Just before sunrise on the morning of April 27, 2012  (Friday) our apples, peaches, pears and plums were wiped out by a hard freeze (between 25F and 26F).  I gave the odds, back in March, of one chance in a 100 that we would have fruit in 2012.  The reason I gave for this was the two week long spell of summer weather we had in March–many temps were in the 80s. (I really, really wish I was wrong back then and especially now.) This followed a startling warm winter which also caused early bloom.  Back around the 20th of April I increased the odds of one chance in 10 that we would have fruit this year since the fruit on the trees still looked OK.  In order to make up a bit for the financial loss this freeze has put upon us, we are planting a bit more vegetables than usual.  We rented a couple of acres from a neighbor in order to do this.  We have opened our stand doors about two weeks ago and are selling our apples from last year, our hardy pecan seeds, a variety of vegetable seeds including kohlrabi, our secret bean variety, three varieties of sweet corn, dill, heirloom tomato seeds, lettuce, radishes and others.  We will be selling next week giant pumpkin and corn seeds.  We also will be having jars of yellow popcorn which we tested (moisture and popped) and it is of exceptional quality.  I  feel real bad writing this about the crop loss for a number of reasons.  The financial loss is obvious.  Other reasons are the disappointment I sense from my family and the disappointment I know I will be sensing from the kind and thoughtful people who purchase our fruit.  It really is a boost to see a fruit tree full of nice looking apples, peaches, plums or pears.  Sadly, we won’t get this boost this year…