BENSON — A week ago farmers all over our state were planning for the worst as a cold snap threatened to destroy their crops. Now most growers have had a chance to assess the damage.

It doesn't take long to see how much damage was done to strawberries. While results vary from county to county, berries in the eastern part of North Carolina appear to have fared pretty well.

Thanks to some hard work and preparation, farmers such as Keith Hill have found that their efforts paid off with minimal losses to the cold weather.

Hill says he managed to save between 75 to 90 percent of his overall crop.

Hills peaches didn't fare as well as his strawberries, but they did do better than he expected. Many blossoms that were already open were killed by the cold temperatures, but he says there were enough buds still closed to salvage much of the crop.

Many peach growers say it's still a little too early to know exactly how much damage was done because peach buds take longer to die off than those of strawberries.