Joe Beaudoin opened Joe’s Place Farms on two-thirds of an acre in 1974 and has dealt with plenty of hot summers, but this summer and last have been especially tough.
“The heat is giving us hell,” Beaudoin said. ” It started last year, actually, because of the extreme heat. We burned up about three-quarters of our raspberry and Marionberry vines. Last year’s vines are this year’s crops.”
Beaudoin said this year’s raspberry and Marionberry crop is about 25 percent of what it normally is.
“We put the Marionberry vines up on a wire, and it looked like somebody took a blow torch to them,” he said.
On Monday, his 78th birthday, Beaudoin walked his 70-plus acres of farmland talking about the reality for farmers. Temperatures in Vancouver crept past 90 degrees for the eighth time in the last nine days — temperatures climbed to 89 degrees on Saturday — Andy Bryant, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Portland said.
The heat wave combined with a lack of rain have brought on drought conditions, Bryant said, adding that Vancouver has received 0.02 inches so far this month after getting only 0.86 inches in June. Typically for this time of year, Vancouver would see an additional inch of rain over those two months, according to Bryant.
Much of Pacific Northwest has been struggling with dry conditions since late April, and Bryant said it has evolved to drought conditions in the last two to four weeks. Even with temperatures expected to dip this week, he said he doesn’t see much changing about the drought conditions until the fall rainy season.
For Beaudoin, the heat wave and drought has meant running his sprinklers 24 hours a day to try and salvage crops that are clinging to life.
“It’s like a priority system,” he said, adding that he looks at which crops need water the most to grow and which are usually his most profitable crop to figure out where to divert his water supply.
While Beaudoin said business is not down due to the heat, the effect is noticeable. He estimated that 75 percent of his yellow peppers had to be picked off their plants because they were so sun damaged. Previously, his crews would have to pick about 2 percent of peppers off because of the heat. About 25 to 35 percent of his peaches are what he called “No. 2 peaches,” meaning they have some slight damage, most likely caused by an insect. A box of No. 2 peaches costs $10 less than a box of No. 1 peaches, which go for $35.95. With the heat, Beaudoin said insects are looking for moisture, so they get into the peaches.
On Monday, he pulled the water off the peaches to focus on eggplant and peppers. Beaudoin said it’s getting to the time of year when eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins, peaches and apples are the big crops.
“It’s never ending,” he said. “What’s the most important thing we should move the water to today?”
Beaudoin is hoping to see a change in the weather soon. He said a quarter-inch of rain makes so much more of a difference than running his sprinklers, as the rain changes the atmosphere and wets all the leaves.
“We’re at a critical time right now,” he said. “We need rain right now. These crops have held up and held up and held up. That’s what happened last year. They’re stressed.”
Change could start Wednesday, Bryant said, adding that temperatures are expected to reach a high in the mid-80s, while Thursday and Friday are looking like highs in the high 70s. The weekend could see highs in the low 80s.
“It’s unusual to have a pattern like this persist for as long as it has,” Bryant said.
“We’re getting back to a more typical summertime pattern where we’ll have more of that marine air.”
The marine air from the coast should help cool things down a bit, bringing in a more typical summer day, with morning clouds burning off into afternoon sunshine, Bryant said, adding there aren’t any strong indications for how the region’s temperature will progress after the week.
