By: Hollie Hojek
hhojek@kcautv.com
It's that time of year when folks like to make apple pies, and drink hot apple cider, but a lot of people are running in to a problem. The dry summer months leading up to the fall harvest has left farmers with next to nothing when it comes to the apple crop.
You can find carrots, tomatoes, pumpkins and squash at the farmers market on Tri-View Avenue, but one thing you won't find is apples. There were no apples in sight on Wednesday morning, and that's because what little crop was produced this year, has already been bought up.
Local farmer, Larry Sherer says only a fifth of his apples were able to be harvested this year because of the early frost and extremely dry summer, and the shortage is leaving little left for customers to buy.
"I don't know if there is any at the market, doesn't seem to be much this year," said Mercedes Ivener, of Sioux City.
"We should have had lots of apples on the table like we normally do... but it's a bad year... on anything," said Sherer.
Sherer says he keeps his prices low so his produce will sell. But he says it's likely the stores will increase their prices because of the wide-spread shortage.
We spoke with several local groceries stores today about apple prices. They say, they haven't seen a big increase in prices just yet.
