MURPHYSBORO (WSIL) -- A Jackson County orchard has a rare crop this year.
Mileur Orchard usually expects a handful of produce from their Plout trees, but they say this is no average average year when it comes to the hybrid fruit - at least on their farm. The Plum-Apricot mix is showing up in big numbers this year. When they brought the trees from California almost 10 years ago, staff were told they would never grow, and they certainly wouldn't produce any fruit.
"But it was an experiment. At first we thought it was a failed experiment, about 2 other times we've had some cropping of some of the varieties. There's about 10 different varieties out here, but this is the biggest crop ever," says part owner, Lisa Mileur.
Mileur says post-bloom freezes are what usually limits the fruit cropping. You can normally find pluots from other parts of the country at the grocery store, but the orchard says they're glad they can offer them locally!
