STAATSBURG, N.Y. - There are hardly any apples at Breezy Hill Orchard here.
A year ago Elizabeth Ryan, who owns Breezy Hill, a 45-acre farm in Dutchess County, walked aisles of Jonagold, Macoun, McIntosh and Golden Russet trees that groaned under the weight of their fruit. It was one of the best years ever, she said.
But this year has been one of the worst, for Ryan and all the fruit growers of the Hudson Valley. A few springtime days brought the area's trees into bloom, followed by six nights of killing frost. What little fruit survived was soon killed off by a spate of May hailstorms. And then came the summer's drought.
One red apple
"See that McIntosh?" Ryan asked, pointing. "Last year, we harvested 200 bushels from that tree." Only a single red apple could be seen at its top.
In a normal year, apples are one of the most valuable crops in New York state, generating some $109 million in 2000. Generally, the apple growers of the Hudson Valley pick 8 million bushels of fruit during the fall harvest; this year, farmers say, it will be well under 2 million, with the worst losses in the lower Hudson Valley (loosely defined as Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster, Orange and Columbia counties).
Breezy Hill Orchards will make $400,000 less this year than in a good year, Ryan estimates. But she is both constitutionally optimistic and irrepressibly chatty - traits that may help explain her presence on the executive committee of the Hudson Valley Fruit Growers Task Force, an alliance dedicated to getting help for the growers. She went to Washington last month, pushing for a national disaster relief bill for farmers hurt by bad weather. It passed the Senate on Sept. 10.
Back in the Hudson Valley, Ryan encourages her fellow farmers to share everything from rootstock to recipes for cider doughnuts. Most farmers are solitary people, she said, used to working alone.
One good thing
"We think of our farms as independent," she said. "But this year forced us to work together, and that's a good thing."
The sad song of the American family farm has already played many times in these parts. In Dutchess County, the usual enormous pressures - agribusiness, weather, banks and foreign competition (inexpensive apple juice concentrate from China is the big dark cloud on the horizon for American apple farmers) - are only part of the mix.
