May 13, 2010
By Jeremiah Horrigan and Alyssa Sunkin
Times Herald-Record
Radio Iowa

In Orange County, the wind roared in like a sandblaster, leaving tender Black Dirt onion shoots lying limp on the ground.

Photo: Pine Island farmer Chris Pawelski holds a tiny onion plant Tuesday, that was damaged by the weekend's high winds. In one of Pawelski's fields, winds clocking 46 mph blew away topsoil, leaving roots exposed. Pawelski says Black Dirt onion farmers have only had two good seasons in the past 15 years; now, there's danger of frost. (Times Herald-Record / Tom Bushey)

In Ulster County, the farmer's springtime nemesis — frost — stalked low-lying apple orchards like a thief in the night.

And late Tuesday, the National Weather Service announced a winter weather advisory for northwest Ulster County, saying up to 5 inches of snow was possible from Woodstock to Ellenville Wednesday morning.

Unseasonably cold, windy weather has made it a very trying time to be a farmer in the mid-Hudson region.

Black Dirt onion farmer Chris Pawelski of Goshen, for example, said strong winds at the end of April and again last weekend uprooted many of his onion crop's tiny sprouts. In one of his fields, winds up to 46 mph whipped away the topsoil, leaving roots exposed. For those crops, there's no chance of survival.

Pawelski's dilemma is he can't replant until he knows how bad the damage is, and the longer he waits, the harder it will be to replant.

In a perfect illustration of the vagaries presented by the recent weather, farms five miles away from Pawelski's were left unscathed by the winds.

In the case of the region's apple crop, it's always a matter not only of how cold it gets but where your crop is located. Lower-lying orchard plots are at greater risk of frost damage. Monday's overnight low, recorded at the nearest weather station in Poughkeepsie, was 31 degrees, with temperatures at some farms going as low as 27 degrees Tuesday morning.

Mike Fargione, educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Highland, said some cold-damaged crops have been reported, but, as with the Black Dirt onion crop, the toll won't be known for days and its overall impact won't be known for weeks.

The weekend cold was as unexpected as the heat that hit the region several weeks ago, triggering the earliest fruit tree blossoming in 60 years.

Fargione said not only apples but all regional crops, including peaches, grapes and strawberries, could be damaged by frost.

Rod Dressel, owner of Dressel's Farms in New Paltz, said Tuesday morning he had tried to protect his crops by watering them, but he was fearful he might still have lost half his crop.

A few miles south of Dressel's farm on Route 208, Tammy Boylan of Wright's Apple Farm said she was surprised to hear about Dressel's difficulties. She was unaware of any damage to her family's apple crop.

"You have to be optimistic, you're always at the mercy of the weather and the market," she said.

In the past 10 years, mid-Hudson apple growers have had two badly damaged crops.By contrast, Black Dirt onion growers have only had two good seasons in the past 15 years — 1995 and 2008, Pawelski said. And since 1995, the number of onion growers have been halved, from about 60 to 30. "We can't take much more of this," Pawelski said.

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