On opposite ends of Naperville, farmers are finding ways to deal with the heavy rainfall that kept them from planting and working in the field this spring and summer.
“Overall I think the climate for farmers is becoming more and more challenging and difficult,” said Jeremy Mayne, owner of Mayneland Farm, which grows a variety of produce including tomatoes, strawberries, asparagus and eggplant.
This year, Mayne’s first corn and strawberries of the summer were picked about a week later than previous years.
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“The weather has thrown my schedule off for planting, because the fields were so muddy. I couldn’t get in to till the soil or to plant,” said Mayne, whose farm on W. Bauer Road has grown and sold fruit and vegetables since 1976. “Sometimes a person couldn’t even walk into the field because they would get stuck.”
Mayneland Farm in north Naperville and Wagner Farms in south Naperville are both family-owned farms that have been a part of Naperville for more than 40 years. Illinois experienced its wettest June on record this year, according to the State Climatologist Office for Illinois. And operators of both farms say it affected business.
Mayne’s sales were not lower because of the rain, but the farm stand was open fewer days this year than the previous years.
“It’s like giving a person who is interested in carpentry a dull saw and a hammer that’s half broken,” Mayne said. “Weather is the major tool for any person that wants to raise crops, and if the weather doesn’t cooperate, then it becomes more challenging,” he said.
In spite of the challenges, Mayne has made some changes over the years to combat the increasingly difficult climate.
To control the growing conditions of some crops, Mayne built 15 high tunnels on his farm. The high tunnels are made from metal framing with a plastic cover over the crops to protect them from elements like heavy rain.
In 2012 Mayne also took steps to control flooding from a storm sewer pipe of a nearby subdivision and is able to plant about an additional acre of vegetables.
Wagner Farms on South Route 59 has also dealt with problems because of the weather this year.
“The increased amount of rain and cool temperatures in May and June made the planting and picking of crops difficult from the beginning this year,” said Pam White, co-owner of Wagner Farms, which opened in Naperville in 1961 and grows produce like corn, squash, tomatoes and onions. “Three weeks ago it was too wet that we couldn’t even get into the field. Now we wish we had some rain, and we’re irrigating.”
Tomatoes are one of the biggest crops on Wagner Farms and many of the farm’s tomato plants caught fungal and leek diseases because of the rain this year. A lot of plants had to be thrown away, so diseases wouldn’t spread.
Still, White says sales at her farm stand are doing OK.
“We’ve been able to sell everything we’ve been growing, because people’s gardens aren’t doing well either,” White said. “We just wish we had more to sell.”
The farm stands at Wagner Farms and Mayneland Farm both sell produce picked the same morning and will be open until late October.