While near-record rainfall in July meant fewer days basking in the sun at the pond or savoring balmy evenings outdoors on the patio for most residents, it was yet another financial hit to Harvard’s farms and orchards. The loss of the entire peach crop after a single frigid mid-February night, followed by damage to some of the apple crop after a mid-May freeze, set all of Harvard’s orchards up for a difficult year. This summer’s rains have added to that.
Pam Lawson of Doe Orchards told the Press rain prevented spraying while the apples were growing, and some are now misshapen because of insect damage that occurred when the fruit was forming. While the apples are fine inside, their appearance can put some customers off, she said. It has affected both the Gravenstein and Ginger Gold apples, two of Doe’s most popular early varieties. Luckily blueberries fared well, and although they ripened a bit late, the bushes were filled to the brim for the rest of the season.
To help fill the gap between blueberry season and apple season, the weeks normally filled by the peach crop, Lawson planted vegetables. But heavy July rains left some of the zucchini and cucumber crops rotting in the field, and tomatoes were slow to ripen this year due to lack of sun. But there’s enough produce to keep the stand open, along with sunflowers, until the Gravenstein apples are ready, which should be soon.
Katie Carlson of Carlson Orchards said they suffered “massive crop failure” this year. The mid-May dip below freezing wiped out the fruit on the lower branches of some apple trees. Some apples are misshapen because of the inability to spray, just as Doe’s are. But on the positive side, blueberries were fine, except for one patch in a low area that had standing water for most of the summer. While staff could pick there, the general public couldn’t, leaving a smaller supply for pick-your-own. Carlson said the raspberry crop is good, and there will be plenty of apples for pick-your-own, although there might be fewer quantities of some varieties.
Westward Orchards’ crops seem to have suffered the least from Mother Nature’s blows this year. Orchardist Chris Green told the Press that while they lost their peaches along with everyone else, the apple trees are heavy with fruit, and the vegetables grown for the stand and for the community-supported agriculture program are doing well. He said there’s a bit less corn than usual because some of the fields were too wet to plant in the spring, and tomatoes took longer than usual to grow because of lack of sun, but there’s now “plenty of stuff at the stand.”
Still, the rain has taken a toll on Westward’s bottom line, Green said. It kept people from coming to the store, so sales are down from last year. People don’t pick blueberries in the rain, or even take the time to stop at a farmstand for local produce. Costs are up this year, including those for labor, cardboard, and power. Green said the farm can’t just raise prices when costs are up and there are fewer customers, because that will drive more customers away. With the loss of the peach crop and lower sales, he thinks the farm will lose about $100,000 this year.
Despite the unusual weather, the apple crop looks healthy this year. These Empire apple trees at Westward Orchards are laden with fruit. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Rain, smoke delay tomatoes
Good Spirits Farm owner Christiane Turnheim said in addition to fruit tree damage, their blackberry and blueberry bushes didn’t produce as much fruit as usual. And the rain is causing mildew on the zucchini and cucumber crops, so those seasons will be shorter than usual. Tomatoes are late, she said, not just from too many rainy days, but also because of the haze from the Canadian wildfires. In addition, there are a lot of slugs on the tomatoes because of the rain, as well as problems with cracked skin due to dry days followed by heavy rains.
Turnheim also mentioned that they are concerned about their honey harvest this year. She said honeybees don’t like to fly in the rain, so they spend less time outside foraging, and that translates to lower honey production. She also said some studies show that a rainy summer “could mean trouble for the hives during the winter.”
At Old Frog Pond Farm, owner Linda Hoffman said she thinks every year becomes more difficult because of the unpredictability of the weather. Along with peaches, the farm lost about half its Asian pears, one of the stand’s staples, and also some apples to the mid-May freeze. But blueberries were plentiful, as are the raspberries, which have arrived early. She said they also have a good crop of two early apples; and the farm’s vegetable crops, protected from the rain by the greenhouse, are fine.
Records from the weather station at the Worcester regional airport show just how unpredictable precipitation has been over the past three summers. The average rainfall for Worcester in July is 3.93 inches, but this July the station recorded 12.3 inches. During last summer’s drought, which started in the spring and continued through the fall, Worcester received only 3.56 inches of rain in July, slightly less than average. But the previous year, 13.95 inches of rain fell in July, setting a record for Worcester.
Minutes after receiving Hoffman’s email saying things weren’t looking too bad right now, the Press received a postscript email from her: “Now I see 4 days of rain coming up—that is a problem for raspberry picking!!!” Apparently, Mother Nature is not done testing Harvard farmers this year.
