by Lex Thomas
A hail storm that pounded parts of Sterling on August 4 has left several farmers with acres of crops either totally destroyed, or too blemished to sell on the wholesale market where they earn a significant portion, if not all, of their income. The storm, which dumped large-sized hail throughout the area, lasted less than five minutes. Some farmers say the most devastating part of the storm lasted barely one minute.
Rick Malone, owner of Clearview Farm on Kendall Hill Road, was in Worcester when a friend in Maine called to let him know a severe storm was headed toward Sterling.
“Driving home, the sky was getting more and more ominous,” he recalls. “Then I got a tornado warning on my phone. By the time I pulled into my driveway, it had let loose. I couldn’t even get out of my car.”
In addition to selling produce at the farm’s store, Malone sells to wholesalers who supply larger farmstands and schools, and who demand perfect, unblemished fruits and vegetables. He estimates that 80 percent of his wholesale crop was destroyed.
“A lot of the apples were slit open, so they can’t even be used for juice, due to the risk of organisms,” he says.
And because the storm came so late in the growing season, Malone and other farmers had already invested fully in the costs of growing their crops, including spraying and hiring pickers.
“Whatever is salvageable will take a lot longer to pick, because each piece has to be carefully examined,” he says.
In addition to losing his apple crop, Malone suffered loss to his blueberry crop, which was at its peak. Peppers and zucchini were pock-marked, strawberries and peaches were damaged, and his pumpkin patch “looked like someone went through it with a weed-whacker,” he says.
“I’m hoping people will come to the stand to buy the fruits and vegetables that were salvaged and are still fine, even if they don’t look perfect,” he says. “We have enough for the farmstand and PYO, but wholesale is what generates enough money to pay our bills.”
Losses were also heavy at Meadowbrook Orchards on Chace Hill Road. Owner David Chandler originally estimated his farm’s loss at around 60 percent of his wholesale crop, but an insurance adjuster put it at 95 percent.
“While we can still wholesale some of our apples, it will take a lot longer to pick them,” he says, “because every piece of fruit needs examination and a decision.”
Like Malone, Chandler had spent everything he needed to on growing his current crop. “This couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” he says.
Nonetheless, he is grateful that the farm’s berries were unharmed, and pumpkins suffered little damage. In the meantime, the farm store is stocked with excellent quality produce, and the farm is open for PYO.
“We were fairly lucky,” he says. “Some farms were hit a lot worse.”
One of those hardest hit was Sunny Crest Orchards, owned by Bill Broderick, a fourth generation farmer whose great-grandfather began the farm in 1880. Broderick sells exclusively to wholesalers who send his produce to grocery stores, and who demand perfection in the produce they purchase.
“We were devastated,” he says. “We lost our entire crop. Wholesalers are very, very fussy, and everything we do is geared to the wholesale market.”
Broderick says it costs $100,000 per year in labor and materials to run his farm. Whatever apples can be salvaged for producing cider will sell for $4 per bushel, instead of the $16 per bushel they would normally fetch. The income from cider apples will total about $120,000, a far cry from the $400,000 he could expect to earn by selling his crop to wholesalers.
Ironically, he says this year’s crop was one of the best ever. “Instead, this storm was like hurling rock salt at the crop in 48 mile-per-hour winds and rain that was falling at 11 inches per hour.”
Among the farmers that responded to our inquiry, David Rota, third generation owner of Rota Spring Farm on Chace Hill Road, suffered the least damage, estimating his farm’s loss at around 25 percent, probably largely due to the fact that Rota doesn’t grow apples.
“I still have crops to harvest,” says Rota, who lost peppers, tomatoes and peaches. His pumpkins endured some damage, but he’s confident it will heal before it’s time to harvest them.
“We were lucky it was quick,” he says. “Any longer, and we would have been devastated.”
He says that weather is one of the biggest challenges farmers face. “We were lucky that, over here, the hail came down sideways,” he adds. “If it had come straight down, it would have been a lot worse.”
Despite the setback, Sterling’s farmers are an optimistic bunch. “A big part of our income is gone,” says Rick Malone. “We’ll probably have to renegotiate labor and some other costs. It’ll take a few years to completely recover. I’ve been doing this for 27 years. It’s a bump in the road, but we’ll be okay.”
How about insurance?
Sterling’s farmers carry minimal, if any, crop insurance. “Catastrophic insurance” is not only prohibitively expensive, but only kick into effect if the entire crop is lost.
According to Rick Malone, owner of Clearview Farm, “as long as there’s some value left on the tree, insurance companies won’t pay out.”