Late Frost Damage – Impact on Food Prices Looming?

Piggybacking on Trey’s post, “Huge Losses For Northern California Agriculture” – we have had some very unseasonably cold weather in Northern California last week (38^o here), followed this weekend by some unseasonably hot temperatures (94^o yesterday). While my house was spared from frost (microclimate of stucco facing south), others haven’t been so lucky.

I was speaking to a gentleman I work with that has a large walnut orchard to the Northwest of where I’m located, down in the valley. I asked him how his trees fared in this spat of cold weather.

He said he was very lucky – only some of the trees in the lower part of the orchard showed any signs of frost/freeze damage. But he did mention that in advance of this weather coming, he mowed the orchard grass down very low, and irrigated all of his trees. He hoped that the moist soil would absorb heat during the day and release it at night, allowing the trees a little protection. Thankfully, it seemed to help quite a bit. He was telling me about others that lost everything, especially peach farmers in his area.

“The peaches are toast.” He said.

There is a fruit guy we visit each week at the Farmer’s Market because Chris can’t get enough of his goods. He’s the “mountain grown oranges” guy because every time we walk by his stall, he yells, “Mountain grown oranges! Cold nights, warm days. Makes ‘em super sweet.” And it makes us laugh every time.

Someone asked him on Saturday when Fuji apples usually ripen.

“September.” He said. And then he paused.

“But I won’t have very many. Freeze wiped most of ‘em out.”

The Sacramento/San Joaquin Valley produces a large amount of the fruit and vegetables that feed the country. Reports are scattered, but it looks like pears, grapes, peaches, apples, plums, some artichokes, and walnuts were hardest hit. Some citrus farmers farther south are reporting losses as well.

While we can certainly look forward to higher prices at the pump and at the grocery store, growing your own food seems like a better choice with each passing day.