Photo by Judith Hausman
Our storm - damaged tomatoes expired early this season .
Hurricane Irene may have been downgraded to a tropic storm , but it still made a stack in my area . branch fell , neighbour ’ house oversupply and the powerfulness was out for Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . I ’ve never heard a humming as sweet as my refrigerator ’s last Wednesday aurora and a secretiveness as peaceful as when all the generators stopped . It was then time to roll up my sleeves and start up misrepresent again … and , unfortunately , throwing thing out .
About 40 pct of my freezer ’s goodies had to be tossed , including some of the carefully squirreled - away crop from earlier this time of year . Fortunately , the four beautiful local chickens I had in there had only begun to de-ice , so I was up at 6 a.m. ridicule all four : one to keep and three to give aside to Friend and relatives whose closet had become unsheathed after the storm . The strawberry and raspberries I had picked had to be re - opine , too ; I used them to assemble some Labor Day weekend berry shortcakes .
My inconvenience and small loss , however , were nothing compared to what Hudson Valley James Leonard Farmer have suffered .
GrowNYC , the organization that manage New York City ’s Greenmarkets , describe that “ More than 80 pct of the tri - state surface area family farm that provision grow to the metropolis ’s 53 Greenmarkets were ill damage . ”
2d - bout plantings of crops , such as carrots , onions , spinach , arugula and baby beets were moisten away . Flattened cornfields , as well as waterlogged vegetable fields , are everywhere . Winter squashandpumpkinsfloated away down the flood - swollen creek and rivers that have also create the fertility of the farmland . In addition , the FDA has prohibited the sale of produce that was under floodwaters or even in a flooded warehousing facility . As a solution , many CSAs have basically had to shut down for the season because they can not pass salvaged crops onto members .
City Greenmarkets were closed for the full tempest weekend but have reopened . Currently GrowNYC has organized a centralize help desk where farmers can stake their needs . They also gather up donations and offered running buses from the urban center to the farms for volunteer over the Labor Day weekend . shopper at urban markets will certainly be notice a diminished selection of produce , which ordinarily overflow at this clip of yr .
In increase , area high mallow Divine and dairy farm , such as Rainbeau Ridge and Ronnybrook Farm , have had to waste gallon of milk without the tycoon to pasteurise and keep it coolheaded for cheeseflower . Some livestock have even submerge in the Catskills and the lowly farm of Long Island . Neighboring Connecticut and Vermont were terribly impacted , as well .
underscore the importance of decentralised food for thought output as a refuge net , garden and urban - farming projects closer to the metropolis seem in better shape . At our growing coop , our precioustomatoeshave suffered an untimely death , and the rain has pumped up our melon without the sunshine to sweeten them . However , we keep to harvest armfuls of green goods … and feel very lucky , indeed , to be able to do so .
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