Montville Farmers Face Challenge of Dry Summer

Despite some heavy showers over the weekend, Montville is still very much a town in need of steady rainfall.

According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection website, the northeast drought region, which includes the township, is experiencing ground water levels classified as "severely dry."  The area's 90-day precipitation level has been set at "moderately dry."

While the department currently has the region listed at normal drought conditions, local farmers are feeling the heat and hoping for rain.

For Barbara J. Hertz, owner of Joy B's Farm in Towaco, the heat means more than reduced crops or increased irrigation costs. Her farm, which is run without electricity, needs to be watered by hand.

"We're third-world agriculture, which means no sprinkler system, no well, no electricity," she said. "My irrigation system is by buckets of collected rain water I've saved. I'm already dipping into the supplies I've saved from last year, two years ago, because I've gone through this year's preserves."

For Hertz, who grows, among other things, raspberries, blackberries and plums, the trick is not so much keeping her crops healthy as it is keeping herself from overheating.

"It's pretty bad," she said. "I have to be out there harvesting by hand. Most of the berries are in the shade, because berries are heated by ground heat, not sun heat, but there are still some out there. I drink a lot and I sweat a lot."

Hertz's biggest concern, however, is for her buckwheat, which she grows to support her farm's bees.

"In the heat of the summer, there isn't a lot blooming," she said. " So I plant buckwheat for the bees, and its tough to keep it from drying out."

For Landi Simone, master beekeeper at Gooserock farm, the current warm snap has resulted in some positives. Her apiaries have seen an increase in nectar production compared to the last two years.

"All our major nectar flows were washed out because of the rain in the last few years," she said. "This year is a little bit better than the last two, but we haven't had a good year for close to four or five years."

According to Simone, ideal conditions for beekeeping are warm, sunny days with cool nights, a combination that has not come often enough.

"You have to have the right amount of moisture," she said. "You can't have too much or too little. It has not been a great year for nectar and a lot of that is due to the weather. The bees are limping along. It's not easy keeping bees, and it doesn't seem to be getting any easier."

According to the National Weather Service, the township can expect rain sometime this week. Tonight holds a 40 percent chance of showers, with chance storms forecasted for the remainder of the week.