(Source: New Haven Register)By Ann DeMatteo, New Haven Register, Conn.
Sept. 01--Anxiety was swelling with the heat Wednesday at Hindinger Farm. The oldest family farm in Hamden was worried about the potential for a big loss of peaches and apples, but rejoiced at 3:20 p.m. when power came back after four days.
Things were not so good at Rose Orchard in North Branford, which doesn't have a large generator to run the coolers for its retail operation, so ice cream and other food had to be thrown out.
Al Rose said his property does not yet have power, though a small generator is keeping the farm market open. Crops such as tomatoes and squash are being sold in the store, along with some early apples. Pies are also available, but employees are making only about half of what they usually do. And no ice cream is being sold.
The farm's owners are also grappling with damage to its apple trees. "We probably lost about 20 or 30 percent," Rose said.
He explained that different varieties hold onto trees differently.
"Macintosh, we lost probably about 70 percent; they went off the tree and on the ground. However, macouns, red delicious and some other later varieties, they held on the trees pretty good.
"About 500 apple trees that are two years old blew over and had to be straightened out with stakes and more soil. A couple fields of sweet corn also were blown down and flattened, but the corn maze remains standing," Rose said.
Liz Hindinger in Hamden also said that corn plants are leaning downward from the storm, but she expects they will be upright again before long.
At Bishop's Orchards in Guilford, the farm market has been open and bustling, thanks to a full-building generator. The store has been selling ice and giving out free water for people looking to fill containers.
Out in the fields, though, some produce has been ruined, and employees are working to keep losses to a minimum. The corn maze will also have to be reconfigured because some of it was damaged, said Keith Bishop, who runs the business with his family.
"We've lost a fair number of apples to the ground. We've still got a fair number of ones on trees to pick. The raspberries took a beating and we've been scraping up vines and they're all tied up in trellis system," Bishop said.
A few apple trees fell or broke, and crews have been installing fence posts and tying apple trees to them so that the trees remain standing, Bishop said.
The plight at Hindingers became public late Wednesday morning when Hamden resident Ann Altman visited the farm stand to make a purchase and learned that they were without power. George Hindinger's main worry was that if his old stone cooler wasn't going to be working, he wouldn't have anywhere to put the "tremendous amount of fruit" yet to pick.
When Altman got home, she contacted the mayor's office and town's economic development director, Dale Kroop, who then contacted Hamden Chamber of Commerce President Nancy Dudchik. Email blasts were sent.
Dudchik was one of the ones who heeded the call by buying apples and corn, "things I don't have to refrigerate," because she doesn't have power at her home in Branford.
"I put out an email blast; anything to help them. It's nice to see people supporting this wonderful place," said Dudchik.
The result was a flood of people going to the farm on Dunbar Hill Road to get peaches and apples before they got too soft to sell; Hindinger's threw out 100 baskets of peaches that got too soft on Wednesday. Because of the lack of power, several hundred baskets of peaches in the farm's old stone cooler were starting to get too soft to sell, and the 400 boxes of apples would only last another week, said Liz Hindinger, who owns the farm with her brother, George, and their mother, Anne.
Liz Hindinger said she was grateful for customer support, and for Altman, who got the word out to folks beyond those who regularly visit the farm stand.
If the power hadn't been restored, George Hindinger estimated he would have lost up to $10,000 in apples and peaches.
Rose said he can't estimate how much money the farm lost in crops and in potential store purchases.
"Anytime you do something that relies on nature, it's a gamble," he said. "It's tough to lose anything, but we were afraid we'd lose it all. We didn't lose anywhere near as much as we could have."
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