SALUDA COUNTY, S.C. — Farmers say they're seeing a fraction of their crops this year as cold weather earlier in 2023 damaged some of their crops.
Peach farming is ingrained in Joe Watson's blood.
His family started Watsonia Farms over one hundred years ago, and four generations ago in Saluda county.
Now, as a co-owner of the business, Watson says they're facing one of their worst seasons ever.
"We would've started May 1st. Since May 1st, we probably picked, oh I don't know, a miniscule amount." He says, "We're just about totally wiped out."
He says in a typical year, they'll start harvesting peaches as early as May. However, a cold snap earlier in the year delayed that and they wont begin until next week.
He says out of 30 varieties of peaches, only one was able to survive and grow.
He recalls there was, "February weather for March. It got real cold in March. The months just switched...So it's one percent of the crop or something like that, it's been terrible."
He notes that his family was able to diversify years ago, and start growing other fruits and vegetables, without those, he says they wouldn't stay afloat.
"It's tough but it's just the nature of the beast."
He adds farmers across the state are also feeling the burden of weather this season, saying some local peach distributors dont have enough fruit to open their packing house, and have sent some migrant workers home.
"There's a lot of people that are going to devastated across the state, vegetables, watermelons and vegetable crops have gotten also this rain on them, I understand it's pretty rough."