FRANKLIN CO., Va – A spring cold snap wiped out half the peach crop at Woods Farm in Franklin County, but the peaches that survived are now thriving in the summer heat.
When asked about the financial impact, Woods replied simply, “Profit-wise yeah.”
He recalled the initial hope for the season. “We thought we had made it, we come in here and checked it out on the 20th. We had peaches and nectarines on the trees. We came back first of May, and it all fell off.”
But the farm is not without hope. The peaches currently being picked come from higher elevation orchards where the cold did not hit as hard.
“The summer has been good. We’ve had enough little rain and showers to hit and miss, and it’s got enough moisture in the ground but the hot dry, that’s what makes your sweet juicy peaches when you bite in it if it’s ripe and ready, you bite it and juice runs down your elbow,” Woods said.
He emphasized the importance of timely rain showers. “Hard to lose money on rain to a certain extent you know but you know when we get these thunderstorms like we had last night which was great you know if rained for about 30 to 45 minutes and passed on.”
Still, Woods acknowledged the risks involved in farming. “Sometimes I think you got a better chance to go to Vegas and play on a roulette machine than farming you know.”
Despite the challenges, Woods is already planning for the fall season with new crops. “We put sweet potatoes in this year, leftover from last year, I mean leftover from this past spring so we will try and see and then we planted butternut squash, but you got to keep moving got to keep rotating you have to think ahead of the next step.”
For now, the peaches that survived the cold snap are ripe and ready for harvest. You can check out their farm stand at 2921 Naff Rd, Boones Mill, VA, United States, Virginia