Freezing temperatures concern local farmers, gardeners

When Susan Jutz pulled back the cover on her rows and rows of lettuce, she looks over a good chunk of the 3,000 heads of lettuce.

The elements didn't quite get to her produce.

“They would actually show some damage,” said Jutz, hours after the temperatures at her farm approached freezing.

On Saturday night, Jutz was outside, in her Solon acreage, for a good chunk of the evening, covering up the lettuce at Local Harvest CSA. This is her business and, without crop insurance, every dollar in damage is a dollar she loses. She said a night of freezing weather would have cost her plenty if the covers weren't on.

“It's a big sigh of relief because it is one thing, we are organic farmers and have a lot of things to worry about,” said Jutz.

Jutz doesn't deal in one or two crops across long acres. She's got dozens - Asian greens, kale, broccoli, radishes, peas just for this time in May. Planting season is a never ending season. Yet recently, Jutz also thought long and hard about planting crops earlier than usual.

“We were very tempted to put out many tomato plants but there was no way to cover them,” said Jutz.

Consider that a victory as a frost would have killed the tomatoes. So those seedlings sit in a covered area, awaiting for the “call up” to the real dirt this week.

“We'll get tomatoes out, eggplants, peppers ready to go out,” Jutz said.

As she, and many other farmers and gardeners, can finally exhale.

Jutz is hardly the only farmer trying to get an early jump on the planting season. Statewide, the USDA reports Iowa corn farmers have planted 84% of this year's crop, a record for early May.

-Chris Earl, KCRG-TV9 News