Irene Fallout Lingers for Some Farmers and Local Markets

Tropical Storm Irene left behind flooded basements, deluged roads and extended power outages, all of which are now hopefully — if painfully and expensively — resolved.

But for the region’s farmers, the fallout from Irene is still unfolding, whether a small family farm, commercial grower or those who supply our local farmers markets.

“This was the most devastating storm and the most devastating situation to impact us in the last 56 years,” Christopher Pawelski, a farmer in the state’s famed Black Dirt region in Florida, NY, recently told the New York Farm Bureau.

While he and other farmers work to secure more expansive aid from the federal government, there is much you can do to help.

Community Markets, which runs many local farmers markets, is highlighting the plight of their participating farmers hardest hit by Irene. Fundraising efforts they are promoting include Dine Out Irene on Sunday Sept. 25 where participating New York City restaurants will donate up to 10% of sales to aid local farmers. The funds will go directly to GrowNYC and Just Food, which will distribute to area farms.

Damage to growers supplying local markets

"We did have several farmers impacted,” said Frankie Rowland, marketing and advertising director at Community Markets. Most significantly, Rowland said, were J&A in Goshen, N.Y., “which lost all of their crops with Irene, replanted and lost them all again with (Tropical Storm) Lee and now has replanted again and hopes to return to the Pleasantville Farmers' Market sometime late in the season."

As bad as Irene was, for many farmers it was just the latest in a string of bad weather.

It also didn’t help that farmers had most of their expenses in for the season and were depending on the sales of crops to cover it all.

“It hit us all at the worst time,” Pawelski said in an interview.

The region's promising apple crop and steady apple prices, at least, seem to be bright spots amid a sea of flooded below-ground crops and ruined harvests.

Jan Davies of Dr. Davies Farm in Congers, in Rockland County, said: “For pick your own, we have kept our prices the same for three years.

Irene's impact on local farms

The storm toppled 150 trees at Stuart’s Farm in Somers, but locals can expect plenty of apples to pick from this season.

“We actually didn’t lose many apples off the trees, and we propped them back up with two-by-fours and rope,” said Betsy Stuart, a sixth-generation of the 200-acre farm, which has the oldest apple orchard in Westchester County.

August rains led to a bumper crop of apples there, including Macintosh, Cortlands and Macouns available now for picking.

Other crops did not fare as well—over half of their pumpkins rotted in fields, the zucchini was wiped out completely and plum tomatoes burst from drinking too much rain. But the Stuart’s have sourced sugar pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns from other farms to provide customers with a large selection and increased prices by only 10 cents per pound.

“We know everyone is hurting and didn’t want to pass along the pain,” Stuart said.

The storms washed away the gravel road leading to Amawalk Farm in Katonah, but didn't damage crops, said Larry Cross, who owns the organic farm with his wife, Marian. The work to rebuild the road led to the farm's two-week closure. They re-opened Sept. 24.

Harvest Moon in North Salem suffered minimal damage from Irene, said Kevin Covino, the farm’s manager. The 63-acre farm—a popular destination for families in Fall for its hayrides, live music and fresh donuts—has been open for weekend picking since Sept. 10.

“We were lucky,” said Lynne Hawes, manager of the farm market formerly known as Outhouse Orchards. “The only thing we lost was ice cream.”

Pumpkin prices are slightly higher, she said, given Irene’s damage to upstate growers. Buyers can expect to pay about $8.50 for a medium and $20 for an extra-large sized pumpkin.

August’s heavy rains helped develop a high-quality apple crop at Salinger’s Orchard in Brewster, said Bruce Salinger, a third-generation owner of the 110-year-old orchard.

“We had lots of early sunshine, and lost few apples in the storm,” he said. “Now is the time [to purchase apples], because there is variety—right now we have Macintosh, Gala, Honey Crisp, Cortland, Macoun and Empire; some aren’t in yet, like Red Delicious, Mutsu, Jonagold, and Golden Delicious, but we’ll have them all winter.”

Higher prices can be expected on the produce they sell from other growers, such as pumpkins, gourds and squashes, and tomato and corn.

What to know before you go

Salinger's Orchards

230 Guinea Road, Brewster

845-277-3521

Open Mon. – Sun. 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

http://salingersorchard.com

Stuart's Farm

62 Granite Springs Rd, Granite Springs

914-245-2784

Open Mon. - Sun. 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

http://www.stuartsfarm.com

Harvest Moon

130 Hardscrabble Road, North Salem

914-485-1210

Mon. - Sun. 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

http://harvestmoonfarmandorchard.com/

Amawalk Farm

42 Wood Street, Katonah

914-245-2319

http://www.amawalkfarm.org/

Open Sat. 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. - 5 pm., Tues./Thurs. 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Patch editors Plamena Pesheva, Sarah Studley and Ashley Tarr contributed to this report.