AREA FRUIT HARVEST ISN'T PEACHY

Got a hankering for home-grown peaches?

Better hurry, local growers say. This year's crop is light enough that the peaches won't be around long.

A cold snap in January killed many of the buds that would have formed this year's crop.

"We're down anywhere from 50 to 60 percent," said David Diebold of Diebold's Orchard in Benton. "On a good day in a good year, we pick 500 bushels. On a good day this year, we pick 200 bushels."

Fewer peaches mean fewer sales, Diebold said.

"We do a considerable amount of wholesale business in a normal year," he said. "This year, I've got adequate supplies for my retail markets, at least for the next couple weeks."

At Flamm's Orchard near Cobden, Ill., the peach crop is down to "just a few here and there," said an employee who answered the phone. "We just hope next season will be back to normal."

Shirley Beggs at Pioneer Orchard in Cape Girardeau is also keeping her fingers crossed for good luck next season.

"It's been real light this year," Beggs said.

Some of the varieties, including Redskin and Cresthaven, survived because the trees were "a little higher on the hills" and weren't hit quite so hard by the cold, she said.

In normal years, some of the peach crop will go to area markets.

"This year, we're selling all of them" at the Cape Girardeau orchard and the Pioneer Market in Jackson, Beggs said.

The cold and a bacterial disease really took their toll on Diebold's nectarine crop.

"We have hardly any nectarines this year," he said.

Lovers of fresh fruit have been frustrated this year. Cold, wet weather also delayed the strawberry harvest.

Beggs said many of her customers have expressed disappointment.

"It's like any seasonal fruit. You get hungry for it, and then you can't find it and you get frustrated," she said.

There is a bright side, Diebold said. The peaches that did survive are bigger, and because of the summer's hot dry weather, sweeter in taste.

And this year's light crop put less stress on the trees, so the potential exists for a bumper crop next season, as long as Mother Nature cooperates.

Missouri growers produced 9.5 million pounds of peaches last year, the second-largest crop of the decade.

In Illinois, growers harvested 12 million pounds of peaches in 1995.