SEPTEMBER 24, 2009 ISSUE
Wet Summer for Western North Carolina Farms
Moist Conditions Hard on Tomatoes, Garlic and Goats; Parsley Plants and Apple Trees Enjoyed the Soaking
The wet summer in the High Country has ended, though our rainy fall weather has just begun. Ask any farmer and he or she will tell you that it is better to have a slightly dry summer rather than a wet one.
The season for 2009 has been anything but dry, with western North Carolina experiencing rainfall at more than two inches above normal levels. Drought conditions prevailed in Watauga, Avery, Ashe and Wilkes counties for 2007 and 2008, so when the rains came this year, farmers rejoiced, as did many other people. Now, the High Country is a bit waterlogged and while the many drops of rain may have spoiled a few picnics, bike rides and other outdoor summer activities for most, the folks who are closest to the pulse of the earth—our farmers—have a different tale to tell.
From tomatoes too timid to grow because of hydrophobia, or fear of water, to low yields of dry-loving garlic to goats reluctant to walk through the rain for milking, the summer of 2009 may well be recorded in the archives as good for only mountain ducks.
“This has been a seriously hard summer,” said Jeann Berry, a farmer located in West Jefferson. “We’ve had no tomatoes. Parsley and basil have done well—tomatoes and peppers have not. They like it hot and drier then we’ve had it.”
Jeann and husband Wayne own Berry Patch Farm and are vendors at the Ashe County Farmers’ Market. The Berry’s garlic crop faired pretty well yield-wise and they also produce buckwheat honey, though over at Big Horse Creek Farm in Lansing, Ron and Suzanne Joyner experienced garlic woes.
“The weather certainly was bad for us too,” said Suzanne. “For the first time ever, we probably lost half our garlic crop and garlic is usually foolproof. It was so cold and rainy. On the other hand, my apple trees were the prettiest ever.”
Ron and Suzanne are known in the region for their apple trees, specializing in the collection and propagation of antique and heirloom varieties.
“Ron is over at the Watauga Farmers’ Market because we’re trying to double up; I will be working the Ashe market, he the Watauga one,” she explained. “Beginning now through the end of the season, we will sell heirloom trees at both places.”
Over at Carol Coulter’s goat dairy, Heritage Homestead Farm in Crumpler, employee Patty Shay had a sad and happy goat tail to tell.
“Goats hate rain,” she said. “It was hard to get the goats out of the barn and up to the milking parlor. The wet season makes the barn such a mess. It was a big, messy, muddy, barn year.”
That’s the sad news: The happy news is that the goat cheese production did not suffer despite the rains and the farm is selling plenty of feta cheese and chevre.
“It was a good year on the farm, just a big mess,” said Shay.
Over at the Silver Family Farm in Crumpler, Claudine Silver gave her agricultural take on the summer of 2009.
“Most of my plants did very well this summer,” she explained. “Though it was too cool for my okra to do well, my corn did very beautifully—it did very well. We did three successive plantings of spring onion as well. It was too wet for my summer squash. The thing we did have trouble with this year was black spots on our green beans because it was so damp, though my bell peppers and banana peppers did so well this year.”
And Claudine’s potatoes, notoriously in love with non-moist conditions because they rot easily, also thrived because of her planting methods.
“We hill the potatoes. My garden slopes so it does not get as soggy wet. On the whole I’ve been very well pleased with our garden; we have approximately one acre.”
Jeann Berry summed up the effects of the extra wet and cool summer weather for herself and all her peers, good advice for all of us: “The rule of thumb with farmers is be adaptable. If you can adapt you can handle anything that comes your way.”
High Country Hay Crop Forecast 2009
“Make hay while the sun shines” is an old proverb and farmers who produce hay as one of their crops literally follow that prescription. Hay must be baled when it is dry, otherwise mold will infiltrate, or it will catch fire because the moisture causes smoldering. According to local farmers, the grass in their hay pastures certainly grew, the trouble is, it almost grew too much and too fast. Reports came in of problems penetrating fields to cut the grass hay and concerns that the cuttings were a little late, because several successive days of dry weather are necessary in order to make hay—that is, to cut, cure and bale the crop. The grass must be cut at its peak, when the protein levels are at their highest. The longer grass stays in the field, the lower the protein content will be—bad news for the animals dependent on high quality hay to see them through the winter and into next year’s spring. Normally, a farmer produces two cuttings in the High Country, one in early summer and one in the fall. North Carolina Extension Service Agent Jeff Bradley said that grass is growing well throughout western North Carolina because of heavy rains, in contrast to the 2007 and 2008 seasons when drought gripped the mountain counties. However, the 2009 hay outlook for the High Country remains nebulous: Too much hay of a low quality is expected.
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