For Linvilla and local farms, a longer, hotter growing season means ‘unbelievable’ peaches – and a bushel of concerns

According to Sarah Linvill, Linvilla Orchards is more than just a family farm. Nestled on 300 acres in the Media area, Linvilla offers an “agricultural experience,” she said. City and suburban dwellers who are often isolated from the world of agriculture can greet animals, pick their own fruit, and learn where their food comes from. Baked into the experience at Linvilla is the family farm’s history, which stretches back to 1914.

“It really brings you out of that grocery store experience,” said Linvill, an administrative assistant, who married into the multigenerational farming family.

“Food is such a connective part of our lives,” she added. “Seeing it on the bush, talking about ripening, and just getting a sense of our food ecosystem as a whole is something we’re really passionate about showing people.”

Yet at Linvilla and the other family farms that dot Delaware County and the greater Philadelphia region, longer summers and variable weather patterns have changed the game for farmers. This season, many have been forced to contend with heavy precipitation, hot temperatures, and complications from fungal diseases and oversaturated soil. Experts warn that this summer’s unpredictable weather may not represent an anomaly but, rather, a new normal.

The Philadelphia area saw 6.22 inches of rain this May, far above average. May’s heavy rain was followed by high temperatures in June, presenting a challenge for farmers as they struggled to manage wet soil and certain diseases.

The average official temperature at Philadelphia International Airport, about 11 miles from Linvilla, was 75.4 degrees last month, making it one of the warmest Junes in records dating to 1872.

Margaret Pickoff, horticulture educator at Pennsylvania State University’s Bucks County extension, said erratic weather patterns are making it “really hard for farmers to get a feel for what’s normal now.”

Farmers in the Philadelphia region, Pickoff said, are used to gentle spring precipitation that eases them into summer. Excessive rain — like this spring’s — makes it difficult to tend to the soil without damaging it, slowing tillage, planting, weeding, and other basic tasks. Oversaturated soil can give way to diseases and “wet wilt,” a wilting problem that shows up when roots get waterlogged.

Jackson Buttery, farm manager at Indian Orchards Farm in Media, said he and his team are “a bit worried about rot and fungus in the garden” this season.

Located next to Linvilla, Indian Orchards has served Delaware County for over 100 years. The farm grows fruits and vegetables, including peaches, plums, berries, and apples, and sells its own honeys and ciders.

At Indian Orchards, the biggest issue this summer has been fire blight, a disease that can cause severe damage to apple trees, one of the farm’s biggest crops. To manage fire blight, Buttery and his team have had to cut off a number of apple branches, which they will likely have to do again as the hot, humid season continues.

Though they deal with fungal diseases every summer, “it’s a lot worse this year,” he said.

As the Philly area sees longer, hotter summers, farms across the region are seeing an extended growing season, which Linvill calls a “catch-22.”

While some of Linvilla’s fruit has struggled, other crops “really, really love this heat.”

Peaches, for example, are thriving.

“The peach crop is something that used to be more hit-or-miss for us,” Linvill said. “We’re doing peaches right now, and they’re unbelievable.”

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its “plant hardiness zone map” for the first time in over a decade. The map divides the country into growing zones, setting guidelines to help farmers understand which plants are most likely to survive in their region. In the updated 2023 map, Media moved up half a zone after its average annual coldest temperature ticked up.

While the shifting landscape could open the door for more warm-weather plants to thrive, Pickoff emphasized that these trends are not linear. Farmers will still have to deal with unpredictable seasons, high humidity, and variable precipitation, which can present challenges for all sorts of crops.

More and more, farmers will be tasked with thinking creatively, whether that means managing insect and disease growth or keeping farmworkers safe through heat waves.

Linvill said the farm is already making accommodations for visitors, staff, and crops. Tourists are hitting the fields during cooler, early-morning hours, as are farmworkers. The pick-your-own fruit sheds are stocked with extra water bottles.

Pickoff said the farmers she works with across the region are leaning into the spring and fall “shoulder seasons” and offering events and workshops to supplement lost income during slow growing times.

Already, tourism and farm visits make up a large piece of Linvilla and Indian Orchards’ business models.

Linvill said shifting weather patterns are something the Linvilla team is “always working for” as the century-old farm continues to move into the future. What remains consistent is the farm’s effort to be “a haven for all sorts of interactions that are out of the norm” for those used to city life.

“Three hundred acres in Delaware County, so close to Philadelphia, is very rare,” Linvill said. “We’re very lucky.”