Vibrant ruby and green fruit hang from trees standing in rows East Bridgewater, Mass. The Macintosh, McCowen and Cortland apples are a few of the varieties stretching across 22 acres at CN Smith Farms.
“Apple picking is our busiest and biggest crop. It runs from Labor Day weekend to Columbus Day weekend,” says Christian Smith, president of the family orchard.
A nice weekend can bring in 5,000 people a day to pick apples. The orchard also grows several other fruits, including strawberries, blueberries, peaches, plums and pears.
A Hybrid Built for Frost
Smith says some of his trees are a late-blooming variety, “grown specifically for blooming after the spring frosts.”
That trait mattered on April 21, when a late freeze created an urgent situation for fruit growers in several Northeast states. Smith and his crew threw everything they had in their toolbox to protect the orchard. They used overhead irrigation, fans and heaters to keep the fruit pods above freezing.
“We got through it very good. We had very little damage,” Smith says. “Maybe we had between 5% and 10% [damage], which is minimal. You could sustain 50% and still have a good crop of apples.”
Pennsylvania: “Nobody Alive Can Remember a Year This Bad”
Other growers were not so lucky. Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York were among the states hit the hardest.
Barron Shaw, who farms along the Mason-Dixon line, between Norrisville, Md., and Stewartstown, Pa., says the area had almost four days of 90-degree weather right before the freeze.
“The plants were just pumping. They thought it was summer, and they did not pull through that 28 degrees very well,” Shaw says. “We ended up losing quite a lot.”
Shaw says he lost all of his stone fruit: “All the peaches, all of the cherries, all of that froze. It was 100% loss.” He estimates an 80% apple loss.
He’s never seen a season like 2026. “My father hasn’t. Nobody alive can remember a year this bad,” Shaw says.
After the freeze, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau surveyed 250 growers. Of those, 221 said they were negatively impacted. An early estimate from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture put the cost to growers at $150 million to $200 million. An article on the association’s website breaks down the survey results:
Of the 221 respondents who reported damage:
- 13% reported a loss of 10% or less
- 87% reported a loss of at least 25%
- 65% reported a loss of at least 75%
- 29% reported a total crop loss
Of the 221 individuals who reported damage, 125 provided a dollar figure for their losses. The net losses of those 125 people added up to $43.7 million.
Sarah Zost is a fourth-generation grower at Bonnie Brae Fruit Farm outside York Springs, Pa. She is also president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Association. She says the freeze was unusual because it hit more than one crop. Zost says the extreme weather hurt peaches, nectarines, apricots, tart and sweet cherries, pears and grapes.
“There are areas of the state that had zero peaches, zero cherries, zero nectarines and zero apricots,” Zost says “That is what makes this year unprecedented.”
Zost says apple losses average about 60% statewide, and some areas may be near 80%. “It’s horrible,” she says.
When Insurance Fell Short
For many Pennsylvania growers, the freeze exposed how little protection a policy can offer a specialty crop. Shaw says insurance did not do enough for him.
“You can’t cover trees. It’s just not possible on the scale we do it,” he says. “I think what this has revealed is that there’s some gaping holes in insurance for specialty crops.”
Shaw once tried a fully insured fresh fruit policy, but the price was too high: “It was so expensive in Maryland that it just sucked all the profit right out of the business.”
Shaw now carries coverage on four or five of the crops he lost. Peaches were the exception, and he says the payout was “probably fair.” The rest was not.
“Everything else is just kind of a drop in the bucket compared to what we lost,” he says.
Severe weather this April left a lasting mark on Pennsylvania's orchards, killing much of the crop and scarring some surviving fruits. 📍 Bonnie Brae Fruit Farm, Adams County https://t.co/H4udzn8WMW
— Pennsylvania Farm Bureau (@PAFarmBureau) September 17, 2026
What Growers Did Next
Zost said her wholesale operation had little room to pivot following the freeze.
“There’s not a whole lot we can do to adjust to this within the year, other than cutting back work hours and trying to cut expenses,” she says.
Her farm skipped the harvest crew and kept only its summer staff.
“We’re missing half the people who are normally here to pick apples because we’re losing half of the apples,” she says.
Direct-market farms had more options. Some brought in fruit from other regions or planted sweet corn. Wholesale growers could not do the same.
“Apples, peaches and cherries are perennial crops, so those trees need care year round,” Zost says.
The trees must be pruned this winter and sprayed in spring to reach a good crop in 2027.
Growers have helped one another, too. Shaw says a neighbor with apples offered him a variety he had lost entirely.
“We’re trying to keep each other in business by trading the stuff that we do have,” he says.
Waiting on Federal Aid
Pennsylvania set aside $10 million for growers. The Department of Agriculture’s grant program was open to fruit growers whose crops were damaged by freezing between April 1 and April 21. Growers whose eligible crops produced at least 30% less than expected could qualify.
Zost says the money will not go far for any single farm.
“It is enough to help cover payroll, help keep things taken care of,” she says. “Crop insurance money will get there, but from here to then, it’s pretty much looking at your bottom line and making really tough decisions.”
Zost believes federal programs have missed the mark for growers. In May, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins granted a disaster designation for an initial group of Pennsylvania counties. Zost says 63 counties now have primary or contiguous disaster designation. The classification allows growers to access emergency loans, but nuances within the program make it largely useless.
“Unfortunately some growers from around the state learned you cannot apply for an emergency loan until your final harvest is complete and your crop insurance claim is closed,” Zost says. “So farmers who didn’t have any cherries or peaches this summer and were short on income to pay for apple harvest, couldn’t get help through those emergency loans.”
She says local FSA offices have instead encouraged growers to use operating loans, which don’t need a disaster proclamation.
In June, Secretaries of Agriculture in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York signed a letter asking Washington for help.
“There has not been any word of any targeted aid from the federal government at this point in time,” Zost says.
Shaw says he expects to get through the year, but not with a profit.
“I don’t have any debt,” he says. “It won’t be a profit for us. But the trees should pull through just fine for next year.”
Location and Water Made the Difference
Jon Clements, an Extension educator in Massachusetts, says several factors gave Smith’s orchard an advantage. One is the farm’s location and its coastal environment.
“I like to say Massachusetts, we are in a pretty sweet spot for growing, for example, apples,” Clements says. “Apples are our specialty.”
The other factor is water. Smith points to tall overhead sprinklers set about every 50 feet through the orchard.
“We’ll put water out, and that water will keep the fruit buds and the flowers above freezing temperatures,” Smith says. “That’s why we have a crop here right now.”
The irrigation protected the crop in the freeze, and it also helps cool the orchard in the severe summer heat. Because of it, Smith can sell his own crop this fall.
“They aren’t an easy crop to raise,” Smith says of apples. “It’s full of all kinds of pitfalls. It’s unbelievable.”
This story was captured and edited by Farm Journal Photojournalist CJ Christy.
