The farmer lives and dies by the weather... and in this case, I'm simultaneously loving and cursing the cool temperatures we've had. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that we lost all our developing strawberries to hail two weeks ago. It hasn't gotten warm enough since then to have decent fruit set! So here we are in the second week of May with 3000 strawberries and nothing on them. *facepalm*
In this case, it couldn't come at a worse time. I knew that strawberry revenue this year wouldn't be what it was last year, but I was counting on it to provide something to carry payroll through to full vegetable production. There are still several weeks to go in strawberry season, and we're in a frost pocket that runs 3-5 degrees cooler than the reported lows, so it's entirely possible that we'll have a strawberry season that extends into July. But damn, the lack of fruit right now has me tempted to bite my nails... I'm taking steps again to get in a PPP loan, this time with an independent company owned by a friend because none of the banks I reached out to (even those where I've banked for 5+ years!) bothered to respond to my questions last time. Here's hoping that one of the Atlanta Harvest guys can make the magic happen, cause I'll feel a lot more comfortable with some extra cash on hand right now, even if the strawberries start popping next week and I don't end up needing it.
