RUMFORD — After a topsy-turvy spring that scorched, froze and deluged the Maine landscape, local farmers are doing their best to salvage the rest of the growing season.
On Friday, farmers from across the River Valley set up shop at the Rumford Farmer’s Market to sell strawberries, peas, and other early summer produce. The bright sunshine and 80-degree temperatures were a welcome relief after nearly a week of heavy rain.
“The problem with the weather is it’s crazy now,” Tim Carter, owner of Middle Intervale Farm in Bethel, said. “You get a whole week of really hot, dry weather and then you get rain for a week.”
Indeed, the spring and early summer of 2012 has been a time of weather extremes. In March, the region experienced record-breaking heat, with several days of temperatures in the 70s and 80s. April and May brought rainy weather and erratic temperature swings, while June dumped heavy amounts of rain on the state. As of June 29, the National Weather Service in Gray had recorded 11.03 inches of rain for the month, nearly 7 inches above average.
This season’s inconsistent and extreme weather hasn’t done any favors for farmers. Gail Cutting, owner of Grandma’s House Bakery and Gardens, said the recent heavy rains and short spikes of intense heat have enfeebled her usually robust crop of cucumbers and squash.
“It’s really set back a lot of things, washed out a lot of early seedlings. The setback is the worst, the most disappointing,” Cutting said.
Jim Thurston also yearns for a normal growing season. Last August, Hurricane Irene completely washed out his fields at Thurston Family Farm in Peru; early this month, two days of heavy rains nearly repeated that disaster.
“In the beginning of the month when we had that 7 or 8 inches of rain, that came really close to flooding out our field,” Thurston said, referring to the deluge on June 2-4 . “It was the same amount of water but it was spread out over three or four days so it didn’t come up nearly as high. But it did kind of wash out some of my zucchini and summer squash.”
The wet weather has also forced Thurston to use more pesticides than usual to combat a profusion of garden pests, such as the tenacious cucumber beetle.
“The cucumber beetles have been pretty crazy this year,” Thurston said. “They go right after the zucchini and summer squash and cucumbers and cantaloupe — all those kinds of melons and stuff. They just love them.”
Animals are also suffering from the persistently damp conditions. Weeks of regular rainfall have made it exceedingly difficult for farmers to hay their fields. Jennifer Czifrik has had a difficult time finding dry, good-quality hay for her animals at Roaring Lion Farm in Rumford.
“Hay is very unpredictable right now and it’s kind of hard to find,” Czifrik said. “We have alpacas and animals that really need quality hay. It can’t be damp, it can’t be moldy, it can’t be dusty.”
If more rain falls, the price of hay will only increase, Czifrik said.
“If we have a summer that continues with this weather, hay is going to be pretty expensive,” Czifrik said. “In the summer, it’s supposed to be the least expensive.”
The weather outlook through September calls for average levels of temperature and precipitation, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center.
In an ideal world, Gail Cutting said, the rest of the summer would be blessed with rainy nights and warm, sunny days. After a wild spring, she and her plants are just looking for a break.
“You’ve got this temperament going on here in the fields,” Cutting said. “It’s like, can’t we just have a normal summer?”
-
- “I pumped water out of these fields two weeks ago,” said David Bell, left, as he and his nephew Shane Bell planted potatoes along the Androscoggin River in Durham on Friday. Portions of the 28-acre field were under water after the river rose following heavy rain at the beginning of June. Bell said the cost of fuel, fertilizer and seed is up, so it is a gamble weather or not it’s worth planting potatoes this late in the season. “A good fall will help us. Mom is still praying so maybe we will have a good fall,” he said. The majority of Bell’s potatoes were planted earlier in the season on higher ground and were not affected by the heavy rainfall.
-
- Rick Belanger said the wet month of June has not been too bad for the sweet corn that he grows in Lewiston. However, the rain that came down June 2-4 did set his potato and vine crops back. “We got two months of rain in three days so that messed everything up,” he said. Potato seed had been in the ground only two weeks when the heavy rains caused the spuds laying in the low spots to rot. His corn fared better. “We should have corn in three weeks,” Belanger said.
-
- Jim Thurston of Peru displays some of the produce that weathered June’s rainy weather. Thurston, owner of Thurston Family Farm LLC, sold his produce at the Rumford Farmers Market on Friday.
-
- Gail and Carl Cutting of Mexico display their produce at the Rumford Farmers Market on Friday. The Cuttings, who run Grandma’s House Bakery and Gardens, have struggled with June’s heavy rains.
-
- Shane Bell loads potato seed onto a planter in Durham on Friday. This has been the latest date that Bell has planted potatoes, but because of wet fields, he had no choice. “That was the amount of rain we should have got in a month, not two days,” Bell said about the heavy rainstorms at the beginning of June.
-
- River Valley farmers pose for a photo at the Rumford Farmers Market on Friday. Some local farmers have struggled to cope with this spring’s extreme weather.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
