“Rich, winter vegetables that would have now been in season, they’re all gone, and we won’t see them again until next year,” Chovanec said. “We re telling people to continue coming to our markets but not to expect too much produce for the next six to eight weeks because plants will need time to grow.”
Impacts and losses
The winter storm hit farmers after many had already adjusted practices due to the ongoing pandemic.
Co-owner Finegan Ferreboeuf said Steelbow Farm which has a staff of six on a five-acre property near Manor was established to provide specialty crops and vegetables to local restaurants. When orders slowed during the pandemic, she said the farm pivoted to providing restaurant-quality vegetables to home cooks and built a new following of about 100 household deliveries each week.
The Johnson’s Backyard Garden stand at the Texas Farmers’ Market on Sunday at Mueller (Photo by David Brendan Hall)
After the devastating winter storm system that sustained freezing temperatures and knocked out power and water across Central Texas, regional farmers and ranchers experienced extraordinarily harsh conditions, which in turn affects our entire local food system.
Nora Chovanec, deputy director of the Texas Farmers Market, explained, Being a farmer in general is really difficult, but in Central Texas we have two growing seasons, and our markets stay open year-round (unlike in the Northeast, for example). So our farmers don t necessarily take a lot of breaks. They are used to dealing with inclement weather – we have freeze cycles and drought cycles; it really runs the gamut – but this was an incredibly unprecedented event. Usually when there s a flood or a freeze, out of our ag producers, we ll see a couple of them who are affected by whichever