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Peaches fallen from trees during a harvest in Reynolds, Georgia, U.S., on Friday, July 8, 2022. Despite their ubiquitous association with the state, peaches are no longer Georgia’s largest fruit crop. As temperatures rise, farmers and researchers are working to ensure climate change doesn’t kill the industry.
CNN –
Midsummer is the peak of Georgia’s juicy peach season. But recently the Peach Cobbler Factory in Atlanta ran out of peaches and had to switch to… apple cobbler.
The Peach State lost more than 90% of this year’s harvest after a heat wave in February followed by two late spring frosts. The triple attack destroyed peach cultivars that were specifically bred to survive various weather scenarios and grossly inflated prices for the fruit. It also shifted much of the local market—in some cases involuntarily—to California peaches.
But aside from the toll it took on jobs, the state economy, decades of tradition and restaurant menus, peaches are a matter of pride for Georgians. The peach is the state fruit. It’s in the name of dozens of state highways. It’s even on the other side of the Georgia State Quarter. So how embarrassing is that?
Imagine if New York had to import bagels from Los Angeles.
Some people just don’t do it. “Buying out-of-state peaches is out of the question,” said Henryk Kumar, operations manager of Georgia’s Butter & Cream ice cream shop. Their summer staples in Peaches & Cream and Georgia Peach Sorbet flavors launched July 1, he said, but eat fast. He predicted they would be gone before the end of the month.
CNN spoke to farmers and agribusiness groups who said they couldn’t remember a more devastating peach harvest. “I spoke to you [an older farmer] and he said 1955 was the last time he saw it this bad,” said farmer and peach grower Sean Lennon of Fitzgerald Farms in Woodbury, Georgia. For the state, “It’s a financial loss, but it’s much more than that.”
The shortage forced Lennon to lay off many of his workers, including migrant workers, whom he hires each year through an H2-A visa program. He said he had to send workers who came to the US to support their families back to Mexico early because of a lack of work.
Liella Foods, LLC
Aunt Evelyn’s peach cobbler.
Yes, prices for Georgia peaches have increased from the usual $17 to $20 to about $40 a box wholesale, he said. Some buyers said wholesale boxes have gone up to as much as $60 a box. But most Georgia farmers don’t have much fruit to sell.
Restaurateurs loyal to the Georgia staple face similar supply challenges. Filipino restaurant Kamayan decided to address the shortage by offering its peach lumpias, a fruit-filled spring roll, only on weekends instead of daily.
Owner Mira Orino said that while her lumpias are popular, she would remove them from the menu before switching to canned or out-of-state peaches.
But given the local prices, they don’t make any money from the products they sell, she said. “We make our profits from other items. [The peach lumpias] are a labor of love,” said Orino.
It’s a brief window of time for peaches to peak, a point made legendary by a 1995 Seinfeld episode in which the character Kramer was desperate for “Mackinaw Peaches,” who, the episode said , are only available two weeks a year.
(There’s a lot of disagreement online as to whether the sitcom’s peaches hail from the Michigan town of the same name, neighboring Wisconsin, Canada, or are just plain mythical.)
Courtesy of Butter & Cream and Maddie Mitchell
Butter & Cream’s Peaches and Cream ice cream and GA peach sorbet.
The shortage of peaches this year forced many restaurants that couldn’t do without to look elsewhere. Aunt Evelyn’s Peach Cobbler, a four-bakery chain in Georgia, bought California peaches, said Aunt Evelyn’s son and owner David Bruce. California is the top US peach grower, followed by South Carolina and Georgia, which produce about 130 million peaches annually.
Georgia growers, restaurateurs and agribusiness groups said they don’t know how the climate will affect next year’s harvest but hoped it was a one-time phenomenon.
And in the meantime, Georgia peaches are selling like Seinfeld-ian Macinkaw, a delicacy Kramer described as “a wonder of nature, like the Aurora Borealis.”