Farmers Enter Growing Season With Uncertainty Around Flower And Produce Sales

Elspeth Bourne-Kebbell works at Walker Farm and has been getting ready for the upcoming season. (Howard Weiss-Tisman/VPR)

It’s a busy time of year for Vermont’s vegetable and fruit farmers. Spring is coming, and farmers across the state will soon be turning their soil and starting another growing season. Even though the new coronavirus is raising a lot of questions about how they’ll market the vegetables and flowers they grow, farmers are plowing ahead.

“We’re on track,” said Jon Cohen, who owns Deep Meadow Farm, in Windsor County. “I mean we have a seeding-planting schedule. We’re moving forward with it.”

Right now, Cohen’s greenhouses are filled with tiny vegetable seedlings. He has tomatoes, kale, chard, beets and onions, and all are being prepared to eventually go into the ground.

His greenhouse smells like summer. It’s warm and humid inside, and every tiny seedling offers the promise of abundance and better times ahead.

Read the rest of this story at VPR’s website.