Dry Summer Hurts Local Farmers

As a farmer, Sara Blersch has to be particularly careful when she does her laundry.

There's nothing dangerous about her clothing or washer, but the well that feeds Blersch's house also irrigates her crops and with the low rainfall this summer; there's not a lot of water to go around.

In a summer hot enough to draw a drought advisory, local Southbury farmers are finding new challenges in keeping their crop growing, though their profits remain in the black.

Jodi Mitchell, of Mitchell Farms in Southbury, said that the lack of rain caused her corn to grow in late, and not as plentifully which made it hard to keep up with orders from Whole Foods, one of her customers.

Blersch, of Daffodil Hill Growers at Woodside Farms in Southbury and one of the farmers market organizers, said she was meeting demand, but the heat was making it difficult, particularly for her eggplant crop.

"When [the temperature] get above 95 deg, nothing grows well," said Blersch.

Blersch also said that she was fortunate to have an irrigation system on her farm, although it means she has to be especially conscious of the water she uses.

Paul Perkins of Stoneledge Hollow Farm in Southbury said that although he usually was able to rely on rainfall to feed his plants, he'd taken to hand-watering his plants.  By his measure, his land has only received one and a quarter inches of rainfall since July 4th, all in one go last week.

"Some things just died," said Perkins.  "A lot of the flowers…some of the squash got brown rot or the blight."

Perkins said that the insects the heat brings were also presenting a problem to him as an organic farmer.

At the end of the day however, Perkins is keeping his head above the water.

"We're doing fine," he said.  "As well as anyone else, anyway."

The heat has helped some; Blersch said that tomato and broccoli crop had fared nicely in the weather.  And because the winter had been so warm, they'd been able to start selling peaches earlier than usual.

Ironically, Blersch said that last year's summer had been too cold and wet for many plants to grow well, contributing to a tomato blight and extreme spread of fungus.

Mitchell accepted the last two years of weather as part of the work.

"It's the life of a farmer," she said.  "I try to deal with it."

Autumn, Mitchell said, is looking better.