Freezing nights could kill early crop

Freeze warnings across the region could take a bite out of local crops and your wallet.

The unseasonably warm weather this year brought farmers an early crop, but now they have to worry about the return of cold Spring nights.

"It's just a sweating game," said Sarah Brown, co-owner of The Apple Works Orchard in Trafalgar. "The first thing you do is you get online and you look at the forecast."

Brown's crops are 4-6 weeks ahead of schedule and have already bloomed. But she knows, one bad night could devastate her plants.

"Oh we're terrified," said Brown. "We're gonna be, you know, just praying a lot."

Brown said the apples can survive down to 28 degrees. Every degree after that, she could lose 10-20 percent of her crops.

If Brown and other farmers lose a lot of their crops this year, she said it could seriously affect food prices in the near future.

"The stakes are high," said Brown. "We're just trying to hang in there."