“Above, a view from our mushroom house! Sinking Creek just barely missed the shiitake grove and the vegetable garden. This is one of the worst floods we’ve had in recent memory.”
We’ve gotten some farm photos and stories to share this week.
Floods 2017
Here in the city, we are always aware of the floods in our region, if nothing else but because of the media coverage. But our farmers are accutely aware and very often severely affected by the spring rains that often devastate their crops, animals and homes. Every year, we fear for the livlihood of our dear, hardworking farmers when Mother Nature rolls the dice to decide on draught or deluge–or in some cases, both in the same season.
This week, Nicola MacPherson of Ozark Forest Mushrooms included the photo and caption below in her weekly newsletter. We thought that our members, like us, may appreciate an opportunity to see the trials our farmers endure, so we can be extra thankful for the bounty they work so hard to bring to us each week.
The rains have kept many farmers from getting plants in the ground yet, and we’re hoping not to see this delay too drastically in our produce this summer, but already we know of a few items, such as lolla rossa lettuce from St. Isidore, that may be on the chopping block (and we all know lettuce is supposed to be torn by hand, so this is not a good thing.)
On the other hand, St. Isidore has some lovely salanova lettuces thriving, as evidenced in our shares these past few weeks. Other farms have high and dry fields as well:
Fresh from Ferguson, EarthDance Farms has a beautuiful bed of organic head lettuce for us…
Another of our certified organic farrmers Keith Biver of Biver Farms sent this nice view of the luscious lettuce varieties we’re including in the shares this week…
