BRADFORD, Ark — This out of the ordinary November freeze is causing a lot of us to bundle up and crank up our heat earlier than usual. For local farmers, though, the early cold is raising some concerns.
What does this mean for us? Aside from high heating bills, we may be limited on what we can put on our dinner tables.
Brandon and Cat Gordon run Five Acres Farm tucked away in Pleasant Plains.
Cat said the unseasonable temperatures popping up in the forecast have them worried.
"It's just a lot of stress on our part and trying to make sure everything's okay," she said.
Cat said the frigid November temperatures caught her and her husband off guard because this is the type of weather they normally experience in the dead of winter, January or February.
"We're 30 degrees colder than we should be right now and plants are definitely not ready for that," she said.
Cat said with the drastic change in temperature, they had to adapt fast.
"We spent the weekend harvesting everything we could to put into cold storage and then spent a couple of days putting out row cover and covering everything that’s supposed to help us survive until spring," she said.
Cat said the cold storage is now filled up with bags of kale, green onions, and cabbage.
"Some of it could've continued to grow out in the field if it was constant," she said.
Cat said these vegetables usually would be soaking up the sun during this time of year.
"With such a drastic drop, there are a lot of things that can't hold up to that," she said.
Cat said they have limited storage, which meant some crops were left to collect the overnight freeze.
"We have a lot of crops outside that were supposed to be fine until December, but now they're... you know," she said.
She said it comes down to a matter of time with those batches.
"We have to wait until at least tomorrow afternoon or the next day, once it warms up, and we can fully access it to see how it looks," she said.
The husband and wife duo are hoping the row cover over the rest of the crops will save them.
"We are limited in how much row cover we have, so we have to prioritize what gets covered, what's most important," Cat said.
While the cold weather brought limitations, the Gordons remain optimistic.
"We'll make the best of it, we'll keep pushing through," she said.
The Gordons said when it gets to below 20 degrees, that's when the concern begins.