RIDGE SPRING, S.C. (AP) – Chalmers Carr rifled through a bin of freshly picked peaches, ensuring only those with just the right color make it from his farm to the grocery store.

“The worst thing you can do is give someone a green peach,” said Carr, who owns Titan Peach Farms. “If it doesn’t taste good, they’ll never buy another peach from you.”

Like Titan Peach Farms, most peach orchards in South Carolina are about 10 days late this season because of a cool spring that slowed the ripening process.

“This year, our spring, our night temperatures, did not warm up as quickly as normal,” said Martin Eubanks, a spokesman with the state Department of Agriculture. “Our crop was delayed somewhat in terms of maturity.”

The most important thing for a strong peach season is weather, Eubanks said. The first step is a cold winter, which helps set the fruit. After that, occasional rain and warm, humid nights are needed to produce sweet, juicy peaches, he said.

Although the cool spring has forced South Carolinians to wait a little longer for this year’s crop, Eubanks it won’t affect how the fruit tastes.

And that’s a good thing for peach farmers, since South Carolina markets itself as “The Tastier Peach State.”

“Our peaches are known for their high-quality flavor and texture,” Eubanks said.

Commercial peach production in South Carolina dates to 1860 and the peach industry is worth about $30 million. Eubanks said South Carolina’s acidic soil and humid nights are just right for the ripening process.

“There’s a lot of factors that go into giving peaches the flavor we’re known for,” he said.

Although Georgia is known as “The Peach State,” South Carolina produces more orchard fresh peaches than any state except California, which produces nearly half the nation’s peaches.

There was some mild damage done by cold weather to a few orchards around the state, but South Carolina Peach Council president Lewis Holmes expects a solid crop this year, nevertheless.

“I think we’re going to be all right,” said Holmes, who owns and operates a peach farm in western South Carolina.

Carr’s 2,600-acre Titan Peach Farms produces 46 varieties of peaches, most of them with yellow flesh, but some of them are a rarer, white-fleshed variety.

“I love what we do,” Carr said, navigating his pickup truck between rows of peach trees. “No two days are the same. You have Mother Nature to deal with, people to deal with, markets to deal with. It’s always a challenge.”