Rain. Rain.

After I left market on Sunday I swung by the Amtrak station in Rockville to collect a dear friend who had traveled from the small agricultural valley in southern California where I had lived for many years before returning east to farm. I was wet from tearing down and packing the stand. I had driven through flooded streets, water spraying so high from passing cars they caused a wet slap on my windshield with each one driving by. My mind was clicking through worst-case scenarios of what the deluge meant for me back at the farm - flooding in the barn, flooding in the lower pastures, erosion, mud, flies, foot rot.Exiting her train, my friend’s first words were, “All this rain, it’s so wonderful. Everything is so green. You are so lucky!”As we caught up on too many years gone by, she told me what fourteen years of drought has meant for her. The one that took away my breath - hay cost $18 a bale, more than four times the average cost in the mid-Atlantic region. “We had pastures for about a month this year,” she said. When there is no pasture, one must purchase hay. In comparison, I have pasture for nine, some years ten months out of the year. My perspective was quickly shifting about the impending week of storms.The big shocker, when it rains her local farmers markets get canceled! “You still had market today with the rain?” she asked, and I responded that markets are only shut down for hurricanes and single-digit temperatures although once there was a market right after a derecho. No one bought anything because everyone was out of power.The down side.A week of torrential rains can create havoc on a farm. At Spiral Path Farm all this water means the fields are too wet to safely plant, drive through, and harvest without harming the soil. Many summer crops, like melons and tomatoes, need it to be hot and dry to grow and ripen properly. “Think of a vine-ripe cantaloupe sitting in nine inches of water,” lamented Lucas Brownback.At Two Acre Farm all the green beans and tomatoes needed to be replanted. Nicole Olson explained, “Moisture from all the rain-soaked in the beans themselves causing the beans to be rubbery and entire tomato plants simply rotted out of the ground.”The up side.For Lucas at Spiral Path, the plus side of the rains is there is no irrigating needed. I thought of my farming and ranching friends out west who have had to let entire orchards of citrus and avocados die because they could no longer afford the water needed to irrigate and livestock ranchers selling off entire herds due to lack to water. Drilling a new well into a depleted aquifer is futile.When customers lament the rain, I remind them how critical it is, even if this week it seems to be too much of a good thing. Yes, there will be many crops impacted, but there is enough water to sustain future plantings. Other geographic regions both in the United States and throughout the globe experiencing severe droughts do not have this option and are instead saddled with economic losses, social changes and migrations of both people and animals.I’ll take the rain.