COLUMBIA, S.C. — Michael Gunter is the manager at Clayton Rawl Farms. He told WLTX that the recent March temperatures were not hard on this year’s harvest. Instead, it was the cold spell before Christmas that hit crops hard.
“It’s March, we’re used to 28-30 degrees. It’s going to happen in March. So, it was just that 11 degrees in December that was out of the norm,” Gunter said.
While farmers take several measures to protect their crops from the cold, it is difficult to protect the entire harvest.
“The beets, for example, were completely ruined. I mean ruined, they couldn’t come back from it," Gunter said. "Collards were burnt really hard. Turnips were beaten up pretty bad. Green onions got burnt to the ground. But like I said, beets, it’s hard to find a beet on the market right now, all because of that 11 degrees.”
It's a balancing act. The farmers have to find ways to protect crops without driving up prices too much.
“It’s just hard to cover every acre because our farm is 2,500 acres in Lexington," Gunter said. "It’s just too many acres to physically cover. We cover some, but we can’t cover them all.”
"It’s a shame to have good quality produce nearby and it doesn’t get shopped," Gunter said. "If you’re looking for greens, if you’re looking for sweet corn, squash, zucchini, cabbage, we got it right here, in plenty of quantity and in plenty of quality."
Well, you've heard it here. It was the first freeze in December that hurt our farmers and our crops are okay during this recent weather. So, there are plenty of locally sourced crops available where you like to shop.