BY JANE BLOODWORTH ROWE
PUNGO — The fields are fallow, grasses are brown and cold-burned, and the ground is either muddy or frozen. Surely, this is the time of year when Virginia Beach farmers are inside snuggled against the fire, sipping hot cocoa and binging on movies, right?
Wrong. For produce farmers, now is the time to catch up on maintenance, service equipment and prepare the soil for the spring planting. There are fruit trees to be pruned, and some plants, including winter hardy vegetables and strawberries, are still in the ground and must be tended.
“Winter is the time to cut hedgerows, clean ditches and just do catch-up work,” said John Cromwell of Cromwell’s Produce. “It’s a time to do things that you need to do.”
Cromwell grows some winter vegetables, including cabbages, kale and sweet potatoes, which he markets to area restaurants. He was out harvesting vegetables in his New Bridge Road fields on a recent blustery day. He hoped an approaching cold front wouldn’t be too rough on his vegetables.
“We’ll go all winter if the weather doesn’t knock us out,” Cromwell said.
“We grease it, check the oil and air filters and get parts replaced,” he said, adding that, fortunately, he didn’t have major repairs this year.
One chore Cromwell faces this winter is putting down lime on his fields.
“I’ll do that as soon as it dries up a little,” he said. “That’s not something you have to do every year-you only do it every three or four years, but this year the soil test said that we needed it.”
Lime raises the pH level in the soil, making it less acidic. Locally, many soils are naturally slightly acidic, and farmers apply lime to raise the pH level to what is considered optimal for most crops.
Lime is usually applied in midwinter because it takes awhile to work into the soil, said Mike Cullipher of Cullipher Farm Market, who is also facing that job this winter. As a fruit farmer, though, he spends most of his winter days pruning his trees or caring for his strawberry plants.
“It takes two-and-a-half months to prune,” Cullipher said, “so every decent day we’re out here pruning.”
In early spring, Cullipher will thin the blooms, plucking some of the smaller ones off so that the more robust blooms will have the space to mature into well-formed fruit. Thinning the blooms is essential, Cullipher said, because too many blooms create crowding “and all you’ll end up with is a bunch of mothballs” instead of the large, luscious fruit that consumers like.
Cullipher’s strawberries, which grow over the winter under row covers, also need attention after every cold front. While they’re generally cold tolerant, the dry, brittle wind will burn the leaves, and these dead, dried leaves need to be removed.
“Wind is the biggest enemy,” Cullipher said, because it damages the leaves and blows the row covers around if they’re not well-secured. It’s also a nuisance for humans who have to perform the job of tying down the covers during a high wind. Cullipher’s already had some frigid, frustrating hours in the fields this winter.
“The cold, windy days are the ones that I hate the most,” he said.
The author is a contributor to The Independent News. Her journalism has also appeared in The Virginian-Pilot.
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