State grant helps Bennett Orchards protect crops from spring freezes
- Sussex County Republican Committee
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
August 17, 2026
FRANKFORD — Henry Bennett said this year has been a particularly hard one for Delaware farmers, between changing weather patterns, a damaging April frost and rising input costs.
But technology is helping Bennett Orchards protect the peaches that have been a Sussex County favorite for decades — and now the state is helping the sixth-generation family farm bring that same protection to its blueberries.
The Frankford farm was presented with a celebratory check on Monday for a $53,999 grant awarded through the Delaware Grocery Initiative and First State Food System Grant Program. The grant is helping the farm install a wind machine on part of its blueberry acreage to study whether the technology can reduce spring frost damage and improve yields.
“Basically with climate change and the way our springs are evolving, we’re seeing a lot warmer temperatures earlier and a lot colder temperatures later, which is kind of a recipe for disaster for a fruit grower,” Bennett said.
But the wind machines, designed to raise temperatures around vulnerable fruit during spring freezes, have already helped save much of the family’s peach crop.
Bennett estimated the technology, which could last up to 50 years, saved 70% of the farm’s peach crop on that frosty April 21 night. It equates to roughly 8,000 baskets of peaches or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, the farm lost about 40% of its blueberry crop to the same freeze.
Wind machines work by mixing warmer air from above with colder air that settles closer to the ground, raising temperatures around the crop by roughly three to five degrees.
“Getting your crop from 24 degrees to 30 degrees during bloom is the difference of having a crop or not that year,” Bennett said.
Bennett Orchards had already applied for state funding through the Delaware Grocery Initiative in March to study whether the same wind machine technology could protect its blueberries. Just weeks later, the April freeze provided a clear example of the problem the farm hoped to address.
“This came at a good time, especially with all the other input costs very high right now,” Bennett said, pointing to fertilizer and fuel among the expenses that have risen. “What we grow is what we have to feed our community, to employ everybody on this farm.”
That makes investments in technology increasingly important, but Bennett said rising costs can also make it difficult for farmers to make those investments on their own.
The farm previously worked with the University of Delaware to study wind machines in its peach orchards. Bennett said expanding that research to blueberries could also provide other farmers with data to weigh the cost of the technology against the crops it could save.
“It’s hard, with all the rising input costs, to invest in something like that,” Bennett said.
Now with research in hand showing how much more fruit was produced from a protected crop, growers could help provide a much clearer cost-benefit analysis when considering the equipment.
The funding offered to Bennett Orchard from the state is part of the spring 2026 round of the Delaware Grocery Initiative and First State Food System Grant Program which awarded a combined $712,500 to 28 recipients. Grants ranged from $12,000 to $65,000.
The program is aimed at increasing access to healthy and affordable food in communities considered food deserts or at risk of becoming food deserts. Funding was available to farmers, independent and community grocery stores, food banks, food pantries and other businesses and organizations in Delaware’s food supply chain.
State Sen. Darius Brown (D- Wilmington/Edgemoor) said supporting farms is part of that larger effort to strengthen Delaware’s food system.
“We want to keep farmers farming,” Brown said. “Bennett Orchards is one of those farming families that we want to make sure is able to grow fresh produce for future generations.”
Brown said locally grown produce can then move through grocery stores and other outlets in the community, creating what he described as an ecosystem in which farms and food retailers support one another and one that also works to address food insecurity around the state.
“There’s no greater partner in us addressing these issues than in working with Delaware farmers like we are here today,” Brown said.
Bennett Orchards has been farming the same land since shortly after the Civil War. Henry Bennett and his brother Hale represent the sixth generation to operate the roughly 250-acre property.
About 50 acres are devoted to perennial fruit crops, including peaches, blueberries and nectarines. Bennett Orchards is also the state’s largest blueberry grower.
“We’re very lucky to have this land in our family,” Bennett said. “We’re happy to continue our agricultural legacy, and we’re lucky to have the support that we do from our state and locals all around to help us keep farming.”
