High precipitation has taken its toll on at least one Virginia pear grower.
“This year was not a great year for our crop. We were first hit with a late frost and then from late spring to even right now, we’re experiencing a lot of excess precipitation. As in rain for four to five days a week. It’s been a really really wet year so we don’t have a huge supply,” says Valery Estabrook of Virginia Gold Orchard in Rockbridge County, Va.
Estabrook estimates that Virginia Gold has lost some 95 per cent of its crop. “For undamaged fruit, we have about five percent of what we normally have,” she says. “We usually harvest an average of 25 tons and this year we harvested maybe 1-1.5 tons.”
Inhospitable conditions
Not only did the rain interfere with harvest, but the wet climate created more of an issue with fungus for Virginia Gold. And on top of that, the crop ripened earlier as well. “We did notice that all of our varieties ripened earlier than last year which was also early,” she says. “Last year, things ripened two weeks earlier than normal and this year it was a week earlier than that.”
Some of the crop has been salvageable in other ways—some customers, such as restaurants, are interested in taking damaged fruit at a discount and Virginia Gold is also turning the pear by-product into its notable Asian Pear Marmalade which it sells in-store and online. Of the crop that survived, while Virginia Gold can sell pears normally into February, she’s anticipating the volume to last about a month.
For more information:
Valery Estabrook
Virginia Gold Orchard
Tel: +1- (540) 817-9253
VirginiaGoldOrchard@gmail.com
www.virginiagoldorchard.com