Crop

Fruit lovers can look forward to a peachy summer. It should be, in fact, the peachiest summer in years, maybe ever. A record crop estimated at 120 million pounds of peaches is being harvested now in New Jersey alone, quite an improvement over last summer's weather- damaged crop of 45 million pounds. Together with the 80 million pounds of peaches to be harvested in Pennsylvania, a figure up 5 percent from last year, these represent some of the best of the 2.59 billion pounds of peaches expected from orchards nationwide this year.

William J. "Spud" McCormick Sr., 90, of Rosemont, a philosopher and showman who made his living as a potato broker, died Tuesday at the home of a son in Blue Bell. During his heyday, from about 1931 until 1965, he was the "Potato King," selling 5,000 carloads (three million bushels) of potatoes a year and telling everyone who would listen how good they were for them. He was so busy buying and selling, said his son, William J. Jr., he had eight telephones lined up on his desk in an office in the Lewis Tower Building at 15th and Locust Streets.

Police Officer Bob Shalala of the 6th District shows off a crop of mammoth cucumbers that he grew in a milk crate. Farmer Bob's cucumbers are more than 2 feet long and weigh three pounds each.

A mirage? No, but it wasn't actually rain, either. Elsie Richie was enjoying the fruits of her crop irrigation system before setting to work at Tilbury Farms, which she owns with her husband, Lester, in Elsinboro, Salem County. The drought continued yesterday, with nary a drop of rain to be found in the region.

The heat and drought have been hard on produce and flowers this summer. But the Cream of the Crop, a popular produce produce stand along Lenola Road in Cinnaminson, is carrying on.

In a farming season marked by excessive rain and crop devastation, state Agriculture Secretary Arthur R. Brown Jr. visited the Thriftway supermarket in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia yesterday to promote New Jersey produce. Brown said his visit was designed to promote good will with the merchants who sell New Jersey farm products.

Want to try your hand at mushroom cultivation? The promise is that this hardwood log will produce a crop of organic shiitakes every two months for three years. Shiitake Mushroom Log, $29.95 at Williams Sonoma in King of Prussia or at www.williamsonoma.com . — Maureen Fitzgerald