Volunteers Rush to Harvest Veggies in the Intervale as the Winooski River Rises

Volunteers at work at the Intervale Community Farm Credit: Daria Bishop

Updated on July 11, 2023.

Volunteers put on overalls and boots Monday morning and headed over to Intervale Community Farm for an emergency harvest as the Winooski River surged toward flood stage.

By early afternoon, muddy adults and children alike had filled crates upon crates of beets and carrots. Andy Jones, the farm manager, said they already had plenty of volunteers. But all afternoon, cars kept coming.

Bella Weksler took a quick breather from harvesting to report that her experience was “really muddy and really fun.” Then she lined up with 30 other volunteers and got back to work.

Micah Barritt, co-owner of Digger’s Mirth, harvesting young greens Credit: Daria Bishop

The farm, in a flood plain, summoned volunteers to harvest in advance of the river cresting. Residents from the Burlington area responded.

The low-lying farm relies heavily on the United States Geological Survey’s gauges in the Winooski River. As of midday, the National Weather Service predicted the river would reach the 21.6-foot level at Essex Junction early Tuesday, well above the 18-foot level that marks major flooding. In Jones’ 30 years at the farm, the only storm that even approached 20 feet was Tropical Storm Irene, when all but two of the property’s 300 acres flooded.

“It’s gonna be a flood of catastrophic proportions here,” Jones predicted.

Micah Barritt, a co-owner of Diggers’ Mirth Collective Farm, which farms on the property, felt the stress of the flooding, which poses a risk to his livelihood. However, when he recalls the Halloween flood of 2019, he doesn’t think about the losses but of the 50 people who showed up to help out, he said.

“I feel really heartened by the way in which our community shows up,” he said.

Kyle Weatherhogg, a volunteer from the food bank, and Nour El-Naboulsi, a volunteer who runs the People’s Farmstand, took the day off from work and arrived at 8 a.m. to help out. Students from UVM’s agroecology fellowship sorted out how to stay longer than they originally planned. Staff and volunteers alike bonded over the sweet smells of chamomile and cilantro as they cut into the harvest.

Jones described figuring out how to “thread the needle” between harvesting too much and not enough. They prioritized the crops that were mature, or close enough, and could last for a long time. Many of the carrots harvested, for instance, were a bit smaller than typical but still delicious, and could be kept for months.

At Diggers’, they harvested lettuce and mustard greens. The team put silage tarps, which are essentially big sheets of plastic, on the land and strapped down irrigation pipes. The berms that they typically use in a flood wouldn’t be sufficient for one of this scale.

Harvesting on Monday afternoon Credit: Daria Bishop

Farms across Vermont can expect an increase in flooding due to climate change, according to Jones. Thirty years ago, most of the flooding came from snowmelt in the beginning of the season. Today, Jones said, they experience more flooding in the summer.

By Tuesday morning, the mood at the Intervale was more somber. Rising waters from the Winooski River was spreading from garden to garden, destroying crops and farmers’ livelihoods by the minute.

But the community spirit remained. Though the road was closed to most traffic, farmers, staff and volunteers rolled up their pants and waded through a foot and a half of water. The lucky ones got a ride on one of the few tractors that toured the scenes of destruction. Others tried biking through the muck.

Stephania Surowiec carried her Converse sneakers as she trudged along. She works for Intervale Community Farm and expected to meet with others, but by 10:30 a.m., she had the garden to herself. Surowiec waded into the stream, which reached halfway up her calf, to pick as many calendula flowers as she could. She would dry them and use them to heal her hands, which were cut up from harvesting zucchini the day before.

For farmers whose fields had already been flooded, there was not much to be done. Many had been out harvesting until as late as 9 p.m. Monday.

Others were racing the clock, continuing to save what they could.
Brooke Giard, owner of June Farm, drove back and forth in her truck, collecting bouquets before it was too late. Like any other Tuesday, she had to make 200 bouquets to sell.

The water was still rising, with the river expected to crest Tuesday afternoon.