Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The cost of Frost

I am sure that those of you who read my blog are wondering whats up...no blogs from vicki
Ive been busy replanting.. At the beginning of april all looked really great . We had a little rain , the corn was 6 inches high and the potatoes were 12 inches high.. Then came the wind sucking the mositure out of the plants and MR Frost came sailing in for 2 hours. The corn took a huge hit and the potatoes got nipped , 73 tomato plants gone along with the squash. I was devastated. Luckily it was early enough that I have had time to replant but we wont be eating corn and squash until 3 weeks later than planned.

The weather is what makes farming such a challange. The drought in Texas has been devastating for most farmers. For me on a small scale the losses equate to thousands ( no crop for the farmers market or HEB. ) But luckily with watering ( thank you Wixon Valley water) I was able to meet my commitment to the CSA members with a little left over . I got off easy. FArmers north of Bryan though got hurt bad. Most every farmer who planted from Temple to NOrth Bryan lost thier entire corn crop. A client of my husbands called for Sorghum seed to replace the 90,0000 of corn he lost on his 300acres. To make things worse as I learned on my income taxes he cannot write this loss off as an expense. Its not easy to be a farmer..

So why do we do it.. I do for the joy of when things do grow, for being in the sunshine and seeing the look on the faces of the people who get the produce. It makes the struggle worth it and makes me appreciate life.

The good news is .. the new crop of corn is up and the potatoes are recovering. See you later

3 comments:

lutherchick said...

Hi Vicki,

Do you still have membership shares available? The homepage of your website says you do, but when I pull up the contract it is for 2008 so I can't tell if that info is current.

If so, please give me a contact number or call me at 979-450-4451. I'm a part-time student so if I don't answer, I'm probably in class and will call you back asap. What a great idea you're bringing to our area!!!

Thank you~
Windy

vlm said...

I have a few late spring memberships available. Contact me at vicki@longbeanfarm.com if you are interested for pricing and details

Unknown said...

It sounds like you had a nice trip and it is great that you shared the experience with your in-laws.

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Jenifer
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