Vermont farms are still recovering from flooding as they enter the growing season
BERLIN, Vt. (AP) — Hundreds of Vermont farms are still recovering from last July’s catastrophic flooding and other extreme weather as they head into this year’s growing season.
Dog River Farm, in Berlin, Vermont, lost nearly all its produce crops in the July flooding. The farm removed truckloads of river silt and sand from the fields before another round of flooding in December washed away more precious soils, wiped out the farm’s garlic planted in late fall and left behind more silt and several giant holes in a field, said owner George Gross on Wednesday.
“We had 15,000 garlic heads — bulbs growing here which is a significant amount of retail dollars,” he said pointing to a section of field. “And now they’re gone. They’re somewhere down along the Winooski (River).”
Goat farmers Jeremy and Jennifer Leather lost straw bales near the river that were washed away in the July flooding and others were saturated and unusable, Jeremy said. Their hay also got filled with silt that they are still cleaning up. They’ve had to buy feed to supplement what the goats are eating, which has been costly and challenging, he said.