Apple consumers in Minnesota can thank an early spring for apples at area orchards, which are ripening 10 days to two weeks ahead of schedule -- but because of rough weather, the crop is also smaller. KARE-TV reports that shoppers should expect no deals on apples this year, with the exception of hail-damaged fruit -- often sold as "utility" apples -- at half price.

Minnesota growers say the April frost will reduce the size of this year's apple crop but was not as damaging as many had feared. One of the most important measures of potential damage, though, won't happen until the apples are ready for tasting.

For the past 32 years, University of Minnesota apple breeder David Bedford has been keeping the doctor away ... in a big way. He's tasted 500 to 600 apples a day during the apple harvest, the U's Minnesota Daily reports. The university’s 124-year-old fruit breeding program is one of three left in the country. “I don’t eat many apples,” Bedford said. “I taste many apples.”

Below-freezing temperatures are threatening Minnesota apple crops this week. The Star Tribune reports the owner of Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake is spending more $600 an hour for a helicopter to circulate air through the trees overnight.

Minnesota farmers are taking advantage of the dry weather and getting an early start on the fall harvest. Combines started rolling through corn and soybean fields last week, the Pioneer Press reports. Despite the lack of rain, Minnesota escaped the disastrous drought conditions seen in much of the nation's heartland.

The rest of the country will be looking to Minnesota to help fill its corn bins this fall. A new crop estimate from the USDA says the national corn harvest will be 13 percent smaller than last year. But up here where the drought is not as devastating, we're expecting to bring in 7 percent more than last year. And the sugar beet forecast is up a whopping 43 percent.

Minnesota’s record dry season has area farmers worried about next year’s crops. MPR says if the drought conditions carry over into the spring, farmers won’t have enough moisture to water a normal amount of crops.