CATAWBA ISLAND, Ohio -
Bob Schraidt is an unhappy farmer.
He even drew a frown face on his chalkboard sign with a message: "No peaches due to hail."
"We pretty much lost the whole crop," says Schraidt. "If you try and find a peach that hasn't been hit, it's almost impossible."
Sunday's storm ruined the fruit growing on 500 trees at Bee Haven Farms on West Catawba Road.
Those peaches would've been ripe next week but now they are destroyed. You can see the hail tore off the skin.
"The hail just knocked pieces out of them, puts dents in them, and then eventually you can't sell them," say Schraidt.
Just a few hundred yards down the road at Schwan Farm, only half the peach crop suffered hail damage but it's not severe.
In fact they're still selling 100 quarts a day, the damaged ones at a discount.
"You can see they've got holes in them and tears, but we're selling them at half price and a lot of people are buying them. They want to make cobblers and jams," says Diana Schwan, owner of Schwan Farm
At the Mon Ami winery the grapes survived the hail storm unscathed. However, some trees on the property toppled.
The strong winds uprooted about a dozen large trees. Crews already cut them down to stumps. Oddly enough, the big outdoor tent didn't budge a bit.
Back at Schwan Farm, growers say time will tell if the future crop is hurt.
"We have some that are green and hard and have brown spots on them, so we don't know if they'll heal over or what will happen to those," says Schwan.
Luckily Schraidt is retired and doesn't depend on the peach crop for income, so he's turning that frown upside down.
"This year it's going to be just vacation all summer for us," says Schraidt.
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