Freak Storm
A fast moving storm hit Market member OHF Orchard, destroying sixty of their 110 acres of fruit. They didn’t have long to wait.
On May 22, warnings from the Mt Holly weather station sounded from Joe O’Hara’s truck radio. Headed for his orchard was a storm system with winds of 105 mph and three inch hail that had shattered windows at the Berkshire Mall. Trained observers spotted a funnel cloud. Hail stones covered the ground in its howling path and numerous trees and limbs were down. .
“All of us in the fruit business hate to hear about hail,” says Doug Race of Race Farm. “We’re sorry to hear of OHF’s situation.”
“I’m probably kidding myself to think they’re okay,” Joe O’Hara said, surveying the damage to his trees, “but that’s how a farmer looks at it, very optimistically.”
Courageously might be a better word. The onslaught reached OHF Orchard at 3 pm, and there was nothing Joe O’Hara or his son could do to prepare for it. They had to cover their ears from the biting noise on the shed roof where they took shelter. Destroyed were sixty acres of peaches, more than half the OHF crop, and a large proportion of the remaining fruit was damaged by the time the hailstorm ripped through. They are waiting to see how severe that damage is.
O’Hara’s apples were struck as well. Shredded leaves and open wounds in the wood left his trees highly vulnerable to disease, forcing Joe to ask neighboring orchards to supply him with antibacterial spray. (Think Neosporin for a cut.)
“All the hard work to prune, chop and spray to get to this point… all wiped out in minutes,” said Joe. “But, that’s part of farming.”
“We hope all news is good news as their fruit sizes,” said Doug Race. All of us here at the market pray the same thing.
