MOORE COUNTY, N.C. — Ken Chappell was out on Saturday doing a preliminary check of the approximately 4,000 fruit trees on his farm.

“This is a good peach,” he said after cutting open the blossom on one branch.

The past two nights, very cold temperatures have hit the area. Cold snaps like that can kill the inside of the blossoms on those peach trees, and therefore, destroy the potential peaches.

Nights like those are long ones for Chappell and other fruit growers in the area.

Cold nights with no wind are especially brutal, but farmers like Chappell use wind machines to counteract that.

In fact, Chappell had to keep four wind machines going during the recent cold.

Though it’ll be a few more days before a full assessment can be made of any damage to the peaches, Chappell is cautiously optimistic.

“It could have gone a whole lot worse. If we had gone to 25 degrees, it could have been devastating. I saw 27, mostly 28 or 29. So, just barely dodging a bullet there,” Chappell says.