Mark Stonehill and Miriam Goler went to bed on July 13 concerned about the weather report. Hail was predicted, and the couple – who established their horse-powered organic enterprise, Full Circus Farm, in Pine Plains in 2014 – were worried about possible damage to their seedlings and tomato hoop houses.
What they didn’t anticipate was waking up not to hail, but to floodwaters raging past their house. Days of heavy rains had caused the farm’s stream to jump its banks in four different places. A video shows a heavy flow of water rushing past the couple’s barn towards the vegetable field.
The house and barn were spared, as were the farm’s cows, horses and chickens. Stonehill and Goler and their two small children were also safe. But the floodwaters had left Full Circus’ abundant vegetable fields largely unusable.
“That field is a loss that has to be plowed under, even though some of the plants aren’t dead,” Stonehill said, citing U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines on floodwaters and the risk of E. Coli and other threats to public safety. “When there’s flooding from a stream overflow, the state won’t let you sell produce in case of contamination.”
The couple was able to preserve rows of popcorn, and salvaged eggplants plants, although all current flowers and fruits needed to be disposed of. The tomatoes and sweet peppers in the hoop house were unaffected, as were the seedlings.
The first calls Stonehill made the morning of the flood was to Steve Mosher at R&R Service Center in Stanfordville. Mosher and his crew rushed over with heavy equipment to help contain the stream. Pine Plains carpenter Ryan Boyles, who built both the family’s home and barn, was quick to respond as well.
“They were heroic in coming to our aid. It was still flooding and they helped put the stream back in its bed,” Stonehill said, noting that Boyles and Mosher have regularly provided help to the farm since its founding nine years ago.
Stonehill and Goler, who met as high schoolers in New York City and worked and apprenticed at a number of organic farms before founding Full Circus, sell vegetables, fruit trees and flowers as a CSA, or community-sponsored agricultural model.
While the flood means they’re unable to sell much of their produce for the rest of the season, they’re able to continue supplying goods to their CSA members provided by other local growers, including Rock Steady Farm in Millerton and Stanfordville’s Foxtrot Farm and Flowers in Stanfordville, as well as by growing new produce on space lent by Little Forest Farm in Ancram.
Members of the CSA turned up at the farm on July 22 to help clear out silt from the barn, and a Full Circus GoFundMe campaign quickly raised nearly $25,000 for repairs.
“The community we’ve been a part of and which has been so welcoming to us is what we’re most proud of as farmers,” Goler said. Stonehill continued, “The outpouring of support is incredible.”
Thinking of the future, Stonehill and Goler said they’ve reached out to the Cornell Cooperative Extension service, the USDA, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and county experts for advice on best conservation practices should Full Circus face flooding in the future.
“We have to look holistically at how water moves through the farm,” Stonehill said. “We might have to remove some fencing so debris doesn’t build up.”
Goler and Stonehill said the flood has been an unsettling reminder of how climate change is affecting the lives of farmers like themselves. “This kind of flash flooding is going to become more common,” Stonehill said. “It’s an existential challenge for us. Our home made it through this time, but [the flooding] could have been worse.”