CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Farmers try to prepare for weather changes, but the quick drop in temperature Tuesday left some worried about just how many crops they could lose.
Small City Farm owner Kim Shaw joined those working to salvage crops Tuesday, harvesting everything from peppers to tomatoes, and even cut flowers when the weather changed from around 80 degrees to the 50s in one day, with a freeze warning called for overnight into Wednesday morning.
“We have to get in everything we can that’s going to freeze,” Shaw said. “It's been so dry. We've had half an inch of rain this month. A half an inch. We were supposed to have more than three. These plants are so stressed -- and now the cold.”
The cold and dry weather came after she said the wind already damaged a building she uses to house her crops. As she works to recover, fellow farmers in Charlotte’s University City area are also bracing for the impacts the cold snap could bring.
“We’re not supposed to get our first frost until the middle of November and then, here we are -- with our first frost so, that changes, that changes a lot of things,” said Conner Newman, manager of Hodges Family Farm.
The colder temperatures are costing the farm already, as workers increase feed for the animals, a strategy Newman said helps keep them warm and comfortable. The weather is also threatening the farm's cover crops, which Newman said are used to prepare the soil for pumpkins, their primary seller.
“[Cover crops] need about 50-60 degrees in the soil to germinate, so we’ll see how this affects those,” he said.
Hodges Family Farm ended their pumpkin sales for the season on Halloween. If the cover crops don’t take, Newman said it could cost more labor and resources the next time they plant pumpkins.
“That’s one of the reasons we do so many different things is to try to mitigate those monetary effects,” he said.
Shaw said it’s important to support local farms to help sustain them during these times.
Small City Farm opens its farm stand on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 1401 Auten Road in Charlotte. Shaw said she’ll be working to sell the crops they had to harvest early this Saturday, November 1.
Contact Kayland Hagwood at khagwood@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.