Local Farm Markets Have a Bountiful Harvest

No one relies upon moderate weather conditions more than the farmer, and local farmers are still trying to work around the extremes of this spring's temperatures.

After weeks of non-stop rain in very early spring - - also known as "planting season" in the farm world - - the hot, dry August weather moved in, apparently to stay. The problem was, it was May, not August.

Now that summer has officially arrived, the general consensus among local farmers is that some crops are pretty close to on time, some are running about 7 to 10 days behind and there won't be as much of some popular fruits this year.

At Eichner's Family Farm in Wexford, Ron Eichner knows you can't control the weather, so he just rolls with it. Or not.

"When it was so wet during planting season we changed our practices from conventional plowing to no-till planting," he says. "It's not as efficient and takes longer, but we got our crops in when we could. You can't let weather shut you down, you have to learn to be proactive and find ways around it."

Eichner is fascinated by the weather and keeps a daily log, something he's done for years. He looks for patterns and clues to what may be coming, but says only God can control the weather so there's no use in getting too stressed. At this point, he says, his crops are running about 7 to 10 days behind normal, which isn't too bad.

Art King, at Harvest Valley Farms located in Richland, says some of his crops are running pretty close to on time, while some are lagging farther behind the normal schedule. What's got him crazy is the bedding plants that are a hard sell when spring gardening season comes late.

"You can only hang on to them for so long because they can only survive so long in those little containers," says King, "And sometimes, when people get behind they get busy and just say the heck with it and skip annuals that year."

Still, his lettuce crops he says, "are fabulous" and his is in full swing. And he expects to have sweet corn for the July 4 weekend.

Soergel Orchards in Wexford have canceled their very popular "pick your own" strawberries program this year due to a combination of factors.

Spokesperson Katie Morrison says they had a smaller crop than usual due to some cold spots where the patches never ripened. Then the deer enjoyed some of the harvest and they used so much of what was left at their strawberry festival there simply weren't enough berries left to pick.

Morrison assures strawberry picking fans that the fields will plentiful next year.

Morrison says they expect the blueberry crop to be smaller than normal simply because of the cool, wet weather earlier in the spring, but iberries should be in toward mid-July.

Soergel's  does expect corn by July 4 and they planted lettuce for the first time this year which Morrison says is going very well.  There are so many other food choices, no one will ever go away empty-handed.

 King sends out a chatty, weekly newsletter and in his most recent missive he reminisces about trying to plant the lettuce crop back in May that he was currently picking. Back then, it was so wet he was ready to just give up on the tractor, but he persevered and now he has a bountiful harvest.

He also points out in his newsletter how technology has sped up growth (things like special bed covers and planters) so that it's faster and more efficient.

It's that technology that enables us to eat sweet corn on the cob in early July instead of in August.

If you've never checked out any of the local farm markets, this is the time to do so. Right now, there are still strawberries, abundant lettuces, green beans, zucchini, sugar snap peas, shell peas and spinach.

In July and August the markets will be overflowing with dozens of varieties of fresh fruit and vegetable.

It's worth the trip and if you've never had fresh produce before, you won't believe what you've been missing.