Early in the morning on Tuesday, April 21, the Hudson Valley and the entire Northeast experienced a severe freeze that significantly damaged the delicate buds in orchards and vineyards in most places. “Based on bud samples taken over the last few days, we are anticipating a total or near-total loss of our 2026 fruit crop,” says Bruce Brittain, owner of popular U-pick destination and cider producer Rose Hill Farm in Red Hook. “While we are grateful to have our wine and cider to partially offset the impact, there is no question that this is a worst-case loss scenario for us. Our team pours their entire energy into the orchard each season, and this week our hearts are heavy.”
“Crop loss, when it happens suddenly, feels like violence.”
—Andy Brennan, Aaron Burr Cider
The most damaged fruit crops include, in descending order: peaches, cherries, apples, grapes, and pears. European Vitis vinifera varieties such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, and Albariño were particularly hit hard by the freeze. In contrast, labrusca varieties, such as Concord and Niagara, and French-American hybrids, such as Seyval Blanc, were less affected.
A Midnight Massacre
Between midnight and sunrise, temperatures plummeted down as low as 21°F in some places, as growers raced to implement measures ranging from primitive to cutting edge. At Westwind Orchard in Accord, Fabio Chizzola and his team lit fires between the rows of apple trees—a sight that was as epic as it was ultimately futile. At Majestic Farm in Mountain Dale, Brett Budde was able to rent an industrial agricultural drone, capable of pushing large amounts of warmer air down over the orchard in a bid to protect the buds against frost. But ultimately, as Nika Carlson of Greenpoint Cidery said, inadvertently speaking for farmers across the region, “efforts to ameliorate the effect seemed pretty pointless.”
After a long night, Chizzola reported in a grim Instagram post, “Temperatures dropped further than we hoped, and sometimes there’s just only so much you can do against a night like that,” alongside hauntingly beautiful photos of the bonfires. Budde, too, posted a summary of efforts: “We started our frost protection measures at 12:45 this morning. It was 25 outside…Critical temperature for 100% loss was 21 degrees. As the temperature dropped down to 21 degrees the drone was only making a half degree temperature difference…With several hours of cooling to come we pulled the plug on our efforts.” These were just two of a handful of heartbreaking posts from local farmers that the Hudson Valley woke up to on social media Tuesday morning.
“Crop loss, when it happens suddenly, feels like violence,” says Andy Brennan, cidermaker at Aaron Burr. “Especially during times of war and economic uncertainty, any event can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. I was already teetering on the edge of despair, so watching the petals turn brown just about did it for me.” Ironically, his source of consolation is the same as his despair: the orchard itself. “The apple trees are forming new shoots and opening their leaf buds, and birds are finding good branches to nest,” says Brennan. “Everywhere I look, the tree’s energy is being diverted from winter to sun. I think I shall do the same.”
Climate Change Chaos: Early Spring, Late Frost
While this late frost was unanticipated, with climate change, weather patterns are experiencing wider temperature variations and more violent precipitation events. As the Arctic warms, the frigid air that used to stay up north because it was too cold and dense to move is getting warmer, allowing it to move south to the Mid-Atlantic states, including the Hudson Valley.
This same phenomenon is also responsible for increasing the number of Polar Vortex events that have sent frigid temperatures to the Valley each winter. With the exception of 2024, every winter from 2021 to 2025, our area has experienced these polar blasts of air, after experiencing unseasonably warm fall temperatures that slowed the hardening-off of fruiting wood.
To compound this damage, the region’s fruit trees and vines experienced several long stretches of unseasonably warm weather this spring that encouraged fruit buds and blossoms to push out further and faster than is normally the case. On multiple days in March, local temperatures soared to 75°F—a whopping 19°F above normal—both during the day and at night. And for nearly a week in mid-April, the daily and evening temperatures averaged 16° warmer than usual, topping out at nearly 90°F on the hottest day. (This even caused one hyperbolic outlet to go as far as declaring that “summer now starts in April in the Hudson Valley.”)
All this temperature volatility is especially threatening to delicate fruit blossoms. When the trees are in bloom, they are preparing to reproduce via pollination, which is required for apples to grow. “On an apple blossom, there are pollen sacs, and in the middle are stigmas that receive the pollen,” explains Budde. “They are slightly larger than a hair. If they freeze, the seeds won’t form and the apple won’t develop.” In a word: precarious. Last Tuesday’s sustained six-hour deep freeze was a fatal blow to those tender fruit buds and blossoms forced out early by warm temperatures.
In talking to growers, the jury is still out on the extent of the damage, though the picture should be clearer in a week to 10 days. Our initial survey finds that early-ripening apples were hit hardest, while late-ripening apples sustained less damage—but diverse landscapes, microclimates, crops, and varieties all play a part in the effects each specific orchard or vineyard is experiencing.
“Buds and blooms did best when the trees were higher on the orchard slope, and the branches were higher on the trees. Some varietals seem more resilient than others, even in my orchard, which is grafted exclusively from local wild trees,” says Carlson. “But I am feeling cautiously optimistic at the moment—and very, very lucky. The trees were loaded with blooms pre-frost, so even with some loss, I’m looking ok. Lots of viable buds and blooms.” And in a hunt for apple seedlings after the frost, she found more than a dozen blooming—“I was delighted on a day I expected to be depressed.”
Despite the perhaps necessary optimism, Carlson did also lose her whole crop of wild grapes, alongside plenty of other local fruit farmers who won’t have a harvest this season. This sort of volatility is part of a new reality Hudson Valley growers are having to factor into their calculations. “In 2023, we lost our entire apple crop on May 13 to the worst freeze in 40 years. Now, another arctic blast just a few years later, with even lower temperatures,” says Ron Bixby of Little Apple Cidery in Hillsdale. “If this is the ‘new normal,’ small farm cideries like us are basically defenseless and in trouble. We are a destination cidery with an orchard bar, 900 apple trees, and a dozen types of quality cider. Perseverance, love of the environment, cider, and loyal customers are what keep us going.”
Regardless of the degree, the region’s growers, cidermakers, and winemakers will be hit hard financially this year with far less fruit to harvest for fresh fruit consumption, cider, and wine. Apple, grape, and stone fruit prices will likely increase substantially, but not enough to offset the lower volume of fruits harvested. These pressures are coupled with the rising costs of fuel, labor, and other supplies. It’s more important than ever to support our local farmers as much as we can financially.
“The future is so uncertain, which is scary for a grower and fermenter who has become used to the vagaries of Mother Nature and to thinking in terms of years instead of days, weeks, or even months,” says Carlson. “It makes me even more grateful for the people who grow the things we do have, and even more committed to supporting local food, cider, and wine.”
How to Support Hudson Valley Farms and Orchards
After a major, late-season frost like this all Hudson Valley orchards are left in a vulnerable economic position. “After all these years, we kind of know this is a possibility,” says Chizzola of Westwind, referring to the late frost. “That’s why we diversified many years ago with different fruit but especially with the food and cider in the tasting room.”
From agritourism attractions like U-pick, bouncy castles, wood-fired pizza, and farm stays to value-added products like preserves, pickles, and cider, as well as other farmed goods like meat, dairy, and eggs, these diversified income sources are a lifeline when the crops are threatened. To support your local Hudson Valley orchards and farms this season, you can:
- Patronize local growers by directly purchasing their produce and products at local and regional farmers’ markets and farm stands.
- During the harvest season, visit local farms and patronize U-pick operations, participate in their agritourism offerings, buy their fresh fruit and products such as fruit pies, jellies, and jams.
- Visit local wineries, cideries, and breweries taprooms to financially support them and buy locally and regionally produced wines, ciders, and beers at wine shops, grocery stores, and restaurants.
- Many local supermarkets offer locally produced fruits and vegetables. Look for the label to support our local growers.
J. Stephen Casscles, Esq. is a horticultural historian and lecturer who grows grapes, pears & red currants in Athens, NY. He helps to make the wine for Alfie Alcantara at Dear Native Grapes Winery in Walton, NY, and wrote the book Grapes of the Hudson Valley and Other Cool Climate Regions of the United States and Canada.
