SIMSBURY, Conn. — The summer sun has been beating down this month, leaving crops thirsty for some rain.
"We need a couple inches of rain. An inch a week is ideal and if you don't get that it builds up," said Don Tuller of Tulmeadow Farm in Simsbury. "Anything we can get would be an improvement over this," he said.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the eastern half of the state is in a moderate drought and the central part is abnormally dry.
It makes for a challenging time for farmers. Tuller said the lack of rain has started to impact his corn.
"This is just a sign of drought stress, the plant is trying to defend itself, it doesn't have enough moisture in it to maintain the open, normally these leaves would be out flat trying to absorb as much sunlight as possible," he said.
It's the opposite problem farmers faced last July, which was wetter than usual.
"Last year there was tremendous crop losses to wetness I mean floods, thousands of acres of crops were destroyed last year because of too much rain," Tuller said.
The key is to strike a balance. But even before the summer, this year's weather created challenges.
"We had a cool spring which kind of slowed things down, a lot of wind which really did a lot of damage you know made it really hard for the plants to do well," Tuller said.
Farmers have also had to deal with the impacts of inflation, with the costs of fuel, fertilizer, and more on the rise. Plus, the always existing struggle of running a small business.
"You're competing against supermarkets and they're getting stuff from areas that have lower labor costs and maybe have more favorable weather this year," Tuller said.
That's why customers FOX61 spoke to said they make it a point to try to shop local.
"This is a family gem, everybody comes here. Their ice cream is great," said Meyling Real of West Hartford.
"We like to show love show support because of what they do," said Felipe Zamorra of Simsbury.
Gaby Molina is a reporter and anchor at FOX61 News. She can be reached at gmolina@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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