It only took minutes for the majority of the berries on Troyer Farm to be damaged following a hailstorm a few weeks ago.

“It is a devastating loss when something like that, 10 minutes, an excellent crop can be nothing,” Kenneth Troyer, owner of Troyer’s Farm said.

Severe storms, a tornado and hail barreled across the Augusta County and Waynesboro area in late April, damaging homes, cars and most of the strawberries at Troyer’s Farm.

“When we got the hailstorm, we were in full bloom. It looks like somebody took a brush hog and just cut it off,” Troyer said.

Troyer’s Farm is about three acres. The storm damaged 30,000 pounds of berries, 75 percent of their crop.

“Lots went through my mind, I’d walk out in the berry field and turn around and walk back out again for the first week because it was devastated for the crop,” Troyer explained.

There are some that are just too deformed, but others are just fine to eat.

“We don’t have huge volumes and the volume is going to stay low through most of the month of May, into June. Then we will be able to start picking a little more again because we have flowers coming back out or they did come out and are blooming currently,” he said.

They are still selling some berries. Troyer has been posting updates on the farm’s Facebook page for the best time to come out and pick.

“I don’t know as far as if we are going to be planting strawberries again for next year. I guess that is a part of farming, it’s a risk. We [will] stay hopeful for another year and we will be putting plants out again this fall,” Troyer added.

Source - https://www.whsv.com