It's a disaster
State legislators push governor to declare state of emergency
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Eric Fry, winemaker at Lenz Winery in Peconic, where vines that are usally filled with grapes this time of year are suffering from the persistently wet weather.
If passed, the initiative will give farmers access to low-interest loans, helping them recoup losses in preparation for next year.
"I've just realized how serious this situation is," said 1st District Assemblyman Marc Alessi, who sent a letter to the governor last week urging him to take action. "More and more people are coming to me and saying they've lost entire crops."
The second wettest June on record has devastated North Fork farms -- drowning entire vegetable fields, ruining strawberry season and spreading late blight, the fungus-like pathogen responsible for Ireland's Great Potato Famine of the mid-1800s, across the Northeast. (See separate story.)
Vineyards too are suffering.
"By and large we're not declaring this the end of the world," said Charles Massoud, owner of Paumanok Vineyards in Aquebogue. "Welcome to farming. I like to say that we're partners with Mother Nature, but we're the junior partner."
"But that's farming," he said. "You're never going to have a straight line."
Sam McCullough, vineyard manager at Lenz Winery in Peconic, faces a 30 percent reduction in production this year.
"What we're looking at is a pretty drastic crop reduction," he said. "For some varieties, there's probably no crop loss at all, but in other blocks there might be 100 percent loss. It's different from field to field and variety to variety. You can't stress that enough."
Because a vine's flowering season varies from one grape species to the next, a hard rainfall could potentially destroy one vine, whose buds are just beginning to flower, while leaving the next one unharmed.
Jim Silver, general manager of Peconic Bay Winery in Cutchogue, lost 30 percent of his riesling variety but only 10 percent of the chardonnay.
"It's just a matter of when it decides to rain really hard," he said. "A really hard rain just when you're flowering can be really unfortunate."
Vineyard owners expect losses across the board, but what they've lost in quantity they've gained in quality.
"When you have fewer fruit on a tree or vine, there's actually more nutrients and sugars that can be pulled from the soil and into the fruit," said Jason Damianos, owner of Jason's Vineyard in Jamesport. "Kind of like if you had a million apples on a tree, you're not going to have as sweet of an apple... If the root system is trying to nurture too many babies, there's only so much sugar that can be synthesized from the soil."
In other words, even though there might not be as much wine at the end of this year, it will probably be better tasting, as long as the weather cooperates long enough for the grapes to mature.
"You can't grow a plant in the refrigerator," said Mr. Silver of Peconic Bay. "What we need, and what we haven't been getting, is heat. We need a hot August. If we can have a hot August, we'll be in good shape -- really good shape."
State Agricultural Commissioner Patrick Hooker will be examining local farms this week to determine the extent of crop damage. However, despite this season's hardships, some local farmers are not convinced they need government aid.
"I might consider it," said Philip Schmitt, owner of Schmitt Farms in Riverhead, "but it's something I've never done in the past. I try to keep government out of my business."
Of course, if worse comes to worst, government aid might be the only option.
"It's sort of like a horse race," said Ed Harbes Sr., owner of Harbes family farm in Mattituck. "It's a little premature to know whether you're coming in first, second, third, or last just yet. We're still hoping that good things happen... Low-interest loans are a great thing, but they still need to be paid back."
bdegnan@timesreview.com
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