Theres no water in the ground, so the only water plants are getting comes from sprinklers and drip tape.
There's no water in the ground, so the only water plants are getting comes from sprinklers and drip tape. AG

Last week, I interviewed farmers in the Snoqualmie Valley, on Whidbey Island, and on the Olympic Peninsula about how Washington’s drought is affecting them. As I listened to their stories, I was struck by the magnitude of the problem. Everyone I talked to referred me to another farmer with another story, often adding that "they have it worse than we do."

Since then, the folks over at Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets spoke to a few more farmers (including some east of the Cascades) about how they are coping with the hot, dry conditions. They also asked farmers what consumers can do to help.

The whole post is worth your time, but here are a few things that jumped out to me:

• The drought is affecting farmers' ability to feed their livestock.

According to Matthew Fox of Ellensburg's Green Bow Farm, which specializes in grass-fed meat, "We will no longer be able to irrigate our pastures for our cattle, sheep and poultry and be forced to feed hay. Hay comes at a greater expense and reduces the quality of our products because even the best hay is simply inferior to healthy green grass. This will affect our meat and our fiber."

At Olsen Farms in Colville, the lack of water has reduced their hay crop by 50 percent. "It’s questionable whether or not we’ll have enough to get our cattle through the winter," says Kira Olsen. "In a normal year, we would have enough extra hay to sell quite a few bales as another source of income. This coming winter we will sell no hay and may even have to buy some from another farm to supplement our supply." The farm has never had to purchase supplemental hay before.

• Current conditions have made farming this year completely different from any other year.

"Many of us (farmers) are in the process of learning how/what to grow in what is essentially a completely new climate than where we began," say Matt and Deanna Tregoning of Sol to Seed Farm in the Snoqualmie Valley. "It’s almost as though we packed up our farm and moved it to eastern Washington."

Shelly Pasco of Kent's Whistling Train Farm, says the drought has rearranged the psychic landscape as well: "Anyone who has farmed for a decade knows to expect psychological burnout, usually in August. . .You go at it thinking, 'just one more month of the craziness and we’ll wind down.' But this year there was no gentle transition. We were thrown into full hyperdrive craziness in May and it hasn’t stopped. I’m finding myself experiencing the beginning of burnout and it’s only the beginning of July."

• Here are the two biggest things consumers can do to help: Buy from local farmers and don't complain about higher prices.

I won't lie: I often find myself wincing at the high price of vegetables, fruit, and eggs at farmers' markets. (It's part of the reason I opt for a CSA, which allows me to prepay for a box of veggies that I pick up every week, so I don't have to pull out my wallet.) But once you realize the work that goes into growing food (not to mention the flavor that comes from freshly harvested food that doesn't have to travel across time zones or continents to reach you), those prices are easier to stomach.

Siri Erickson-Brown of Local Roots Farm puts it this way: "We have not raised prices at the farmers' market in eight years. In fact, we've lowered prices on almost everything we grow. This year we are experiencing higher costs due to new irrigation equipment and a lot of additional labor, plus lower yields on almost all our crops. We hope shoppers will understand that farmers markets have a very small profit margin for farmers, and we can't afford to lose money when we go to markets."

I know we're all busy freaking out about the our inevitable, earthquake-related deaths, but we won't even be around for that if we don't have anything to eat. Go buy some green beans and blueberries.