ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — As this weekend’s arctic freeze brought temperatures below freezing across Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia, local farmers are now left reeling from the effects.
At Wesley Wells Farms in St. Johns County, a field that should be blooming with strawberries is instead a site of devastating loss. The farm has been in the family since 1959, but third-generation farmer Wesley Wells said this latest hit is particularly heavy as his family prepares for their first-ever Strawberry Festival this weekend.
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The trouble started Saturday night when temperatures plummeted to 23 degrees. Wells had a system in place to protect the crop, but a mechanical failure at the last minute left him unable to get water on the plants in time to save them.
Without that water protection, 18-mile-per-hour winds and freezing air turned the fruit into ice. Wells described the heartbreak of going out the next morning to see if anything could be salvaged, only to find that the berries were frozen solid, like eating a strawberry straight out of a freezer.
“It’s just devastating to see all of your hard work thrown out because we were preparing for this weekend, and then it kind of all gets thrown away,” Wells said. “It’s heavy. I mean, it’s really heavy.”
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While the damage is severe, Wells said his faith is what keeps him from giving up.
“The Bible talks about a man falls down 7 times and still rises back up. And so that’s what really helps me to continue to keep going,” Wells said. “You have to be able to pick your boot straps back up and keep fighting and keep making it on. And praise God on the mountain top and praise him in the valley. It’s hard to do that but you got to.”
The farm plants a variety of different crops, which will help the family to stay afloat, and the Strawberry Festival is still a go.
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While the local crop took a hit, Wells will still have strawberries to sell thanks to the help of fellow farmers in South Florida. The festival will also feature pig races, horse demonstrations, and animals for families to feed, including cows, pigs, and donkeys.
The Wells family said the best way to support them right now is by showing up to the Strawberry Festival this Saturday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
While the fields may be lacking the bounty they expected, the family is ready to rally and face the future.
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