Updated: Some local veggies will cost more this Thanksgiving. Expect beans, squash, tomatoes and cucumber prices to go up as a result of Tropical Storm Eta’s heavy winds and rains. According to The Produce Reporter, cucumbers and squash don’t do well in wind and rain.
While late-season tropical storm Eta didn’t deliver big winds as it moved across South Florida, rains drenched the already-saturated ground, causing problems for farmers growing winter crops and threatening availability of green beans, squash and other produce for Thanksgiving.
“We have to wait and see the effects,” says Miami-Dade agriculture manager Charles LaPradd. “We’ve had a lot of rain over the past couple of months. The ground can only hold so much. If it doesn’t get out of the fields over the next 24 hours, we’ll see crop and tree damage.” Even on Monday, as the storm passed through, workers were harvesting crops.
Homestead fields under water Photo courtesy of Heather Moehling
At Knaus Berry Farms, they were pumping out excess water from their strawberry fields. Some farms reported underwater fields. Chris French of French Farms reports that his crops, including his cucumbers, made it through the storm. “At least I don’t have to irrigate for a long time,” he said in a social media post. “Happy to report minimal damage at the farm,” noted Tiny Farm, where their carrots, tomatoes and beans were in good shape.
Despite the unseasonably late storm dumping rain on the ground, LaPradd says he thinks it could have been worse. “The winds weren’t so bad,” he says. “We dodged a bullet.”
