FAIRFAX — Nate Mercer, site manager at River Berry Farm in Fairfax, didn’t have much time to talk around 10 a.m. Tuesday. “We’re panic-chopping lettuce,” he said.
River Berry Farm sits along the Lamoille River, which Mercer said rose high enough overnight to flood the farm’s fields closest to the banks. The river is expected to keep rising throughout the day, he said, threatening more produce.
“It’s gone up at least a foot or two since we got here and started working at 7:30 a.m.,” Mercer said, noting that the farm has already lost plantings of lettuce, zucchini, summer squash, peppers, fennel and cabbage.
Mercer was loading bins onto a large, orange tractor and planned to start pulling beets out of the ground next. “It’s gonna take out pretty much everything,” he said, looking out toward the river. “Most of the farm’s gonna be underwater.”
