Fall foods coming up short

NORTH LIBERTY, Ind. -- The leaves are beginning to change and the temperature is starting to drop.

This time of year, local cider mills and farmers markets are usually packed, but fall favorites may be hard to come by, that's thanks to the spring frosts and summer drought.

The Apple Patch in North Liberty is actually closed right now. The weather was just too much for their orchard.

Bill and Sue Ditmar own the orchard with 1,100 apple trees.

“Usually this time of the year we're up early in the morning, picking apples, and late at night.” said Bill Ditmar. “My grandkids all come and help pick and we just have a good time.”

Last year 1,500 bushels of apples got picked off the branches.

"This year we had seven apples, seven apples,” said Sue Ditmar. “We had 600 gallons of cider last year, this year we have nothing. People that were calling to inquire about coming to pick wanted to know what was available and I had to tell them, again, that there's no crop."

Pumpkins also took a hit, their patch is half the size it was last year.

The Ditmars said in two to three weeks, they hope to change their sign to say “open,” but it depends on how their pumpkin patch turns out.