It’s already 30 degrees and heading down to the high teens tonight. This is normally not a problem for our local fruit growers, like my cousins in Red Hook, but due to the freakishly warm weather earlier in the month, the trees have begun to bloom already. It’s only one night, but it could be devastating to the fruit crop.

In the past, orchards in danger were sometimes protected by smudge pots, as my grandfather did for his apples in the 40s. You can read more on what smudge pots were here at Wikipedia.

From the looks of them, they were most certainly DIY and not exactly safe…

I hope the blooms make it through this frosty night!