Many crops several weeks late for fall harvest
For local gardeners and farmers, it may have seemed like the fruits — and vegetables — of their labor would never come. Although several weeks late, those with green thumbs are reporting that their crops have weathered the cool, wet summer and are now peaking just as fall begins.
Knee high by the Fourth of July? Not so, says local farmer Terry Aitchison, who remembers his corn being short even then. But, thanks to several warm weeks in September, the stalks of some varieties of corn are now as tall as the farmer.
“When the warm weather comes, you can almost hear the corn grow,” Aitchison said.
The farmer, who has worked the northern Minnesota fields for 30 years, said he normally harvests his sweet corn in the middle of August, not the middle of September. But his roadside vegetable stand south of the city on Highway 53 was just stocked with the yellow-and-white summer staple on Sept. 15.
That gives Aitchison and other farmers a short harvesting and selling season, which he said typically ends near the first of October.
He noted that the yield on small grains was good, but that the protein was below-average on wheat. Soybeans, potatoes, tomatoes and many other crops were all delayed due to several record-low-temperature nights throughout the summer.
“They talk about global warming, I don’t know where that was this year,” he joked.
But that does not mean that the yield, or quality, of some of the crops is below average.
“The potatoes are looking good this year,” Aitchison said. He had just dug the first of his red potatoes on Sept. 21.
Last week, Gov. Tim Pawlenty asked the federal government to declare six northern Minnesota counties agricultural disaster areas, due to what he called significant losses from heavy rainfall and cold temperatures.
Koochiching, Kittson, Lake of the Woods, Marshall, Pennington and Roseau counties were involved in the request sent to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, , which, if approved, could make farmers in those counties eligible for low-interest emergency loans.
Even as far back as mid-July, local resident Eldon Voigt told The Journal that his blueberries were running several weeks behind schedule. Voigt had several types of produce for sale at the farmer’s market in front of Backus in July, but said that he expected the real bounty to follow.
The poor growing conditions do not seem to have devastated some farmers. In fact, Aitchison said that this year is shaping up to be a better harvest than last year despite its late arrival.
International Falls resident Mel Brown said that, “Despite a poor start to the growing season, (my) small garden ... pays off big once again.”
Brown said that he grew 110 pounds of potatoes, 76 pounds of carrots, 38 pounds of onions, 2 bushels of tomatoes, plus an array of other produce.
He and his granddaughter recently harvested the crops from his garden on 12th Street.
Aitchison said that the late harvest has not stopped customers. He said that he has been very busy with folks coming out to get fresh vegetables.
“We’ve had a real good turnout this year,” he said. “The local people really support us good.”
