Rainy Spring, Sunny Days Means Sweet Local Peaches

Peach farmers in Massachusetts are hoping for a sweet and juicy crop - and they might just get it.

Farmers say the wet weather early in the summer made the peaches juicy, and a few hot, sunny days are what is needed to make them sweet because heat and sunlight allows sugar to concentrate in the fruit.

Jon Clemens teaches at the University of Massachusetts' Cold Spring Orchard Research and Education Center in Belchertown. He tells the Republican newspaper of Springfield that while Massachusetts is geographically on the northern edge of where peaches can grow, they're often sweeter because local growers allow them to ripen on the trees for as long as possible.

The state Department of Agriculture says there are more than 200 peach farms in Massachusetts.