RIDGE SPRING, S.C. — Titan Farms in Ridge Spring was hit hard by Hurricane Helene. The storm wiped out about 70% of their bell pepper crop and will impact at a minimum 10-15% of their peach crop next year.
For context, they're the second largest producer of peaches in the entire country.
The farm in Saluda County is the largest producer of bell peppers, eggplants and broccoli in the state according to its chief operating officer Ross Williams. He said they pick, pack and ship two million boxes of peaches annually.
After Helene, those numbers likely won't be the same.
"The hope is that this tree will reestablish its roots back where they were originally," Williams said of a propped-up peach tree. "You can see a lot of these leaves are beaten up pretty good."
The hurricane that hit 10 days ago wreaked havoc on their livelihood. "Every single plant was laid completely flat down on the plastic," Williams said about the bell peppers.
"It's indescribable what we woke up to when daylight came Friday morning," Williams said.
Their 6,500 acres of peach trees and 1,000 acres of vegetables were uprooted, wind torn and scorched by the sun.
"This is what we refer to as sun scald," Williams said, pointing to a bell pepper with a whitish blemish. "This makes the pepper completely unmarketable and unsellable."
He explains it'll be likely over $1 million impact to the farm.
"I finally took a minute, I would say Thursday night, and it was really emotional knowing what our communities have been through and knowing what our farm had been through, but how we came together and developed a plan to get through this together," Williams said.
Titan Farms saw it's community hurting, so they've given away nearly 6,000 pounds of produce in the past few days, and said they intend to give away more. Some of the produce was what was salvageable from the farm, and a majority came from a partner farm in Florida.
Clemson Extension Service specialist of agribusiness Dr. Adam Kantrovich said help is on the way.
"Our Clemson Regulatory Division, as well as cooperative extension, is going to be working with FEMA to develop some farm resource centers and we will locate those particular centers that, they may be up for a day in a particular location that we're going to try to place somewhat centrally," Dr. Kantrovich said.
"There's a lot of sleepless nights when your livelihood is completely dependent upon Mother Nature, but that's why we are farmers as well. We enjoy taking care of the land, we enjoy providing what god gives us from the land," Williams said.
Clemson Extension said it is helping the state assess the impact of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Helene on South Carolina agricultural production. A website is available to share impacts and losses to the production of your animals and crops. The link to the impact assessment form is: https://arcg.is/0bnjnX2. An app is also available for download to enter impact data from the field. That link is https://arcg.is/0DXrGj.
You can also contact your local Farm Service Agency office for questions related to potential disaster assistance. https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/disaster-assistance-program/index