A winter that was a touch warm, followed by a series of hard freezes in March, has devastated the Georgia peach crop.
“If we made 2 percent of a crop, I would be surprised,” said Jeff Cook, a University of Georgia cooperative extension coordinator who helped put together an application for federal relief.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture granted it, declaring 18 Georgia counties natural-disaster areas and making an additional 38 counties eligible for federal loans.
The cost to the state, including lost jobs and peach sales, Mr. Cook said, could reach $200 million.
In a state where eating a peach over the kitchen sink is a birthright, cobbler recipes are passed down through the generations and a baffling number of streets in Atlanta are named Peachtree, a summer without peaches is unfathomable.
Persons:
”, Jeff Cook, Cook
Organizations:
University of Georgia, U.S . Department of Agriculture
Locations:
Georgia, Atlanta, Peachtree