Chilton County strawberry farmers struggle with relentless rain
Recent heavy rainfall, totaling six to eight inches in Chilton County since the start of May, is creating difficulties for local strawberry farmers. Saturated fields are impacting the delicate fruit.
Keith Evans, a farmer at Sugar Hill U-Pick Farms in Verbena, told 米兰体育 13 that the farm has experienced significant rainfall.
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"Last weekend when it was so bad, I think we got in the neighborhood of about four to five inches of rain, and that was over the period of about two days," Evans said.
While rain is essential for the growth of fruits and vegetables, excessive amounts can be detrimental, particularly for ripe strawberries.
"When you leave a ripe strawberry on the line and then it rains on it, they get soft," Evans explained. "Strawberries are a soft fruit anyway. Once that rain hits them, they lay in that water on that plastic, which basically ruins them."
The wet conditions are also affecting customers who visit the farm to pick their own strawberries.
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"Again, customers coming out here trying to pick, if the fields are wet and muddy, they learn to wear rubber boots if we've had a lot of rain," Evans said.
Sugar Hill U-Pick Farms also hosts educational visits for school groups, teaching children about the origins of their food.
"We do a lot of school groups that come in," Evans said. "They'll be anywhere from kindergarten or third, fourth-grade sometimes, and it educates the kids to let them know that it doesn't come from Walmart or Winn-Dixie, it comes from a farmer."
Evans pointed out the financial realities of farming, which are often overlooked by consumers.
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"A lot of people don't understand that when they see our prices at the markets and stuff, they think we are trying to rob them," he said. "What they don't see is the cost of our chemicals, the cost of our fuel, the cost of our equipment, cost of our labor."
Despite the weather-related challenges, Evans remains optimistic.
"That being said, we haven't went up on anything of the price of our stuff, so we absorb a lot of the costs and hope that we can sell what we got," he said.