US: Fantastic season for North Texas
Peaches are coming off early, blackberries and blueberries are fat and sweet, tomato plants are heavy-laden and green beans are in overdrive, say growers who supply local vegetable stands, farmers markets and restaurants.
"It's all looking really, really good," said an ebullient Payton Scott of Scott Farms in Cisco.
Last season, he sweated through a 50 percent drop in production. "I was seriously thinking about quitting. It was disheartening; it was unbearable to work in. It was just miserable."
However, this is about to change:
"In all my years of gardening and farming, I have never had green beans produce like they have this spring. We've picked green beans till we are nearly sick of picking," said the 73-year-old farmer, a longtime vendor at the Cowtown Farmers Market.
"Our tomatoes are beautiful and loaded down. We've been picking for three weeks and it's absolutely unheard of for them to produce this early and heavily."
At Worthington Orchards in Proctor, Jody and Mary Worthington are enjoying a banner year in their blackberry patch, where last year's heat and winds shrivelled the crop.
"There's no comparison; we were down 50 percent or more last year. This year the bushes are hanging down, they are so loaded. The cooler weather in the spring made them much more productive," said Jody Worthington, 79, who retired in 1997 after working for 30 years at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Stephenville.
Ken Halverson of Larken Farms in Waxahachie said he's off to his best year ever on his 80-acre farm, where he grows vegetables and tends nearly 8,000 fruit trees, including about 30 varieties of peaches as well as apricots and pears.
"That spring rain was absolutely perfect, the right time, the right amount. The peaches are really making right now," he said.
"I wish I had more trees, the market is so good. As a farmer you always hope that every year is perfect, and that's what we are hoping for with the peaches."
Source: www.star-telegram.com
