Hail damages quarter of apple crop at Keepsake Cidery orchard

DUNDAS, Minn. – A holiday hailstorm this week is revealing the strength of the Minnesota farming community.

Nate Watters of Keepsake Cidery says in 10 minutes Monday night, he lost about a quarter of the crops in his orchard.

"If life gives you hail, make cider," Watters joked. "Everybody knows that saying, right?"

MORE NEWS: This June was 2nd driest on record in Twin Cities, NWS confirms

Almost all of his "eater" apples, as he calls them, were destroyed. The silver lining is that partially-damaged apples can still become ciders, which is Keepsake's main business.

Keepsake Cidery, about an hour south of the Twin Cities, is dealing now with the tedious inspection of every fruit on thousands of trees.  

"Optimistically, we're only gonna lose 25%," Watters said. "We're going to believe that. We're out here right now trying to pull the stuff off, protect the fruit that's good, [use] organic healthy sprays, probiotics, fungicides."

The hailstones not only pulverized apples but nicked up thousands of branches. Watters says that exposes the tree to disease.

He says the tight-knit farmer community has helped lift him up with both advice and apples.

MORE NEWS: Deer adding insult to drought's injury on some Minnesota farms

There should be enough time before harvest for crops to heal but it's going to be tight, and the drought doesn't help.

"We can do some double cropping in Minnesota if you get hail early enough, say late May or early June," said Dave Nicolai, a crops educator at the University of Minnesota Extension. "But you get to this point in time, July, our growing season is too short."

Watters doesn't have crop insurance that applies to hail, which he says is a big issue for small farmers like him.