As the mercury dips lower, a precious commodity is in jeopardy on the Northshore. With a hard freeze warning issued for St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington parishes, the Ponchatoula strawberry farmers are now bracing for the second cold snap in less than a week.

"We should be picking right now and harvesting a lot more, and we should have had two more weeks before this came," said Eric Morrow of Morrow Farms in Ponchatoula.

Instead, he and other strawberry farmers in Ponchatoula are covering their crop as the frigid freezing temperatures threaten to harm their precious harvest.

His farm has 8 acres of strawberries. His one acre of early berries, which were planted in mid-September, can produce from 2,500 to 3,000 flats, which he plans to sell at farmers markets throughout the winter. "I think it'll be a good crop, but it'll be a lighter crop. It'll be a traditional strawberry season crop by March and April," he said.

Morrow said if the temperature dips too low for too long, it could burn the blooms they have now, so he is hoping the floating row covers he put down will shield the berries from the cold. "They'll hold it down pretty good. It depends on how long it stays cold. If it's more than 12 hours, it'll be tough," Morrow said.

With the freezing temps coming twice this early in the season, they have already seen some damage to other produce on the farm.

"It really knocked our tomato crop out that we were picking. It's kind of hurting a little bit of everything," he said. "It costs a lot of money to go ahead and cover everything up, and really do all this stuff when we're not really ready to do it."

It is precious time that is costing them money and their precious crop. Morrow said they are also concerned about the corn and green beans. The corn leaves have a bit of burning from last week's freeze, but he said they will start picking those Tuesday and continue until they finish.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/