Published online 10/18/2007 11:44 PM

A rotten year

Orchards and fruit stands say spring storm among worst they've seen.

By Amy Bickel - The Hutchinson News - abickel@hutchnews.com

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MEDORA - The sign taped to Earl Polk's refrigerator inside his country store paints the dismal picture of this year's apple season: Homemade apple cider may not be an option.

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He and his wife, Pam, typically start picking apples around the Fourth of July at the couple's area orchards. And by Labor Day weekend, he has churned out several batches of apple cider to sell at his fall seasonal market in the Reno County community of Medora.

But the refrigerator sat empty Wednesday, and Polk's bushel baskets of apples he's selling aren't from his orchards. He had to ship them in from Idaho.

"This is the first time in my lifetime I haven't picked apples," Polk said as he stood amid the fruit, nuts and candy he sells from mid-August to Christmas. "We have 1,200 trees and just six apples."

While he hopes cider made from out-of-state apples will finally fill his coolers by the weekend, he says he is not the only market facing similar problems.

Pull into Cain City Orchard in Ellsworth County, and owner Virginia McCartney tells the bad news to customers.

No fruit this season, she says.

Meanwhile, at Beal Orchard in Harper County, owner Steve Beal can only hope for a better seasonnext year, saying he's always harvested peaches from his roughly 3,000 fruit trees, but not this year.

An Easter weekend freeze, with temperatures dipping as low as 13 degrees at Cain City and 18 at Polk's Market, affected at least 10 states as well as most of Kansas, Polk said. It has meant slim pickings when it comes to many of the state's fruit crops, which includes about 200 apple orchards.

"This is killing us," said Polk, whose grandfather first got into the apple business 85 years ago. "We're just hanging on by a thread. It's the worst freeze I've seen, and I've been in the business all my life."

In fact, it may be almost 70 years since anything comparable. Polk said the last freeze like this happened in November 1940 - killing many of the state's fruit trees.

This year, the warm spring caused perennials such as orchards to mature early - too far along by the April freeze to withstand the damage, Ted Carey said.

"We had a very warm March," said Carey, vegetable specialist with Kansas State University Research and Extension. "It was warm enough that everything was coming along way sooner than it should have been.

"It's been a long time since we've seen anything like this," he said.

Orchards weren't the only ones hit in Kansas.

"What grapes?" Bruce Dozier at Dozier Vineyard and Winery asks jokingly when he talks about this year's grape crop.

There weren't any sand hill plums for winemaking, either, he lamented.

"We have trees in our timbers that don't even have hedge balls on them," he said. Hedge balls are a Kansas invasive species.

Kansas wineries must have at least 60 percent of their wine made from Kansas fruits, said Sarah Larison, domestic marketing specialist in the agriculture marketing division with the Kansas Department of Commerce. The short crop could mean problems for some growers.

While Dozier said he has found enough Kansas grapes to sustain him until next year, other wineries have applied with the state for a variance because of the inclement weather, Larison said.

Some growers had more than just a freeze to contend with, however.

Polk said his pumpkin patch took a beating from torrential rains in May.

At McCartney's Ellsworth orchard, a tornado and strong winds ensued a month after the freeze, which damaged several buildings. She found some bedding plantsin trees, as well as the belt to the business' apple-polishing machine.

"We lost the south side of our (house) roof, we lost our gable garage," she said. "This fall and winter we'll still be picking stuff up to get ready for the next."

While she said she harvested only seven boxes of apples - just enough to initiate the business' apple cider machine - McCartney said she must think positively, noting next year her fledging agritourism business will add a pumpkin patch. They'll put in a stove for folks to circle on colder days and serve food like funnel cakes and apple cider slushies.

Although he's had to double his prices because of a spike in apple costs and the expense of shipping them from other states, Polk has optimism as well.

He held out a branch from an apple tree in a nearby orchard. It was full of buds.

If Mother Nature's fury subsides in 2008, he could have a bumper apple crop.

However, Polk said, another year like 2007 could mean more than just a bust for his business.

"Just like the wheat farmers who also were hurt by this, this is our bread and butter," he said. "This winter it is going to show in town, maybe even before the winter sets in."