This summer, farmstands in the Peach State are missing a key crop: peaches. That's not because the fleshy fruits have already been scooped up by chefs and home cooks to be made into jams and pies, although they would if they could. Rather, the peaches never got a chance to grow at all.
An abnormally warm winter caused peach trees to bloom earlier than usual this year. That was followed by intense freezes in late March that killed off many of those blooms, which are needed to produce fruit, as well as the fruits that had already begun developing. As a result, more than 90 percent of Georgia's peach crop was wiped out.
