Area Farmers Say Dry Summer has Hurt Business

NEWPORT, RI—The recent rains from the remnants of Hermine have helped, but farmers at last week's Aquidneck Growers' Market confirmed the dry weather and near drought conditions have hurt them this summer.

They're still producing plump tomatoes and bushels of corn, of course, but it's been a challenging year.

According to Kim Gardner, spokeswoman for the farmers' market, lack of rain is just one of the problems farmers routinely face. For one example, she said, Paradise Farm of Westboro, Mass., lost its entire peach orchard due to a late frost. Then the hot weather hit, and no rain, and a well went dry. They'll have to dig a new one.

Shirley Robbins, of Paradise Farm, said the tomatoes have been okay, and she's relied on drip irrigation to save the rest of the crop. But she lost a lot of fruit.

"We're having big problems—major problems—with no water," she said. It seemed it's rained all around the South Coast but not in Westboro, she said.

The drought or near-drought conditions also mean some crops will be late, Gardner said.

Like cranberries, said Mark Kavanagh, of Fairland Farm in North Attleboro.

"It's really bad for the cranberry business," he said. Growers rely on rain to fill the reservoirs around the bogs. But the rain has not been falling.

"With the harvest only two weeks away, they're all delayed," he said.

Other farmers said some crops didn't last very long, due to the dry summer.

"It's having an effect for sure," said Karla Simmons of Middletown's Simmons Farm. Her cabbage was "short-lived," she said, and some of the other crops needed a lot more watering.

"They're having to dump a lot of water on things," like chard, she said.

But the berries did okay this summer, said Kali Kutm a picker with the Barden Family Orchard in North Scituate. "And we got pretty good tomatoes."

"It has an effect but not a terrible one," said Mary Bisson, of Portsmouth's Maplewood Farm. She brought giant sunflowers, tomatoes, potatoes and lots of other produce to the farmers' market and did a brisk business.

The lack of rainfall also hasn't been too hard on Dave Chase's honey business, though. He has bee hives in Newport and Middletown, he said, but since the honeybees travel three miles, he figures he can include Portsmouth in the forage area. Lack of rain has meant the bees are going to backyard bird baths and other nearby water sources more often than usual, he said. They're threatened also by pesticides, but "they're hanging on," he said.

"Yes, they're apis mellifera," he said.

Steve Siravo, of Poblano Farm in Wakefield, said he couldn't really answer the question about the drought. Siravo was selling organic tomato sauce and salsa, but he's using tomatoes from the Brandon family farm in Kingston. Poblano hasn't been certified organic yet, he said.

For more information about The Aquidneck Growers Market, visit their website.

Photo Captions: Mike Lawyer, leftmost, with customers at Tiverton's Roots Farm booth; Produce from Roots Farm; Padraic Keane, originally of Galway, Ireland, with vegetables fermented in sea salt by Lost Art Cultured Foods; Mary Bisson, of Maplewood Farm, Portsmouth; Steve Siravo, Poblano Farm, Wakefield.

Photo Credit: Margo Sullivan