Linvilla Orchards is picking up the pieces this fall after a brutal April freeze wiped out about 90 percent of the Middletown Township farm’s apple crop, reports Madeleine Wright for CBS News Philadelphia.
The trouble started with a warm spring, which coaxed apple trees into budding early. Then, on April 20, temperatures plunged overnight, catching the exposed blossoms in a vulnerable state. Peach and plum crops took a hit too.
“It’s never happened in the 28 years I’ve been here where we lost this many crops at one night,” said Norm Schultz, a farmer at Linvilla…