The weather this year has created challenges for all of America’s farmers. The 80 degree weather in March and the April frost created unusual growing conditions for many produce growers across the Midwest.
Pat Jenkins farms in Central Illinois and says this year has just been “off – and says they even planted their first sweet corn on March 16th this year. She says their first planting of sweet corn did get hit by the frost – but it did not kill it. “We thought we would have sweet corn at least a week or two before normal this year,” she says. “We got our first batch in last week – and the second planting (five weeks after) has caught up to it and we are in it this week.”
Jenkins tells Brownfield sweet corn isn’t the only thing off this year. “The berries and everything else are off,” she says. “With this drought you won’t have the large juicy berries because they just dry up on the vine.”
She notes that while there haven’t been huge crop losses reported in Central Illinois (as of yet). But, she has heard that other farmer’s markets are suffering in different areas of the country.
Latest: 
