Delaware famers dealing with drought, rainy conditions

BRIDGEVILLE — In the First State, the summer is peak time for locally grown produce and grains.

However, the recent drought has impacted farmers getting food from the fields to the tables.

Kevin Evans is the owner of Evans Farms in Bridgeville. His company develops produce and crops to sell at their markets.

He says produce, such as tomatoes and watermelons, have not been affected by the drought.

“Produce is excellent because it likes hot and dry,” said Mr. Evans. “There have been absolutely no complaints with that.”

One of their biggest struggles was with the grain.

“On the grain side, living in Sussex County, no matter what ground you are on for the most part were seven days away from a drought,” said Mr. Evans.

“What that means is you can’t not have rain for seven days straight. The ideal condition for dry land is every seven days just to keep it growing without suffering.”

The temperatures remained high and dry for a few weeks this summer, which was not ideal for the crops.

“When you get above 100 degrees, it’s never good on anything,” said Mr. Evans. “Eighty-five (degrees) is about ideal for summer with dry conditions for produce.”

As of June 30, the crop with the poorest conditions in Delaware has been corn. Ten percent of the crop conditions were very poor and 22% were poor, according to the USDA Crop Progress and Condition Report for Delaware.

However, all the farmers’ prayers were answered. After the dry spell, rainfall hit.

On July 11, Sussex County received about 5 inches of rainfall, according to the Delaware Environmental Observing System. From there, the rain has not slowed down.

“At the end of the day, the rainfall last week came at a critical time to get people caught up and cool things down.”

The crop season was unexpected for most farmers, but they did what they could to get the food to tables across the state.

“It’s a totally different year than we had before,” said Mr. Evans.