A localized thunderstorm last week dumped an estimated 2 inches of rain on Wanship in an hour, flooding fields and Gracie’s Farm, a 1-acre food garden owned by the nearby Lodge at Blue Sky.   Within 20 minutes, parts of the garden were under 18 inches of water that afternoon, resulting in a loss of about $10,000 in crops. “It was pretty terrible,” said Lynsey Gammon, the farm director. “It was so fast, too, that you couldn’t prevent it and you couldn’t stop it. By the time that we had walked outside, all of the debris from above us had flown into the farm and got stuck up against our fencing, and it just created this backlog of water all over the farm.” Credit: Photo courtesy of Lynsey Gammon Credit: Photo courtesy of Lynsey Gammon Last Wednesday, flooding from at Gracie’s Farm from a localized thunderstorm left half of its garden beds caked in mud, manure and hay. Farm Director Lynsey Gammon cleans off a row of young lettuce in hopes of saving some of the crops. Her team of three farmers and a few others managed to cut open the fence and let the water drain. Four hours later, the water was gone, but layers of hay, manure and mud caked the garden beds. Gammon, a career farmer, said she’d never seen anything like it. Neighboring local farmers like Andrea Morgan of Moonshadow Farm didn’t have the same misfortune. It wasn’t a creek overflow, but a result of runoff from higher elevations. Gammon said with such a hot, dry spring, vegetation that would naturally have established roots in the foothills around Gracie’s Farm had instead died off. All it took was one too many storms, and the soil came sliding off. “It’s kind of similar to the Dust Bowl if you think about it,” Gammon said. “There was nothing holding down the topsoil, and when a wind event or a rain event comes through, it’s just going to wash right away. So we were unfortunately the victims of that moment.” Jacee Andersen, a former Gracie’s farm hand who now manages a farm in Midway, said she was crushed when she heard the news. Jacee Andersen, a former Gracie’s Farm employee, volunteers her time Thursday to weed and clean out garden beds at the farm that were covered in debris during a flash flood last week. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record “It was a gut punch just because I worked here, I know the ladies, I know the farm,” she said. “It’s such a traumatic, hard thing to go through.”  She brought her two farm hands from Midway for the cleanup last week.  “It’s honestly good to be back for a little day and kind of learn from what’s happening here, too,” Andersen said. “Seeing similarities in the geographical landscape that could happen to our landscape, and things that we could be aware of, like hedgerows or dry spots upstream, being aware of those, seeing where the lowland is and where we can prepare for something like that at any other farm.” Gracie’s Farm operates on such a small amount of land, meaning the growing seasons are carefully planned out and rotate through crops, Gammon explained. Rather than planting everything in April to harvest in September, they transplant, seed and harvest almost every week, and bring in about $80,000 each season. But the timing of the flooding added extra bad luck. “We were coming into that flow state of August, where most things are in the ground, and we kind of ride out the rest of the season,” Gammon said. “The weekend prior to the flood was our biggest transplant weekend that we’d had since the beginning of the year. So we put in roughly between 2,000 and 3,000 transplants and seeded new crops.” So not only did they lose a majority of those young, vulnerable plants, but the mature lettuces that were nearly ready to harvest couldn’t be salvaged. Dominique Tarr, a manager at the farm, said while younger lettuce plants can get fully cleaned, mature lettuce is so tightly leafed that it was impossible to clean out the unsanitary debris caked between the layers. That will all go straight to the compost. “We don’t want to be the next cyclospora parasite,” she joked. Credit: Photo courtesy of Lynsey Gammon Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Gracie’s Farm manager Dominique Tarr shows lettuce heads, right, caked in manure that covered half the garden beds during a flood last week. The farm estimated a $10,000 loss in crops due to the debris. This week, the farm hosted volunteer times to help with the remediation. In a few hours, a volunteer group was able to clean, weed and till soil in a section of the garden that would have taken the small team two days to do, Tarr said. Volunteer Amy Sletta is a gardener by hobby who also works banquets at the Blue Sky property. When she heard about the flooding, she put a call out to the Park City Garden Club and signed up to help out herself.  “Having a small farm like this, they’re struggling, they’re fighting the odds anyway, so they need all the help they can get,” Sletta said. “I just think people need to show up. …Got to keep the small farms going.” Volunteer Chip Reynolds, a longtime Snyderville Basin resident, strung up peas with Sletta. Reynolds said he’d planned to go to dinner on the farm last Friday when he heard about the flood and figured he should show some support. He’s not a gardener — “I’m a lawn mower,” he joked — but signed up anyway.  “They need help. It’s as simple as that,” he said. Others said the fully booked volunteer block, capped at eight slots each day, is a testament to the community, that when Park City calls, people come together. This group ended their morning with sandwiches donated by Chop Shop Park City, another way the farm has seen love from locals. Volunteers Amy Sletta and Chip Reynolds work to string up peas on Thursday at Gracie’s Farm. The two donated their time after hearing about the devastating flooding that affected the small business last week. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record “We’ve had more community support and people reaching out than I could have even imagined, and that is what is going to save us,” Gammon said. “The amount of people that are still coming to the farm stand and still coming to the dinners, and still showing up here just to give us a hug or some popsicles or whatever it might be, that’s what’s going to save us.” The farm’s initial post on its Instagram page got over 100 comments from people encouraging the farmers and offering to help.  Gammon said it’s too late to fully catch up from the loss, which includes the $10,000 in crops, about $1,500 in top soil, compost and soil amendments that were washed away, as well as the cost of labor and materials. Before planting any new crops on those beds, they need to ensure the soil isn’t tainted. What they can grow will be sold at the farm store, which sees hundreds of customers, distributed to their 31 community-supported agriculture members and served to farm dinner attendees and at The Lodge at Blue Sky restaurants. But it’ll be limited. With the help of volunteers, Gracie’s Farm was able to remove piles of mud and manure that covered some of its garden beds during a flood last week. Most of the crops were unsalvageable, and the farm needs to assess the health of the soil before replanting. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record “(This) could financially ruin another farm easily, and if this were my personal farm, I would have a lot to think about as far as how to move forward,” Gammon said. “I’m hopeful. I mean it’s a huge loss, and it doesn’t go unnoticed by any means. It’s still a big financial loss, but we’re going to try our best to make it up in other ways if we can.” Gracie’s Farm will host volunteer days on Wednesdays and Saturdays until the farm is back on track, and Gammon said all are welcome. For anyone who can’t commit the time or manual labor, there are other ways to support, Gammon said. Visit the farm stand, grab a meal at the Smokewood trailer, which operates Fridays and Saturdays, or purchase a ticket for a farm dinner.  “Farming in general is filled with challenges. Like every single year, there’s something that comes up. It’s always kind of an adversity challenge, but this year has felt particularly bitter,” she said. “It’s a sad moment.” The post Community helps Gracie’s Farm recover from devastating monsoon flood appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less