Like many places, the blue-ribbon produce at Ed Preston's co-op stand in Huntington, W. Va., comes from Georgia and Florida. The homegrown varieties that will start showing up in the coming weeks likely will be puny by comparison.
Farmers are already feeling the sting of the second drought to hit Ohio River counties in three years.
"I think this is far worse, really," Preston said. "I'm afraid a lot of the stuff is going to be smaller than normal."
Counties from Huntington to Parkersburg are in a moderate drought, while 36 others, including both panhandles, are experiencing abnormally dry conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a service of the National Weather Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies.
State agriculture officials are hoping that the drought doesn't reach the levels already seen in other states. Alabama issued a disaster declaration for 19 counties Tuesday, while extreme drought conditions exist in parts of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Wyoming.
Kentucky and southern Ohio are under moderate drought conditions, while eastern Pennsylvania and extreme southwest Virginia have spots of dryness.
The forecast for the next week will bring little relief to West Virginia. In the interim, watering is at a premium.
"It's going to mean the guys who don't have irrigation systems are going to be hurting," Preston said. "And the ones who do have irrigation systems, they're going to have a lot of money tied up, but they're going to have a good crop."
Preston has cut back on the number of tomatoes he's grown over the years because he runs the produce stand six days a week. His 2,500 plants back home in Crown City, Ohio, pale in comparison to friends with 40,000 and 50,000 plants.
"Really, the guys that are raising tomatoes, myself included, if we're not irrigated, we're going to be eaten up by blossom-end rot. The plants have got to have some water," Preston said.
Like Preston, John Oldaker, the greenskeeper at Riviera Country Club in Lesage, relies on an irrigation system in two wells that feed from the Ohio River to get him through dry times.
A lack of rain means fewer washouts for golfers and more rounds played for operators. So there's not much complaining.
"We're looking pretty good," Oldaker said. "It hasn't really affected us that much yet. We're doing some hand watering and catching some extra dry spots on the greens. It's a lot harder on the people around here on the lawns and gardens than it is us."
West Virginia's hilly terrain means many farmers can't water their land like those out West who use commercial or flood irrigation, said Jamie Kinsey, executive director of the state Farm Bureau.
"The terrain is so much different," Kinsey said Wednesday. "If you look at our production, there's no way of irrigating their land. It's not a cheap process."
It's already been a testy year for the state's agriculture industry. In April a freeze zapped many fruit trees. Preston said he lost his black cherry crop and will have only a few bing cherries this year--"the birds got all the rest."
The April freeze claimed one variety of apple on Alan Gibson's small, pick-your-own orchard in Harpers Ferry, and now his concerns turn to a fall favorite--pumpkins.
There are 18,000 seeds being planted around his Ridgefield Farm, but pumpkins, like melons and cucumbers, need lots of water if they're going to be ready for Halloween.
"I'm worried about the prospects of that crop," Gibson said. "I'm not really set up for irrigating that many pumpkins. So I'm crossing my fingers."
Agricultural Commissioner Gus Douglass said Wednesday his office is compiling information for a possible disaster declaration that would seek federal help for several southwestern counties.
Two years ago, farmers in Cabell and Wayne counties who suffered losses because of dry weather were allowed to apply for low-interest federal loans.
"They don't need any more loans. We need assistance in delivering the water and the feed," Douglass said. "We have the water. We just don't have the water where we need it."
West Virginia has 410,000 cattle statewide, 29,000 of which are in Jackson and Mason counties. Farmers in the western part of the state are getting only 30 percent of their normal hay production, said Jim Bostic, executive secretary of the West Virginia Cattlemen's Association.
A soaking rain last Friday was a "lifesaver" for Kevin Brown, who farms on 5 acres in Letart in Mason County and sells early vegetables such as new potatoes and peas at a market in Point Pleasant. He doesn't have access to river water for irrigating his crops.