Connecticut farms endure harsh winter

From the New Britain Herald:

The harsh winter of 2012-13 will have a lingering financial impact on Connecticut farmers.

Many Connecticut farms incurred extensive damage to greenhouses and other structures this winter.

“According to our last reports, 300 greenhouses went down on 51 farms this winter,” said Bob Heffernan, executive director of the Connecticut Greenhouse Growers Association. “We estimate between $12 and $20 million of damages to structures, most of which aren’t insured. We really don’t know yet about the damage inside to equipment and plants.”

The impact is being felt locally.

“We had one greenhouse collapse,” said Haley Billipp, co-owner of Eddy Farm in Newington. “Having a lot of snow on the ground really put us back.”

Some farmers are happy, saying the damage could have been worse.

“We’ve been pretty lucky considering what happened to a lot of other farms” said Mike Kandefer, co-manager of Urban Oaks Organic Farm in New Britain.

“The blizzard made the roof of our hoop house collapse,” said Kandefer. “It bent some from the snow but its still standing.”

Some local farmers dodged the bullet.

“We didn’t really get any damage,’’ said Diane Karabin, co-owner of Karabin Farms in Southington.

Read the rest of this story here.