In These Orchards, Fruit Has All But Disappeared This Year

Photo: Close up of cherry blossoms covered with snow. Photo credit: Ivan Aleksic via Unsplash. Article by Lisa Held. Civil Eats – August 11, 2026.

Steve Ela knew the freeze was coming, but he could not have imagined the devastation. Ela, who owns Ela Family Farms with his wife and business partner, Regan Choi, has kind eyes and an easy smile that make him well-suited to selling plums and cherries at farmers’ markets. His glasses are often perched on a mop of tousled hair that has gone white after 30 years of running around his 98-acre organic orchard in western Colorado. That’s how he described what he was doing on April 17—running around. […]

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