Area growers and consumers are cautiously optimistic about the 2012 apple crop — at least at this point they are planning on there being one.
In a springtime characterized by vastly varying temperatures, they have cause to ponder. On Friday, April 20, when the temperatures registered in the low 80s, Rick Nicholson made this image of a fully open apple blossom growing on an orchard tree in Sweden. What damage may have resulted when temperatures dropped to the low 30s, about three inches of wet, heavy snow and cold north winds brought on two days later on Monday, April 23 when a Nor-easter storm system moved across the area won’t be immediately known.
New York state is second in the nation for apple production and western Monroe County and eastern Orleans and Genesee counties are prime fruit growing areas.
Watch for an assessment of the state of the area fruit crop in an upcoming issue of Suburban News and Hamlin-Clarkson Herald and on this website.
