‘Substantial’ losses reported elsewhere, especially in north-central VT
By Guy Page
A longtime potato farm in Essex County lost 40% of its crop to the July 10-11 flooding.
“Three days after the flood you needed a canoe to reach potato fields in Guildhall,” the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets reported Sunday July 14 on its FB page.
This is the second straight year the Connecticut River has flooded their fields and destroyed their potatoes.
Sparrow Arc is the former Peaslee’s Vermont Potatoes farm, a third-generation family farm with a 90-year tradition in the NEK. In 2019 it was sold to Matthew Linehan from Maine, the Caledonian-Record reported in 2020.
Linehan came to Vermont after he started a potato farm in Unity, Maine. You can find their potatoes across the region including restaurants, stores & Vermont Foodbank.
Sparrow Arc is by no means alone in suffering catastrophic damage this year.
We don’t have hard figures yet but safe to say losses will be substantial again,” Agency Secretary Anson Tebbetts responded to a VDC inquiry today.
“We have some farmers that have been hit again – so twice in one year,” Tebbetts said. “We have some who have escaped damage…mainly those in the bottom four counties. But there could be some damage in those regions.
“We also have new farmers who got hit this time but not last time,” Tebbetts said.
He’s also worried about the flood losses to the wellbeing of the farmers themselves. “We need to keep our eye on stress and mental health,” he said, referring farmers to the state’s flood recovery page for this and other needs.