After the wettest spring in many years, 2019 has been a struggle for farmers of all types.
Dave and Gail Strasser of The Harvest located on the north edge of Lennox said this year has been the hardest year they have had on their farm where they grow vegetable crops. They had a two-day window early on where they were able to get in sweet corn and potatoes. After that, it rained for a long period of time.
“We had three or four weeks of rain. There were a few windows in there where we got some tomatoes and some plants planted,” Dave said. “All of our pumpkins and that type of thing are all late. We just finished planting the fields that were really, really wet the day before yesterday.”
The Strassers were able to plant 10 of their 11 fields. In some of them they had to leave some areas unplanted due to wet spots. One field where they planted gourds was washed out by a 3-4 inch rain and needed to be replanted.
“We did a lot of replanting this year. Our squash was the same way. We planted it and then it sat under water so we lost some squash,” he said. “We replanted and stuff is going to be a little bit later. We’ll see what happens in the fall.”
The Strassers were able to plant about 5,000 onions in a timely fashion. Gail noted the green beans and potatoes are blooming. Other crops like cucumbers are coming along slowly. Their small pumpkins were planted recently, but the big pumpkins were delayed.
They plant 40 different varieties of pumpkins that are all different colors, shapes and sizes. One of their specialty varieties costs $60 to $70 for a packet of 200 pumpkin seeds.
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