Farmers at Holcomb Farm in Granby are still left picking up the pieces after hail from last week’s storms damaged some of their crops.
“In 15 minutes it goes to waste and you have to start again. It's disheartening,” said Hana Fulwider, the crew leader for the farm.
Hail shredded both layers of plastic on all four of the farm’s greenhouses and will need to be replaced. In some cases, it smashed into the seedlings.
“We just reskinned them last fall. It's meant to last three to five years so the timing's rough for us,” said Shannon Zich, a part-time farmer at Holcomb Farm.
A brand-new, expensive barrier used to protect crops from flea beetles is also battered.
"It was perfectly sized for this field. And it's basically garbage. It looks like Swiss cheese so the bugs will get in very easily,” Fulwider said.
Hail damage extends from a cracked windshield on a van to the tomato crop. Zich said already the farm’s replanted, but had to get some seeds from an outside farm.
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Holcomb Farm has a non-profit Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
"The idea behind a CSA is that the community supports financially the farm's risk. So when Mother Nature throws a curveball, the farm isn't hit as hard and can rebound,” Zich said.
Every year is different for these farmers, from droughts to floods to the most recent hail.
"It is a worry that people will think, oh we don't have enough vegetables, but we do. We always come back from any hardships as a farmer you just have to,” Fulwider said.
It just takes a lot of hard work. CSA season begins in June and the farmers said they’ll be ready.
"It's physically exhausting and sometimes mentally exhausting because sometimes disheartening to see the fruits of your labor didn't turn out like you wanted,” Fulwider said. “But this is a good family."
