Heavy storms have been moving through our area for the past day and a half. I've been laying awake at night hoping we don't have a repeat of the basement flood that we experienced in '07. Yesterday we even had a tornado warning in the late afternoon. It's been wet and miserable.
Then, this morning, we got the following email from the CSA farm.
"Dear Honey Brook Organic Farm Members,
We had a severe thunderstorm on July 23rd that included large hail. We had hail as large as 1”, and know that it damaged the tomato, scallions, beets, summer squash and early watermelon crops, and destroyed completely the remaining chard and summer lettuce. We are still assessing the damage and will keep members apprised via the “This Week Page” on our website. This is the first time we have had damaging hail in our 17-year history!
Farmer Jim"
Oh NO. The tiny little tomatoes. The summer squash. The watermelon. We'll be so disappointed if these things are a loss. At the same time, this serves as a perfect illustration of how a CSA works- all of the members share with the farmer the risks associated with farming, including crop loss from bad weather. If some of the crops are damaged, our shares (return on investment) will simply be smaller- that's the way it works.
I'll keep you posted on the crops. The raspberries and blackberries were supposed to be ready soon, as were snap beans. I'm guessing we're going to hear more bad news when they've finished assessing the damage. Dratted Mother Nature.
2 comments:
Oh no!
Last year during the wildfires we had in Southern California, some of our local CSAs had crop damage. Who would have thought?
I hope they are able to recover quickly.
--scout1222
Our CSA farm had the same hail issues earlier this year. I was shocked to see the notice that their lettuce and green bean crops had been destroyed.
Fortunately, they've made a fantastic recovery, and it's been smooth sailing since. So, I'll hope for the same for you!
Post a Comment