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    Local governments provide funding to organizations in anticipation of SNAP stoppage

    Local governments provide funding to organizations in anticipation of SNAP stoppage

    BRIEFS: Boil water advisory; ‘Fresh Off the Easel’ exhibition at Audubon; Daylight Savings Time; Job and resource fair in Owensboro; Holiday open house Nov. 7 & 8

    BRIEFS: Boil water advisory; ‘Fresh Off the Easel’ exhibition at Audubon; Daylight Savings Time; Job and resource fair in Owensboro; Holiday open house Nov. 7 & 8

    Third annual Candlelight Christmas Tour is Dec. 12, tickets on sale Nov. 7

    Third annual Candlelight Christmas Tour is Dec. 12, tickets on sale Nov. 7

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    Lady Cols volleyball starts quest for region championship tonight

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    BRIEFS: Education foundation hosts Firetruck Frenzy; NAACP hosts clothing/food drive; County paving has begun; Independence Bank donates to New Hope

    UPDATE: Escaped inmate found in Reed

    UPDATE: Escaped inmate found in Reed

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    Blazing-fast broadband services now available to the majority of homes in the city and county

    Blazing-fast broadband services now available to the majority of homes in the city and county

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    HMP&L signs initial agreement to build a battery energy storage system on South Green Street

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    Belt named Athlete of the Week

    Belt named Athlete of the Week

    Third annual Candlelight Christmas Tour is Dec. 12, tickets on sale Nov. 7

    Third annual Candlelight Christmas Tour is Dec. 12, tickets on sale Nov. 7

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    Colonels battle in high-scoring senior night loss to McCracken, 55-42

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    Plummer takes Athlete of the Week

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    Colonels drop heartbreaker to Hoptown

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    Holy Name Fall Festival moves to late October with Casey’s Rides set to handle carnival rides

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    The Port celebrates three years in Henderson

    The Port celebrates three years in Henderson

    Travel east to view ‘Dr. Seussian’ glass exhibit now at the Maker’s Mark campus

    Travel east to view ‘Dr. Seussian’ glass exhibit now at the Maker’s Mark campus

    Autumn brings falling leaves, shorter days and…antique malls

    Autumn brings falling leaves, shorter days and…antique malls

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    Wheat berry salad is a fall favorite you can make anytime

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    Local governments provide funding to organizations in anticipation of SNAP stoppage

    Local governments provide funding to organizations in anticipation of SNAP stoppage

    BRIEFS: Boil water advisory; ‘Fresh Off the Easel’ exhibition at Audubon; Daylight Savings Time; Job and resource fair in Owensboro; Holiday open house Nov. 7 & 8

    BRIEFS: Boil water advisory; ‘Fresh Off the Easel’ exhibition at Audubon; Daylight Savings Time; Job and resource fair in Owensboro; Holiday open house Nov. 7 & 8

    Third annual Candlelight Christmas Tour is Dec. 12, tickets on sale Nov. 7

    Third annual Candlelight Christmas Tour is Dec. 12, tickets on sale Nov. 7

    Lady Cols volleyball starts quest for region championship tonight

    Lady Cols volleyball starts quest for region championship tonight

    BRIEFS: Education foundation hosts Firetruck Frenzy; NAACP hosts clothing/food drive; County paving has begun; Independence Bank donates to New Hope

    BRIEFS: Education foundation hosts Firetruck Frenzy; NAACP hosts clothing/food drive; County paving has begun; Independence Bank donates to New Hope

    UPDATE: Escaped inmate found in Reed

    UPDATE: Escaped inmate found in Reed

    Trending Tags

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    Blazing-fast broadband services now available to the majority of homes in the city and county

    Blazing-fast broadband services now available to the majority of homes in the city and county

    HMP&L signs initial agreement to build a battery energy storage system on South Green Street

    HMP&L signs initial agreement to build a battery energy storage system on South Green Street

    In some parts of the U.S., the grid of the future might be closer than you think

    Trending Tags

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    Belt named Athlete of the Week

    Belt named Athlete of the Week

    Third annual Candlelight Christmas Tour is Dec. 12, tickets on sale Nov. 7

    Third annual Candlelight Christmas Tour is Dec. 12, tickets on sale Nov. 7

    Colonels battle in high-scoring senior night loss to McCracken, 55-42

    Colonels battle in high-scoring senior night loss to McCracken, 55-42

    Plummer takes Athlete of the Week

    Plummer takes Athlete of the Week

    Colonels drop heartbreaker to Hoptown

    Colonels drop heartbreaker to Hoptown

    Holy Name Fall Festival moves to late October with Casey’s Rides set to handle carnival rides

    Holy Name Fall Festival moves to late October with Casey’s Rides set to handle carnival rides

  • Lifestyle
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    The Port celebrates three years in Henderson

    The Port celebrates three years in Henderson

    Travel east to view ‘Dr. Seussian’ glass exhibit now at the Maker’s Mark campus

    Travel east to view ‘Dr. Seussian’ glass exhibit now at the Maker’s Mark campus

    Autumn brings falling leaves, shorter days and…antique malls

    Autumn brings falling leaves, shorter days and…antique malls

    Wheat berry salad is a fall favorite you can make anytime

    Wheat berry salad is a fall favorite you can make anytime

    ‘Ikigai’—a sense of purpose—is key for those with dementia

    ‘Ikigai’—a sense of purpose—is key for those with dementia

    Kentucky community colleges working to meet students’ ‘severe’ need for mental health support

    Price spikes set to leave thousands of Kentuckians without health insurance, advocates say

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Home News Agriculture

Abnormal winter weather hurts summer peaches

Vince Tweddell by Vince Tweddell
August 16, 2023
in Agriculture, News
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Abnormal winter weather hurts summer peaches

Tim Alexander, proprietor of Cardinal Farms Peaches, gathers the tree-ripened fruit June 23, 2023. (Photo by Tyler Orsburn)

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Cardinal Farms owner Tim Alexander says this peach season has been especially strange—and difficult.

For one, only five of his 12 varieties produced any fruit, leaving this harvest as one of his smaller in recent memory. Alexander says he’s hoping to make 30% of what he does in a normal year, although it’s difficult to tell what’s normal anymore.

“I haven’t had a typical year in the last five or six years,” he says.

Alexander said the variety, Garnet Beauty, which is the first peach to ripen, usually at the end of June, was ready a full 10 days early on June 19.

The second variety, Redhaven, usually not ready until several days past Independence Day, were being picked on June 29.

He said that the variety of his peaches ripen in a certain order, so that when one variety finishes and there are no more left to pick, he knows the next will be ready soon.

“But this year it’s been very difficult to judge when things are going to be ready,” Alexander said.

Alexander stops short of blaming climate change. “Hard to say,” he says.

But he did point at the higher level of extreme weather—highs and lows, droughts and downpours—that have been making farming even more of a guessing game than ever, especially this year.

It started in December, Alexander said. Then, a weather shift from 65 degrees Fahrenheit to -4 in a matter of 36 hours did the first wave of damage.

“The trees themselves were dormant at the time,” Alexander said. “But they hadn’t had enough cold weather to really harden them off and it killed the vast majority of the fruit buds on the trees.”

Alexander said he wasn’t sure if that deep freeze had left any viable buds on the trees, but in late February, 80-degree days brought remaining buds out of dormancy.    Trees started blooming in March.   But then successive cold snaps wiped out those blooms, he said.

Later in March, a third flush of blooms arrived on his trees and that’s what produced his crop this year, he said.

“This is without a doubt the worst year I’ve had in the last decade,” Alexander said.

During early summer, the area was affected by six weeks of drought. And then in one weekend, close to 3 inches of rain fell. Alexander said that extreme weather is harsh on crops.

“Things like peaches will soak up that water very quickly and bust open,” he said. “And when the skin bursts open, it’s ruined and it’s no longer a marketable product.”

Another challenge are pests, particularly the brown marmorated stink bug, an invasive insect from Asia first coming to the U.S. in the 1990s, likely on a shipping container

“The stink bug has a hypodermic needle … and they stick that into a small, immature peach and suck out material from the peach,” Alexander said. “And then the peach grows around that wound and it’s a deformed peach. It’s no longer a marketable product.”

Alexander said a normal season runs into mid-September, lasting ten weeks. This year will probably be done by early August after five weeks, he said.

Alexander, who call himself a “peach nerd,” has been working in the orchard since he was 12 years old. Though he at one time was a corn and soybeans farmer, peaches have been his main source of income for the past 23 years, he said.

“Growing peaches kind of feeds my soul,” he said.

And so, despite the hardship, he’ll be back at it next year, like millions of farmers before him who’ve had a bad year.

“Farmers are pessimistic optimists,” he said. “They’ll tell you how bad it is and how bad they did this year. But by God, they’re going to do it again next year.”

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Vince Tweddell

Vince Tweddell

Vince Tweddell is the founder, publisher and editor of the Hendersonian.

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