From the Farmer's Perspective: Halloween Floods - An Appeal for Help

Well, I know that my blog last week was titled "The Ups and Downs of Flooding," but after last Friday and the week that has followed, it has been increasingly difficult to find the "ups" in our current flooded situation at the farm.

As expected, I woke last Friday to the sound of rain on the roof, but by the time I was up and getting my day started at our Hergotz location, I realized that this was not going to be like any other rainstorm we've seen at JBG. It was really coming down - our crews watched as sheets of rain continued to fall for hours and hours without any signs of stopping. As our loading dock at Hergotz began to fill with water, I saw that we had a potential disaster on our hands. So, I called the Garfield Farm and told them that we needed to get our pump to Hergotz to remove the water before it reached the electrical transformers for our refrigeration units.

Garfield and Hergotz last Friday.

Temo told me he'd be on his way in a minute - he loaded up the pump and started driving from our Garfield to our Hergotz location but quickly ran into a problem. Highway 71 had a river flowing over it and was impassable! Temo turned around and tried to drive east on 71 to come into town the long way, but 71 was blocked from the other direction too. We realized that all of our neighbors on Tucker Hill in Garfield were also trapped. JBG team members hunkered down in the equipment barn and our offices while the storm raged through our farm, blowing doors off of buildings and ripping greenhouse plastic to shreds. After over 15 inches of rain, the storm lulled and we were able to evacuate the staff out Highway 71. What we didn't know is that the real damage was yet to come.

Assistant Farm Manager Jason captures the rain deluge at the Garfield Farm. Photo by Jason Hamelwright

Later that afternoon, "Dry Creek," which runs through the middle of our farm, turned into a wet and muddy wrecking ball, as 40 miles of upstream runoff came rushing down towards the farm. With too much water for the creek bed and nowhere to go, the creek took a shortcut through our fields. You can see our fields in this video from the Texas Game Warden's flyover. Our flooded farm is clearly seen from 2:25-2:34 and around 4:34 as well. We're horrified to see so many of our neighbors still stranded at their homes during the flyover.

Dry Creek, as viewed from the Texas Game Warden's helicopter.

When the creek receded, it took over an acre of our field with it, leaving a 20 foot deep gully in its wake. Much greater than the crop loss from this incident is the loss of our soils. Our soils are irreplaceable - we have been putting labor into increasing the fertility of our topsoil for 5 years at the Garfield location, and for so many years before that the soil was built from the dairy located at this property. We're not sure exactly what to do with this pit now (except maybe to build a pond), but one thing that is for sure is that it won't return to its productive state anytime in the foreseeable future. Additionally, over 20 acres of irrigation drip tape was washed off of the fields, and we have been finding carrots and butternut squash 10 ft up in the trees on the farm (seriously). Drip tape and layflat are strung like a messy spider web on fences, trees, and even nearby homes in the neighborhood. A number of fields were hit by the creek that afternoon, and we're looking at about 1/3 of our crops either gone, partially damaged, or flooded beyond recovery.

Back at Hergotz, I felt helpless - unable to help Temo and the crew in Garfield, and watching our loading dock fill up with water. Damage reports continued to flow in all day, and this past week has been a muddy and hard-fought scramble to regain some normalcy on the farm. With a rented pump, we have been able to pump water from flooded areas of the field, although now that it's finally out, four days later, we have more rain in the forecast. We tried to seed some spinach this week, but with all the time spent cleaning mud from the tires and equipment it hardly seemed worth the time and effort. Some sweet onions and a few other transplanted crops made it into the ground, and I'm thankful for that. But, with at least two more El Nino-driven storms in the near future, it feels like 2015 has been hitting us with destructive weather from all directions.

We are finding lots of vegetables in the trees around Dry Creek. Photo by Scott David Gordon

What You Can Do to Help

With a long and costly repair process ahead of us, the farm is seeking your help as we rebuild after this disaster. Luckily, we still have about 90 acres that are producing well despite the wet weather. We build in some insurance at the farm by diversifying our outlets - in a situation like this, when we're hit during peak season, we can fill all of our CSA members shares by cutting back on wholesale. While this hurts farm revenue, it ensures that we can always take care of our CSA community by keeping your boxes full of organic vegetables year round. We hope that in return, our community will rally to help take care of the farm. Here are a few things we're asking:

• Consider a long-term CSA subscription: This is the number one way you can support JBG, especially after an event like last Friday. Long-term subscriptions are an investment in the farm - you provide capital upfront for us to start damage repair and the replanting process, and in return you receive local, organic vegetables delivered straight to your home or community! We have a guaranteed outlet for our crops, which is the best security we could ask for in this time of stress and uncertainty. Join the farm and receive discounts on 10, 26, and 52 weeks of Community Supported Agriculture. Sign-up online or call the farm to set up a long term subscription.
• Not a member? Join our CSA: Join our CSA to aid your local farm and farmers during this time. It provides an outlet for our vegetables and makes you a partner in the farming process. Plus, you and your family will get to enjoy eating the best local and seasonal produce each week. Joining our CSA is easy and affordable - and you can start receiving vegetables right away!
• Increase your support: For anyone looking to support the farm, consider the many ways in which you can help provide assistance. CSA members - have you tried our add-ons of eggs and coffee to your CSA share? Now might be the time. Buy your veggies at the farmers markets each weekend? Consider spending an extra $5, $10, or $20 during this time of need.
• Sponsor a Share: If you already have your weekly fill of veggies, we hope you will consider sponsoring a share for victims of last weeks flooding. We are partnering with the Capital Area Food Bank to provide sponsored CSA shares to flood victims in Travis, Bastrop, and Hays counties and we need your help to do it! Fresh food is a scarcity in disaster situations, but you can help provide it by visiting https://jbgorganic.com/flood and purchasing a share for your community in need.
• Give the gift of local: We offer Gift Certificates for farmers markets and for CSA shares - invite your friends and family to eat with JBG! Even your support of the farm through hats, t-shirts, and totes will make a difference. These make great holiday gifts. You can even sponsor-a-CSA share and give this on behalf of the friend who has it all. Find these items and more in our Gift Certificate page and in our Farm Shop.

Our carrots are muddy right now, but they sure do taste good. Photo by Scott David Gordon

We're still planning on hosting our annual Potluck and Harvest Hustle 5k next Saturday, November 14th and we would love to see you support the farm by joining us! Enjoy a day on the farm with us, joining with the community in support of local agriculture, despite its muddy difficulties. You can see the farm firsthand by running or walking the Harvest Hustle 5k and eating, drinking, and dancing with farmers, friends, and family. It would sure cheer a lot of your farmers up to see you out there! Tickets are available at https://jbgorganic.com/hoedown.

To finish on some good news.. everyone on the farm is really pulling together to recover from this event. We really have one of the best teams in the business. We were successful this week in getting a fair amount of crops transplanted - sweet yellow onions, shallots, broccoli, endive, kohlrabi, bok choy, lettuce and parsley. We also were able to direct seed a few crops as well. And, we harvested our first cauliflower of the season today! We'll just have a few bins at markets this weekend - better get there early if you want to get your hands on some.



For more of the farmer’s perspective, follow Brenton on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @farmerbrenton.