By: Cole miller
cmiller@klkntv.com
The drought is having an impact on vendors at the Lincoln Farmer's Market.
Whether they're farming 3 acres or 300 acres, farmers are having a tough time keeping up with the drought. A few lucky ones have seen some recent help from mother nature.
From one extreme to the other, Vicki Sjulin has seen a lot in just the past two summers, "I know there have been years that we've been down and out, but this is severe."
This summer's drought is making life tough for her and her husband, they farm mostly house plants. And last summer wasn't any better. Farming out of Hamburg, Iowa, they've picked up the pieces after devastating floods almost washed them out, "we talked to all of our neighboring farmers and we're all struggling with trying to raise produce, whatever else we've got to raise. So, it's been a struggle, trying to keep the water and the plants green...not easy, not easy," Sjulin says.
Closer to home, Alden Cihal farms potatoes, onions and eggplants in Palmyra. The scorching heat has him watering more than he ever would've thought, "oh, a lot more water, yeah. It's running almost all the time. I've got water running right now."
And out West, in Elm Creek, Terry Labs and his wife are getting a little bit of help from the skies, "we're keeping up. We got an inch and a half of rain this week which was a blessing."
But Labs thinks they'll still lose roughly one–third of their crop, "it's just going to cut the bottom line a little bit."
Again, like so many others, Labs is hoping for any kind of relief, "rain and snow, that's what we need...rain and snow."
It's also important to note that high temperatures can cause produce to spoil more quickly. Farmers say you should refrigerate items when you get them home, making sure to keep them away from raw meats and seafood.
