaches Texas produces each year. The state doesn't participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's peach count. However, Tim Hartmann, a fruit crop researcher with Texas A&M, predicts that this year's crop will be less than half of last year's harvest. He says Texas weather is highly variable, but he has noticed a pattern.
TIM HARTMANN: In recent history, though, we've seen a trend of getting less chilling.
WEBER: Hartmann compares a lack of chill hours to a lack of sleep.
HARTMANN: You're going to be more likely to snooze through your alarm clock - right? - and then you're not going to be very productive that day. That's the same thing these plants are doing.
WEBER: Climate change is creating new challenges for farmers and ranchers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Higher temperatures are impacting everything from corn harvests in the Midwest to cherry crops in Michigan. Unpredictable weather can also throw a wrench into peach production too, even if the trees get enough chill hours. Jim Pokluda, who owns a farm north of Houston, says he didn't harvest a single peach this year.
JIM POKLUDA: You can accumulate chill hours, but if it gets really, really warm, then you can negate those chill hours and so take them away. And then you can gain them again, but now you've confused the plant. And then if, all of a sudden, you throw in a freeze, then you'll just kill everything.
WEBER: At the Peach Creek Country Market, a large loud fan runs nonstop near the produce to keep shoppers cool. A worker uses a forklift to load pallets into a trailer that will deliver the fruit stand's produce across the region. Jeff Pavlock, the owner, says he feels fortunate that he has cultivated relationships with out-of-state farmers so he can still sell peaches this year.
PAVLOCK: And we will say our prayers for a better season next year 'cause I know the good Lord'll take care of us (laughter).
WEBER: Still, as he sits outside his produce store on the side of a Houston highway in the July heat, he says he misses the taste of a juicy Texas peach. For NPR News, I'm Natalie Weber in Houston.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PEACHES")
THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (Singing) Moving to the country. I'm going to... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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