Surry Business

As many peach lovers feared, and growers already knew, North Carolina’s peach trees couldn’t recover from the impact of last spring’s Easter weekend freeze.

North Carolina peach production will be in the pits for 2007. (It was too hard to resist the pun, but this really is no laughing matter.) The National Agricultural Statistics Service last week announced its estimate that North Carolina growers may produce only 1,000 tons of peaches this year — about 18% of what they harvested in 2006.

Levering Orchard, Wanda Urbanska and Frank Levering’s popular pick-it-yourself orchard just north of the border between Surry County and Virginia, announced earlier this summer that it would have no peaches (or, for that matter, apricots or nectarines).

The good news: Pears and the early apples should be ready for harvest on Labor Day and adundant supplies should be ready for the “From Peel to Pie” festivities Sept. 8 at Horne Creek Living Historical Farm near Pilot Mountain, Farm Fest on Sept. 15 in Fisher River Park near Dobson and the Sonker Festival Oct. 6 at the historic Edwards-Franklin House near Lowgap.