For the past few weeks, we’ve been watching the skies.
If you live anywhere in the 5,500 square-mile Grand River watershed, you probably have been too. This spring’s relentless rainfall brought the Grand to record levels, flooding homes and businesses throughout West Michigan. Kent County’s early estimate puts flood damage at $6 million.
(At one point, we even got a call from a Grand Rapids Press reporter who wanted to make sure the river, which is right in our background, hadn’t spilled into the food bank. We had about five feet of breathing room. No sweat.)
All that rain was also a setback for West Michigan’s farms, including our own fledgling operation.
Matt Hehl, the local farmer and West Michigan Agricultural Education Center board member managing our farm, had planned to start tilling this week. But with the ground so saturated, he feared that any disturbance to the soil could cause erosion. Instead, Hehl is going to hold off on the tilling entirely this year.
Planting should start around Memorial Day. Photos to come.
