Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

QUINCY, ILL. -- The apple trees at Edgewood Orchards look full now, but there were times this season that Jim Zellerman thought his orchard would be bare.

"Mother Nature pretty much threw everything at us this year," Zellerman said. "We had an early bloom; a freeze, as a result of that which did do some damage; but we fared a lot better than many orchards in the area."

Like most crops this season, the heat hurt apple trees.

"What we had this year has certainly impacted us," Zellerman said. "We would have had a much better crop if we had cooler, wetter weather, but the trees have done reasonably well."

Two-thirds of the apple trees at Edgewood Orchards are bearing fruit ... better than most corn and soybean crops.

"Well, apple trees have very deep roots compared to corn and beans," Zellerman said. "So we do fare better and a short-term drought does not really impact things."

This year, Zellerman will take what he can get.

"Anything can still happen, but right now we're going to have apples - and a lot of them - and we'll open in a couple of weeks."