2024 Flood: 2 Weeks Out
We want to update our loyal and valued members on our post-flood status. It's been two weeks already, but we are in pretty good shape despite Mother Nature's irony of a flood on the same day as 2023.
A difference from 2023 is that the farm is drying out more quickly, which has allowed us to get back to work. Since the flood we’ve been planting like crazy, some previously scheduled, some new makeup crops. The list is long: baby lettuce, salad mix, cilantro, basil, scallions, carrots, beets, romaine lettuce, kale, collards, broccoli, napa cabbage, winter red and green cabbage, zucchini, and yellow squash. More flowers, broccoli, herbs, baby greens, and head lettuce are some of the crops still to plant. Special thanks to Harlow Farm in Westminster, Walker Farm in Dummerston, and High Meadows Farm in Putney for donating and trucking a load of fully grown transplants to us to speed up our recovery.
Pick-ups are back to normal schedule now, thank you for your patience. We still have full coolers of pre-flood, harvested vegetables: carrots, onions, potatoes, beets, cabbages, kale, and chard. Paired with the unflooded salad mix, baby lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes we are harvesting, this makes for a pretty good selection of vegetables.
Our goal is to have at least 8 vegetables on the tables each week, so we may be rolling out items at different times. And of course the flowers! We are grateful to ICF members and the wider community folk who came to harvest in the rain and mud on July 11 and helped us salvage so many crops. Thank you!
In addition to replanting we are tending and weeding our unflooded crops, irrigating(!) and cleaning up our fields: pulling up plastic, tomato cages, drip tape, and so forth. If you’d like to help us with cleanup, we are coordinating volunteers through the Intervale Center. You can sign up here. We’ve had great volunteer groups helping us prune blossoms and work on other crop restoration projects in the past week.
Our summer share value as of week 8 is about equal to comparable retail prices allowing for the single pick-up missed on 7/11 or 7/15. Based on 2023, we expect to equal or better retail prices for the 2024 summer share.
If you’d like to make a financial contribution, you may donate via the Intervale Center’s Intervale Farmer Recovery Fund.
Thank you for your continued support, enthusiasm, and for coming to pick up your vegetables!