This year’s unusual winter weather has taken a toll on local crops and specifically a summer favorite, peaches.

“We had last week, and we thought that summer was here and so did the customers and they were very eager to come shop and start to buy plants,” said Susan Kosinski. “Although we warned them, we didn’t know what the next week was going to be, and sure enough mother nature decided to take a plunge.”

The drastic changes in weather this year has had quite an impact on local farms.

Western Mass News stopped by Kosinski Farm in Westfield and spoke with owner Susan Kosinski.

Looking inside their greenhouse, the flowers and plants are blooming, but the crops outside are struggling to keep up.

“The crop that took the hardest hit over the winter was peaches,” said Kosinski.

Here is a peach tree, now these should be in full bloom but as you can see it is now just vegetation.

“The plant goes into panic mode and literally makes leaves for survival rather than to worry about the crop itself,” said Kosinski.

Kosinski told us they’ve been in contact with other farmers in New England, and they all agree that since there are no live buds yet, it will be difficult to produce native peaches this year.

“We’re hoping that maybe we’ll find someone that’s in this area or you know what maybe to a little more distant radius,” said Kosinski. “But I don’t know so the peaches we are bringing we will try to be as local as possible, but I can’t make any promises this year.”

For those wondering about the other fruits, she said the blueberries, strawberries and apples seem to be doing okay at this point.

Source - https://www.westernmassnews.com