While residents are bundling up as cold weather sweeps through the region, local farmers are harvesting their crops as quickly as possible.
“It’s almost like playoff time for us,” said Anthony Russo of Russo’s Fruit & Vegetable Farm in Tabernacle, New Jersey. “We’re just trying to get anything that could be damaged by the cold weather in as soon as we possibly can.”
After a soggy summer and warm fall, Russo says the frost advisory and sudden dip in temperatures is a cause for concern for the farm’s 600 acres of crops. Still, Russo says it would take consecutive nights of near freezing temperatures to do any real damage. However, he also says colder weather could cause discoloring to corn husks, which makes it less appealing to shoppers.
“Instead of being nice and green it will be on the brown side,” Russo said. “When you shuck it down it will still be edible and it will still be fine. But the consumer shops with their eyes.”
As for the impact on those very consumers, the owner of Murphy’s Marketplace in Medford, New Jersey says the colder weather won’t have much of an impact on produce prices. The owner claims because the marketplace buys from all over the country, consumer prices won’t increase as the temperature falls.
Russo says he also received good news just in time for Halloween. After the soaking wet summer, his pumpkin crops had one of the best seasons yet. Now he’s preparing for whatever Mother Nature has in store for the rest of the year, whether good or bad.
