Related Carolina Mueller and her partner were starting crops ranging from onions to broccoli in their greenhouse and tending to a collection of winter crops growing at Middle Ground Farms, their small, diversified organic vegetable farm outside of Austin, when the unprecedented snowstorm and deep freeze hit last month.
All the crops they had in their fields parsley, purple sprouting broccoli, radicchio and chard were lost in the freeze. And because the storm overwhelmed the state’s deregulated power grid, triggering widespread blackouts, their irrigation pumps shut down, so Middle Ground Farm lost access to water.
They weren’t able to water the plant starts and lost a whole round of young plants, setting them back by weeks if not months, and likely creating gaps in production for their wholesale clients and the community supported agriculture (CSA) subscription they provide in the Austin area. In total, they estimate they lost $30,000 worth of output.
Austin 360
Community-supported agriculture programs, or CSAs, have been around for more than 30 years, but when the COVID-19 pandemic started, Central Texas farmers found themselves with CSA waiting lists for the first time.
A year later, the February freeze and snow wiped out many farmers winter crops, and they have been scrambling to get the spring season started with less income from farmers markets and wholesale accounts.
Many farmers are selling their future crops in the form of a CSA program.
Now is the time to sign up for a spring or summer CSA, even if you might not get vegetables for a few more weeks. Many farmers offer newsletters, so you can find out when each season opens and what is going on in their fields.
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