An Update on This Year's Harvest — and We Need Your Feedback
An Update on This Year's Harvest and We Need Your Feedback. A Difficult Growing Season at Weymouth Farms.
We wanted to give everyone an update on what has been an extraordinarily difficult growing season at Weymouth Farms and Orchard. The problems actually began last winter. In December 2025, we experienced an unusually early and damaging freeze. Then in February, Northeast Ohio had two days near80 degrees. That midwinter warmth encouraged plants to begin moving out of dormancy much earlier than they should have. Then came April. We experienced three consecutive late frost events at a time when our fruit trees and grapevines were particularly vulnerable. The combination of these weather events caused damage unlike anything we normally see at the farm.
Our Asian pears survived, but the crop did not. The good news is that most of our Asian pear trees themselves survived. Unfortunately, the developing fruit did not. Our Asian pears are one of the crops Weymouth Farms is best known for, and we know many of you look forward to them every year. This year, however, the late freezes essentially eliminated the crop. Our apples initially appeared to fare somewhat better. Some fruit survived the freezes, but much of that fruit subsequently dropped from the trees. Even more concerning, many apple trees themselves were killed by the winter and spring weather, and we have had to begin replacing them.
The vineyard was hit too. Our grapevines suffered significant cold injury, including loss of primary buds. Before pruning, we evaluated bud viability and adjusted our dormant pruning according to the number of viable buds remaining on the vines. Leaving additional viable buds helped us compensate for some of the damage and saved part of the grape crop. Unfortunately, pruning can't repair a dead vine. We also lost a significant number of vines and have spent much of this spring replacing them. That work had another consequence. The time and labor we normally would have devoted to planting vegetables instead went into replanting trees and grapevines. As a result, we were not able to plant as much of our normal vegetable crop.
Our blueberries initially showed a reasonably good crop, but then the wildlife discovered them. We've added bird and insect netting and taken additional measures to protect what remains, but wildlife pressure has been exceptionally heavy and has taken a substantial toll. This is not just happening at Weymouth. Similar weather damage has affected growers across a large portion of the Eastern United States. That means replacing our missing Asian pear and apple crops isn't as simple as calling another nearby orchard.
We have been actively looking for fruit that we could bring to Weymouth to help replace what we lost, and that has left us with a difficult decision. We may be able to obtain some replacement fruit; however, availability is limited and wholesale prices, transportation and handling costs are all considerably higher this year. As a result, any replacement Asian pears or apples we bring in would likely have to be priced substantially higher than in previous years.
There is another issue that matters just as much to us: quality. Brenda has serious concerns that some of the Asian pears and apples available to us will not meet the quality standards she expects for fruit sold at Weymouth Farms. We don't want to put fruit on our tables simply because customers expect us to have it. At the same time, we know how many families look forward to Weymouth's Asian pears and apples each fall, so we'd like your help in making this decision.
Would you support Weymouth bringing in carefully selected replacement Asian pears or apples this season, knowing that the price would be substantially higher than in previous years? Or would you rather we simply say, "This isn't our year"? Please reply to this email or let us know on Facebook or Instagram. We really do want to hear what you think before we make this decision. Farming comes with many things we can control. How we prune, what we plant, how hard we work, but we cannot control the weather. We're sorry that we won't be able to offer the harvest we had hoped to share with you this year. We are rebuilding, replanting, and doing everything we can to prepare for next season.
Thank you for supporting Weymouth Farms & Orchard through the good harvests and the difficult ones.
Paul and Brenda
2398 Weymouth Rd, Hinckley, OH 44233
Tel. 330-460-4565
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