Photos by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Winston Lee collects flats of peaches at a Woods Farms orchard, where some fruit had to be culled.

Mark Woods sells peaches at Roanoke's market. Last year, Virginia farmers produced about 40 percent as many peaches as in 2006.

A warm early spring and moderate rainfall has given Keith Reid and others at Woods Farms a bumper crop to pick from.

On Easter Sunday 2007, Frank Levering could see the devastation in his Patrick County cherry orchard before dawn.

"I could already see the blackening of the blossoms," he said. "That was really a frightening sight."

A warm early spring followed by a series of late frosts devastated much of this region's stone fruit crop last year, including peaches, cherries, nectarines and plums.

But this year, those hardworking trees -- and farmers -- are making up for it. This year, it's a bumper crop.

"They are coming strong," said Mark Woods, who has been selling his Franklin and Roanoke county peaches as fast as he can. "We'll probably go wide open into August."

Thanks to a perfect storm of conditions, including ideal pollination weather and rainfall amounts, Woods' tables aren't the only ones on the Roanoke Farmers Market that are practically groaning under the weight of fuzzy fruit.

In fact, the only drawback this season has been too much fruit on the trees, leading farmers to selectively cull some peaches to direct more energy toward the remaining fruit.

Woods likens it to a dog's having puppies -- she can either give birth to 10 scrawny pups or two big, plump ones.

John Vest, a Floyd County-based extension agent who specializes in horticulture, said when fruit trees are crippled by frost one year, they tend to overproduce the following season.

Last year, Vest said he saw losses of 90 percent to 100 percent in many orchards he visited. Peaches were so hard to come by that some farmers had to buy them out-of-state to fill orders.

According to Spencer Neale, a commodities expert with the Virginia Farm Bureau, Virginia farmers produced 4,000 tons of peaches in 2006 but only 1,600 tons last year. Raising the price per pound last year helped a little, but losses still totaled more than $1.5 million, Neale said.

Woods was well acquainted with that sense of loss. Out of 40 acres of peaches, he and his family only filled about a box and a half last year.

The situation was so bad that the annual Virginia Mountain Peach Festival changed its name to the Northwest Child Development Center Peach Festival. The group voted to change the name because it was having trouble finding Virginia peaches, but at the last minute -- after it was too late to change the name again -- it did find a Virginia source. This year, they've switched back to the Virginia reference, according to NCDC Executive Director Faye Claytor-Wood.

Some farmers, including Tom and Debbie Guthrie of Franklin County, were able to collect crop insurance for their losses last year. Debbie Guthrie said it still wasn't the same as having a full crop, so they are relieved by this year's abundance.

"This'll be the best crop of nectarines I believe we've had since we got the trees" about 10 years ago, she said.

Levering, who estimated that he lost about $250,000 last year, was not able to collect insurance because cherries are considered a niche crop in Virginia. Savings and simple living helped Levering's family squeak through the lean year.

"I've been known to make a penny scream," he said, chuckling.

This cherry season, which is winding to a close, was a big success at Levering Orchard.

"There was a lot of pent-up demand this year because people missed them so much," said packhouse employee Christine Gorelick.

A big factor in the bumper crop was moderate rainfall in April, May and June when peaches, cherries and other stone fruits were developing on the branch. According to National Weather Service data, most of Virginia had slightly above-average rainfall in April and June while May was a bit below average.

Another blessing to stone fruit farmers was this spring's warm temperatures. Honeybees, which pollinate apple, cherry and peach trees during a very short window of time, do not like to come out of the hive when the weather is cold or wet.

Levering remembers the four- or five-day pollination time on his orchard in April as perfectly warm and sunny.

All of those factors this year add up to some extremely happy Virginia farmers, especially Levering, who is celebrating his family orchard's 100th anniversary this year. It certainly wouldn't do, he said, to have bare trees on such an important occasion.

"I could tell after the petals fell off the trees back in April that it was just a monstrous crop," he said, "and that was exhilarating."