Last year was hard for Ela Family Farms in Hotchkiss after a frost took out many of its fruit buds in the spring. And it looks like 2021 could be even more difficult because of another storm that came through in October 2020 and killed about 15 percent of the fruit trees.
"We will know more when things leaf out or don't leaf out," says Steve Ela, a fourth-generation farmer and owner of the orchard. "So far, 15 percent of our acreage appears to be dead, and there are some that are injured. We'll see how it goes."
The loss of trees has already proven extensive enough that Ela decided to suspend the farm's 2021 CSA program, which in normal years sells apples, pears, peaches, cherries and other fruit directly to subscribers. The truth, he says, is that with around 5,000 trees gone, he doesn't know if he will have enough fruit to fulfill the pre-orders a CSA demands, and it seemed better for the farm, his family and the customers to suspend it until he knows the extent of the tree damage.