Sylvia Colbert watched and waited for the banana and 50-foot bamboo trees on her property to snap beneath the pounding rains and roaring winds of Hurricane Ian.

Colbert’s food forest – a lush, 2.5-acre property that houses her 50 fruit trees, dozens of native support plants, grasses and herbs – had just produced its first harvest of Caribbean ginger that will be used as an ingredient in her handmade vegan shampoo. 

Now more than a week has passed since Hurricane Ian, and Colbert can only clean up the damage to her farm and wait – again – to see what plants still survive amid the debris across her DeSoto Acres property. 

While most of northern Sarasota County returned to normalcy shortly after the horrific and historic hurricane, it’s been a different story in the east and south parts of the county, where flooding and lost power have caused concerns for local agriculture and farm businesses that are struggling to regain their footing.  

Colbert is among a half-dozen local farmers and growers who face a difficult choice: rebuild and restart their crops next season or walk away from an industry that often bears the brunt when severe storms hit the Sunshine State.  

“I feel overwhelmed. It’s disappointing,” Colbert said of the destruction around her.

In the days after Ian, Colbert, 64, pruned and removed 10 flat-bed trailers full of debris and plant loss.

“Every three years I have to do this," Colbert said. "But on the flip side, the perspective it gives me is what I try to focus on. I have a lot of respect for Mother Nature after hurricanes like this one.” 

Sylvia Colbert began creating what she calls a food forest

After purchasing and relocating to her DeSoto Acres home seven years ago from Lakeland, Colbert began creating what she calls a food forest— just over two acres of various tropical fruit trees, nut trees, lemongrasses, exotic florals, mature oaks and pines, various edibles and dozens of other native Florida support perennial plants. Colbert’s handmade soap products, which are sold through her company Good Earth Pure Soaps, all utilize the master gardener’s cultivated plants and herbs.   

Colbert said many of her trees were knocked down by high winds during Hurricane Ian. Even a 75-year-old Live Oak at the edge of her property was ripped from the earth and tossed into the nearby street.

Colbert watched her neighbor, who happens to be an arborist, carefully cut around the tree and downed wire at the front of her property. The weight of the large oak crushed numerous banana trees and wind shields that were planted around its base.

Colbert's smaller edible garden, which supplies vegetables and other edibles for her plant-based lifestyle, endured severe damage beneath the larger plants and trees. “It’s going to hold my business and my personal life back some," Colbert said of the damage.

Now Colbert has no choice but to wait and see if the roots of many of her trees and produce plants are viable. After days of water retention in the DeSoto Acres community, she’s concerned many of her plants won’t survive due to oversaturation.  

“That first day I thought ‘poor me,’" Colbert said. "But when I did get power back and looked at the television, I saw that there are so many people that lost so much more than me. I only have a couple of acres; I lost some but I’m a little more fortunate. There are some people whose livelihood was lost in this storm.” 

Shortly before Hurricane Ian's arrival, Eva and Chris Worden – along with their staff – harvested the first batch of fall produce at the 45-acre Worden Farm, a beloved farm in Punta Gorda.

A favorite of Suncoast residents, Worden Farms has provided vegetables and fresh produce since 2003. But while other major hurricanes – including Andrew, Charley and Irma – had caused damage, none of them affected Worden Farm the way that Hurricane Ian has.

Eva Worden says the damage in Ian's wake was significant: the farm was among the properties, homes and businesses that took a direct hit. She remembers at least six hours of 100 mph-plus wind gusts as the property was blasted by each eyewall of the Category 4 storm.

“We got both eyewalls of it, and for an extended period of time,” Worden said.

While the Wordens continue to assess the total damage from Hurricane Ian, Eva Worden believes the farm sustained approximately 20 acres of crop loss. Crops like leafy greens, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, squash and more locally grown and sold crops were among the hundreds of pounds of lost produce.

Beyond the fields, another 40 acres of property were mildly damaged. Worden’s newly constructed barn had its roof pulled up and three greenhouses needed to be resealed. The storm also destroyed hundreds of pounds of organic fertilizer and felled more than 200 trees.

The Wordens' home, however, was spared from Hurricane Ian.

Despite the destruction, the Wordens remain resilient, and they hope to keep providing produce for the community they have built their lives around. In fact, they have already planted transplants that had been stored away just before Ian’s arrival. Eva Worden is confident the crops will yield later in the season, but she is concerned about the total output of this season’s harvest. 

“We are worried," Worden said, "but we're doing everything we can to respond quickly."

Despite the setbacks, Worden Farms – and all the available produce it harvested just before Ian – returned to the Sarasota Farmers Market last weekend. And consumers can still find Worden produce at local restaurants such as Lila, Owen’s Fish Camp and Ionie Vegan Café.  

“We want to get back to our business, and (to) helping the local community," Worden said. 

Worden Farm has set up a Hurricane Ian relief fund to assist with their fall vegetable crop replanting and repairs.

Power loss adds to damage at Homestead Hydroponic Farm

Sarah and Mike Whellan's family-run Homestead Hydroponic Farm was without full power for four days after Hurricane Ian. The farm, which opened its doors in 2014, lies east of incorporated Sarasota in the marshy wetlands next to Myakka State Park.

The farm is part of the Myakka River Watershed – a 315-square-mile area containing lakes, ponds and the 72-mile river itself.

The vertical-growing and pesticide-free hydroponic farm produce greens such as lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries. But it now faces a major setback to its plans to expand its crops.

The Whellans, both Sarasota natives, rode out Hurricane Ian on their 7.5-acre farm along with their co-owners Ally and Neil O'Connor. Sarah Whellan said the storm was unlike others before it.

"It was terrifying," she said. "The winds . . .  sounded like a firehose was being blasted against the door for hours. All you could hear was wind, and it felt like we were in a vortex."

Whellan said waking up to the damage was a devastating experience.

"Everything is gone, and we are back to square one now," Whellan said.

After assessing the damage, the Whellans started working on ways to get power routed to the vertical growers that provide water and nutrients to lettuces, greens and other crops beneath their four large greenhouses. Mike Whellan, who is Sarah's husband, began pumping water manually to get it flowing to the crops.

"He was out there all morning for hours trying to get pumps flowing," Sarah said of her husband. 

The farm eventually regained power, and the Whellans have also been able to clean up about an acre of the debris. But they aren't certain which seedlings and transplants will survive, and they are waiting to see the full impact of the storm's damage to their business. Sarah Whellan said the community has shown support through Homestead Hydroponic Farm's online store and Homestead's Hurricane Ian Relief Fund. 

She said the hurricane is yet another pivot that she, her family and her farm have had to make in recent years. "Ever since COVID, we've had to pick up and start things all over again," Whellan said. 

"This is not going to take us out. It has been hard, but we are going to keep growing."

Source - https://eu.heraldtribune.com