A difficult season for Wera Farm
The weather this year has been a challenge for some farmers. With the heat waves in the months of March, April, and May and now the lack of rain, local producers like Wera Farm are struggling to produce crops.
Owned by Richard Wera, the farm has a U-pick model that offers strawberries and vegetables. Usually, throughout July, the Farm receives a couple of hundred cars every day filled with more than eager people to come and pick their baskets of fresh strawberries. However, this year Wera has no fruit to offer customers. On May 27, the full moon was out, the night sky was clear, and a big frost came over the Farm destroying around 80 per cent of Wera’s strawberry crop.
“I expected the frost but there was nothing I could do since my irrigation system was down,” said Wera, “with the pandemic, there have been many delays, workers are calling in sick, parts aren’t coming in, everything is disturbed. Because of this, I was only able to fix my pump one week after the damage.” Thankfully, the frost only damaged the flower buds and not the plant itself, so Wera should be back in business next year, as usual. But this season of no fruit has been challenging for him to witness “We have never had no crop,” he said, “this is the first time in 50 years that we’ve had to be completely closed for strawberry season.”
Sadly, that is not the only struggle Wera has had to face this year. With the current lack of rain, Wera is looking at potentially losing some vegetables also. Currently, he has been able to plant all his seeds, and their growth is going well. However, with the drought, he is worried he won’t be able to water his plants properly. “I was expecting around 40-50 ml of rain and instead I got 5 ml,” said Wera, “this has led the river to be almost lower than my suction pipe and if that happens then I won’t be able to water my vegetables.”
For now, instead of watering his entire crop simultaneously, he has set up a rotation where every day it’s the turn of a different section. “If I don’t water everything at the same time and go slow then there is enough water in the river but if I go too fast, the water level gets too low and air starts going into the pump,” he said. “Right now, I’m trying just trying everything I can to avoid two catastrophes in a row.”
Wera Farm is temporarily closed,
but the plan is that by the beginning of August, the doors will open and people will be able to come and pick vegetables from the fields. “Currently, we have a message on the phone explaining we are closed so there a calmness in
the house, but we are hoping that during vegetable season the ringing will start back up again,” said Wera. “Receiving calls during picking season is exactly what we like to hear.”