{"id":595,"date":"2017-09-27T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/farmclim\/?p=595"},"modified":"2017-09-27T12:00:17","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T16:00:17","slug":"resilient-to-climate-vermont-farmers-roll-with-the-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/farmclim\/2017\/09\/27\/resilient-to-climate-vermont-farmers-roll-with-the-weather\/","title":{"rendered":"Resilient to Climate, Vermont Farmers Roll with the Weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early rains, late rains. Early blight, late blight. Wet spring, dry fall. \u00a0The variability of Vermont weather<\/a> means one summer’s typical weather is anomalous in the next.<\/p>\n

The crop that is amazing one season could be disappointing the next. Summer 2017 made planting schedules difficult as mid-season rains pelted crops and saturated soils when many farmers wanted to be planting.\u00a0Lester Farm<\/a> in New Haven had a successful early crop of melons, which ripened well in the sunny dry weeks of early September, but they’ve sold out now earlier than planned. \u00a0 They’d been expecting to stagger their harvests for a late harvest melon crop but mid-summer heavy rains prevented them from planting their second crop and their melon starts ended up in their compost pile.<\/p>\n

Pete’s Greens<\/a> in Craftsbury, Vermont has also experienced some predicaments due to mid-season rains and early blight this past summer. \u00a0Farm manager Isaac describes,<\/p>\n

…Fungus, bacteria, stuff coming up from the south, blight is pretty common now in Vermont, something we didn\u2019t deal with for our first eight years\u2026 Our potato crop is about 50% of what it usually has been.\u00a0We got tons of rain early on and lost a bunch of seed when we planted it so those crops suffered. \u00a0Our carrot crop which we plant around July 4 is looking amazing, we\u2019ve had some nice warm dry weather and the rain to give it a big boost and it\u2019s looking super…<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n