By Emily Schopfer
MONMOUTH COUNTY – The Garden State has not had the easiest growing season this year. Crops got off to quite a rough start with an early-season heat wave followed by a late-season freeze in April. And it wasn’t clear skies for any surviving produce, as the freeze that devastated much of Monmouth County’s crops would soon be followed by an ongoing drought, extremely hot weather and flash floods.
After months of local farmers fighting Mother Nature herself, where does this leave the state’s agricultural industry?
Spring Freeze
Eastmont Orchards in Colts Neck, famous for its “U-Pick” peaches, apples and pumpkins, typically opens from July through October. Close to two months after its season usually starts, the farm’s entryway sign still reads “closed for the season.”
In May, the farm shared a Facebook post saying it would not be open for peach picking but planned to welcome pickers in September. Then, just a few days later, the farm shared another Facebook post saying its apple crop “sustained a near total loss. The very few that remain will likely not meet our quality standards.”
Nick Basis, Eastmont Orchards farm manager, said April is always the farm’s “bloom time.” Basis said Eastmont battled two freezes in April; the first wiped out about 40% of the peach crops, and the “second one was the nail in the coffin.” Out of the farm’s 11 acres and over 1,000 peach trees, there was an over 99% crop loss, according to Basis. Afterward, he said he and his team considered planting melons or early-season sunflowers, but since the farm is iconically known for its peaches, they didn’t want to disappoint their customers.
Basis said Eastmont’s owner, David Barclay, has been farming for 45 years and said he has never seen anything remotely close to these conditions.
April’s unseasonal weather events are estimated to have destroyed close to 90% of this year’s crops, resulting in a staggering $300 million in losses across the state, according to a May news release from the office of Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Sherrill put the state under an agricultural state of emergency May 20. Less than three weeks later, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a disaster designation for the events between April 19 and 22. All 21 counties in New Jersey are covered under this designation, which “makes farm operators in primary and contiguous counties eligible to be considered for FSA emergency loans and disaster set aside, provided eligibility requirements are met,” according to the state.
Ben Casella, the National Policy Director at the New Jersey Farm Bureau, said damage from the freeze varied by location and topography, with some farms seeing losses of less than 30% and others exceeding 90%. In his experience, fruit crops were more heavily impacted than vegetables, with peaches, cherries and apples hit the hardest due to bloom timing.
A Challenging Summer
New Jersey American Water issued a mandatory water conservation order across Monmouth and Ocean counties June 25. The alert asked customers to “reduce water usage due to ongoing drought conditions. Customers must limit all non-essential outdoor water use until further notice, including limiting outdoor watering to twice per week or less if it rains.” The order was estimated to remain in place until Sept. 1, and no notice of an early lifting had been issued as of Aug. 11.
The Division of Water Supply and Geoscience within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection put out its weekly update on state water supply conditions Aug. 12. “The wetter rain pattern which started in July is showing improvements to water supply indicators,” the report read. But “dry conditions caused by the prior two years of below average precipitation have not yet been overcome.”
Casella said June’s droughts were localized to Central Jersey and impacted grain crops such as corn. July’s rainstorms, which were the cause of severe flash flooding across Monmouth County and beyond, came with a different set of problems, he said. Casella, who is based in Gloucester County, said he witnessed many farms in the southern part of the state battling flooding, while farms farther north battled drought.
“Too much rain can be worse than not enough,” he said. Many farms have irrigation systems to deal with too little rain, but there is not much farmers can do when fields flood. Flooding can deplete the soil of oxygen, effectively suffocating the plants.
Dealing with severe weather during the summer months is just the “nature of the industry,” Casella said.
For Eastmont Orchards, the rain did offer some relief, Basis said. By mid-May, Basis said Eastmont knew that both the peach and apple crops were lost. It was the blossoms, however, that were impacted by the freeze, leaving the trees bare but healthy. June was a “pretty critical time” for the trees, Basis said, and it was a dry month. July Fourth weekend storms provided several inches of rain, and it was the first time in four or five years Eastmont Orchards did not have to irrigate, he said.
While the storms may have provided a brief respite to local growers, the community soon faced a new hurdle: contaminated produce. Multiple statewide clusters of cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal illness linked to contaminated fresh produce, have plagued America’s fruits, veggies, and leafy greens this summer. New Jersey has not been as hard hit as other states this year and, during this ongoing outbreak, the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) “is reassuring residents that New Jersey has not seen an atypical increase in cases this season. NJDOH continues to closely monitor the situation and is urging residents to take simple food safety precautions to reduce their risk of illness.” By Aug. 8, the NJDOH had reported 108 cases.
“While New Jersey is not experiencing substantial increases, illness clusters or outbreaks at this time, reported cases are steadily increasing,” according to the state.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the multistate outbreak is linked to iceberg lettuce, particularly from Taylor Farms de Mexico. Taylor Farms initiated a recall July 17 of all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico.
“There is no evidence that New Jersey-grown produce is connected to outbreaks,” the NJDOH said July 16.
Fall’s Fresh Start
Casella said that New Jersey supermarkets did see an increase in imported produce because of diminished local crops this year. However, the imports came from neighboring states such as Pennsylvania.
For farm stands, Casella said many pushed through with what they had or brought in produce from growers in other parts of the state, since the weather impacts of the freeze, droughts, and flooding varied statewide.
Although he has heard of people voicing concerns and shying away from greens and other vegetables because of the nationwide cyclophoria outbreak, he said, “I think a lot of people do have a lot of confidence in local produce,” and there is “a lot more trust there” compared to imported products.
This fear of contaminated imported produce may benefit local farmers, as it pushes consumers to choose – and trust – local farms. Basis said he is “hoping it does push people to support more local” growers, but even before this outbreak he said he had seen “tremendous” interest in “locally grown or locally sourced” (one- or two-county range) produce.
Basis also confirmed that any contamination is not coming from “around here,” adding that “I don’t think the public needs to be worried at all.” He noted that, in his experience, the state Department of Agriculture “is really on point with keeping everyone in the know,” and that farming and growing is heavily regulated and scrutinized.
It has “definitely been a trying year,” Basis said. He added that Eastmont Orchards does not expect to have any apple picking this fall.
Apples are a “one-shot deal,” Casella explained. “They’ll bloom in the spring, and if anything happens in that stage… then it’s lost until the next spring.” He said apples are a major fall crop in New Jersey, so farms may have to rely heavily on other crops, such as pumpkins.
While not having apple picking for the fall is a “bummer” for Eastmont Orchards, Basis said, the farm pivoted and asked, “What else could we be doing here?” rather than dwelling on what can’t be done.
In addition to regular staples like heirloom pumpkins, squash and sweet potatoes, guests at Eastmont Orchards will see honey, jams, hayrides, Indian corn, multicolor sunflowers and a revived corn maze. Basis said the farm will officially open Sept. 18, Fridays through Sundays. While he and the team are excited, Basis is just “hoping Mother Nature is kind to us on weekends.”
Leah McCormack, co-owner of McCormack Farms in Middletown, cannot say for sure how things will be in the fall. She and her brother William “Bill” McCormack co-own and manage the 30-acre permanently preserved farm. One morning in April, Leah woke up to a frozen field; even months later, there is “still hidden damage to things that you can’t quite tell,” she said. According to Leah, the farm is in a worse position than it was in 2025, but, she said, “we are holding our own” as they prepare for the fall.
The article originally appeared in the August 20 – 26, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
