As we approach mid-July, peach trees across South Carolina are heavy with fruit, and picking crews and packing sheds are running at high volume. For peach lovers, an abundant year means lots of varieties. For growers and peach eaters alike, the 2024 season is a welcome change from last year.
And it offers consumers the opportunity to explore more varieties of South Carolina’s state fruit. Local news has never been this personal. Free to download.
Subscribers enjoy unlimited access. The state’s peach industry had a rough 2023. A warm January and February coaxed trees into blooming early, so when temperatures plunged in March – and stayed low for several days – the crop was devastated.
Final USDA reports show that South Carolina’s 2023 peach production was down 49 percent from the year before. (In neighboring Georgia, the situation was even worse, with production down 78 percent from 2022.) SC Farm Report on Friday This year, things went much better.
There were no late freezes. And now peach growers are seeing the results. “After last year’s losses, growers are thankful for an abundant crop,” says Blakely Atkinson, marketing specialist for the South Carolina Peach Council.
Local farmers fill their tables with crafts, homemade treats and fresh produce, often picked immediately before. A gift from their farms to your home. Atkinson notes that South Carolina is the No.
2 peach producing state in the nation, second only to California, so a strong peach crop is an im.