NSL's Ethan Jamba spoke with a local honeyberry farmer about the impacts they've seen this growing year.
Corvallis, Mont. — A tough run of weather cut into this year’s honeyberry harvest at Aspen Grove Berries near Corvallis.
Melissa Allred of Aspen Grove Berries said warm winter conditions pushed the plants to wake up early before a hard freeze hit in May. She said dry soil made the situation worse by limiting the water available for fruit production.
“We had crops waking up way too early because of the warm temperatures and so we had things of blossoming and starting to bear fruit long before they were supposed to,” said Melissa Allred.
Allred said a killing frost on May 18 damaged plants that had already bloomed or started producing fruit. She said the plants then used available water to stay alive instead of growing larger berries, which left fruit smaller and yields much lower.
She said other growers across Montana reported similar conditions. For honeyberry growers, she explained, the losses can be harder to manage because the crop is still new in Montana agriculture.
“Honey berries are very new to Montana agriculture, and they're relatively unknown still. And so local insurance companies or lenders are just not familiar with what they are. And so that gives them an insecurity in financing or ensuring the type of crop that we grow,” said Melissa Allred.
To keep the farm going, Allred said Aspen Grove Berries had diversified. The farm grew several kinds of fruit and used part of its harvest to make jams, syrups, barbecue sauces and vinaigrettes.
That gave the farm products to sell even when there was not enough fresh fruit. Readers can learn more about Aspen Grove Berries here.
Allred said shopping at farmers markets, U-pick farms, and farm stands could help local growers through a difficult year. Readers can also find local market information here.
Originally published on montanarightnow.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
Please disable your ad blocker, whitelist our site, or purchase a subscription
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.