The late season snow, cold temperatures, and lately, heavy rain.
Not exactly the ideal start to spring, and even worse for farmers trying to cultivate summer crops.
"The long winter, and the very cold and wet spring we've had, has really delayed any activity we can do in the fields," said Mike Harris, owner of Lone Maple Farm.
But you wouldn't know that by looking at the shelves at Lone Maple Farm.
Fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and even strawberries are fully ripe and have been that way since last summer's growing season.
"This is our ninth year using hydroponics as a growing technique, what that technique allows us to do is grow year round," said Harris.
Hydroponics allows farmers like Harris to grow crops without using soil.
Lone Maple utilizes the technique in several greenhouses where crops such as lettuce, broccoli, and radishes are grown by infusing water with nutrients the plants need.
While the use of greenhouses and even hydroponics may not necessarily be state of the art, the way Harris monitors and cultivates the produce is quite unique.
"We use computers here to help us grow all the plants. What that computer system allows us to do is to tweak the growing conditions to ideally match what the different types of plants like,' Harris said.
So Lone Maple can create a warmer environment to grow tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers while at the same time growing lettuce, a crop that favors much cooler temperatures for growing.
But that's not all, technology has even gone a step further to help famers like Harris.
"It also sends out alerts, if anything goes wrong in the growing environment, it actually sends out an alert to my cell phone, so in the middle of the night, if anything goes wrong, I might get a text message," Harris said.
So even though the weather might not quite be there yet, the tastes of spring, and even summer, are already here.
source
Not exactly the ideal start to spring, and even worse for farmers trying to cultivate summer crops.
"The long winter, and the very cold and wet spring we've had, has really delayed any activity we can do in the fields," said Mike Harris, owner of Lone Maple Farm.
But you wouldn't know that by looking at the shelves at Lone Maple Farm.
Fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and even strawberries are fully ripe and have been that way since last summer's growing season.
"This is our ninth year using hydroponics as a growing technique, what that technique allows us to do is grow year round," said Harris.
Hydroponics allows farmers like Harris to grow crops without using soil.
Lone Maple utilizes the technique in several greenhouses where crops such as lettuce, broccoli, and radishes are grown by infusing water with nutrients the plants need.
While the use of greenhouses and even hydroponics may not necessarily be state of the art, the way Harris monitors and cultivates the produce is quite unique.
"We use computers here to help us grow all the plants. What that computer system allows us to do is to tweak the growing conditions to ideally match what the different types of plants like,' Harris said.
So Lone Maple can create a warmer environment to grow tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers while at the same time growing lettuce, a crop that favors much cooler temperatures for growing.
But that's not all, technology has even gone a step further to help famers like Harris.
"It also sends out alerts, if anything goes wrong in the growing environment, it actually sends out an alert to my cell phone, so in the middle of the night, if anything goes wrong, I might get a text message," Harris said.
So even though the weather might not quite be there yet, the tastes of spring, and even summer, are already here.
source
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