Head in the Clouds Amherst: July 2023

Friday, July 14, 2023

"Never mind, it's all under water now."

Photo: Mountain View Farm looks like they were heading
for a beautiful crop of peppers before the flood.

Re-posting this from Simple Gifts Farm in North Amherst. It's been a season (and the season is hardly over).

FLOOD DAMAGE RELIEF EFFORTS
At about 7:30 on Monday morning, David from Stone Soup Farm sent out an email to the Pioneer Valley Farmers list-serve entitled "Help us Save Our Garlic." The Connecticut River was rising, swollen with water coming downstream from Vermont in addition to the 3-4 inches that fell in the Western Mass, and David was hoping some of their farmer friends could come and help them get their garlic harvested before the flood buried it. Within a couple of hours, the heart-breaking second email came through: "Never Mind, it's all under water now. It rose faster than I thought it would." As the week has gone on, we have learned of more of our fellow farmers that have lost most to all of their crops in the flooding. Mountain View had 45 acres of vegetables in Northampton that are all gone. Natural Roots and Song Sparrow Farm lost their entire vegetable crop. Farmer Dave has been doing a side job getting fields ready to plant at the All Farmers site in Springfield, and he was still unable to get to the field as of Wednesday, because it was all underwater. We are feeling that maybe it's not so bad to grow on the sandpit soil that we have here in North Amherst. My life as a farmer has centered around problem solving, persistence, optimism, and continuing to just put one foot in front of the other. I find it hard to imagine having that perspective in the face of a total loss such as these people have suffered. MDAR estimates that at least 75 farms have been affected, and at least 1,000 acres.
Linked below are opportunities to donate to some of our farmer friends that have been flooded; please do what you can to support them.
Natural Roots Farm: https://gofund.me/d0f53dd2
Grow Food Northampton: https://www.growfoodnorthampton.org/ways-to-help-with-flood-recovery/
Song Sparrow Farm: https://www.gofundme.com/f/song-sparrow-farm-flood-recovery-fund
Mountain View Farm: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mountain-view-farm-flood-damage-fund
Stone Soup Farm: https://www.stonesoupfarmcoop.com/

On Puffer's Pond

Saturday, February 4, 2023, 3:35 pm: The past two days have seen record-breaking cold in the area, with the temperature dipping to -14F overnight, Friday into Saturday. To make matters worse, the wind was unyielding, whipping through the trees and driving wind chill readings down to -40F. In a season that had been unusually mild up until that point, it was something of a shock. Local residents were suddenly forced to think about warming up their cars, preventing pipes from freezing, and dressing in multiple layers to walk their dogs. By Saturday, while many were happy to hunker down and wait for temperatures to stop breaking low records, this was the moment that ice fishers and skaters had been waiting for all winter. With temps hovering around 12F (albeit above zero) by Saturday afternoon, Puffer's Pond was the place to be for about 30 people, many of whom were spread out over the ice, either ice fishing or playing hockey. While this is a fairly typical sight at Puffer's in the coldest winter months, our current lack of snow made it unique. No one had to contend with snowpack - the skaters didn't even have to clear a "field" for their game. And with all the hiking paths snow and ice-free, photographers had no trouble capturing water flowing through, under, and around layers of ice on the water. And, still, at 12F, without hand and foot warmers, I did not linger long. The temps will be rising quickly in the coming week, climbing well above freezing, even to 50F in the days to come. So, I'm guessing the skaters and ice fishers also won't be here much longer.

(Read past entries here.)

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Friday, July 14, 2023

"Never mind, it's all under water now."