Canada: Acres of carrots remain in ground after snowfall

The Holland Marsh Growers Association estimates there are approximately 200 acres of carrots still in the ground locally and farmers are waiting for the snow to melt before they pull them out.

Eek Farms was only two or three days away from completing its harvest when the frigid temperatures and snow fell on the fields. Now, the local farm is waiting for the snow to melt to pull out about 15 acres of carrots. At full market value, that’s about $35,000 worth of carrots buried under snow.

“These are gorgeous carrots,” said Avia Eek. “They’re beautiful carrots. That’s going to be our best field for carrots and there’s hardly going to be any junk in it. That’s what really hurts the most.”

Eek Farms had already pulled out the majority of its carrots from the ground, but was waiting on the last bunch while their onions cured outside before they were placed into winter storage.

“We just needed those extra two to three days that we waited to put the onions away,” she said.

Holland Marsh Growers Association chairperson and local farmer Alex Makarenko said the weather hit the farmers hard. His farm has less than a day’s worth of carrot harvesting left, but others got hit worse.

He said this year’s crop yield has been good and the snowfall won’t affect the remaining harvest much, saying some farmers will lose some vegetables.

Eek said the best-case scenario for her farm is for the ground to thaw this weekend and then she can harvest the carrots Monday to Wednesday.

If there is frost damage, they will have to go to a processing facility where the damaged product will be cut off and the remainder diced, for products like soups and frozen vegetables.

Source: yorkregion.com

Publication date: Tue 25 Nov 2014