RONDOUT VALLEY – The growing season is off and running here in the Rondout Valley. There was a slow start, not unusual, due to the lingering cold from the winter. In addition the Hudson Valley is experiencing an unusually dry period, about thirty percent off normal rain/snow totals for the year so far.

However, recent rains have put some water into the soil and local farmers have been planting like crazy all through the month of May.

Nick Cippollone, who grows the vegetables and sweet corn that Barthels Farm Stand sells in Ellenville, is confident about the coming season.

"Feeling good; we've been planting a lot," he said. "We needed some rain, and these rains this week were great."

Deborah Dewan of the Rondout Valley Growers' Association noted that, "Farmers here are the most flexible, adaptable people. They have to be because of the ever changing weather conditions. Everyone here is continually updating their databases on that subject."

One aspect of agriculture here that many may not appreciate is the tremendous diversity. From horse farms to fruit growers, vegetables to hops, sweet corn to cut flowers, hardworking farmers are doing it here.

Of course, while farmers are planting, whether it's tomato seedlings or dahlia tubers, those who love to shop local, haunt farm stands and get the freshest, latest veggies and everything else are having to wait.

But the first asparagus is coming up now, and the first strawberries — greenhouse grown — are showing up at local farm markets like Saunderskill Farm in Accord.

Another aspect of agriculture in the Rondout Valley we should note is the diversity of what's growing. For example, take the cluster of farms on Lower Whitfield Road in Rochester, where stylist Laura Ferrara and her husband Fabio Chizzola have revived Westwind Orchards, turning it into a foodie center with organic apples, berries and honey. Across the road is Blake Arrowood's ten acre hopyard, where he's growing three varieties of hops — Cascades, Crystal and Nugget — and experimenting with four more.

"Just to see what hops will grow best here in the valley," he explained. "Our climate is quite different from that of Germany, say, or Washington State," to mention a couple of well known hop growing centers.

Arrowood's neighbor, Marybeth Wehrung, is meanwhile growing flowers at Stars of the Meadows. Yes, flowers... and she isn't the only flower grower operating in the valley. On Hurley Mountain Road there's April Flowers, a small grower currently planting her dahlias, an annual variety, as well as lisianthus, a "thornless rose" that is very popular for weddings. Wehrung has been at it for four years now, and has her season planned out.

"This is a busy time right now," she noted because she's planting field annuals as well as her dahlia tubers. "Sunflowers will be out in mid to late July. Then there are Zinnias, and in August, Dahlias."

Wehrung makes the additional point that "locally grown flowers have lagged behind other forms of farming. But we don't use the harsh chemicals that you see in large scale commercial flower growing, especially in South America. Our flowers come with a much smaller carbon footprint, too."

At Blake Arrowood's hopyard, local and innovative are also celebrated. Arrowood has just broken ground on a barn structure that will become a farm brewery, with a beer garden to go with it. In his hopyard he will integrate sheep and duck raising operations.

"The ducks provide high nitrogen content manure which goes around the hop plants," he said. "And we integrate the sheep into the hopyard; they eat weeds and all the leaves up to four feet off the ground (hops are vines that are grown on trellises). That will open things up to let the air in and keep down the downy and powdery mildew which can affect hop plants."

Up at the new Hudson Valley Farm Hub, formerly Gill Farm, they're working on a lot of different projects. The 1,255 acre property, run with major foundation funds, is an incubator for young farmers to learn skills as well as an experimental farm seeking new crops that can be grown in the Hudson Valley.

"We're continuing the transition from a sweet-corn operation to more diversified and ecologically restored farmland," said Farm Hub spokesperson Brooke Pickering-Cole. "For instance there's a soil restoration program now. Triticale and vetch was planted as a cover on some fields and then left to die in the field and form a straw mat. Soybeans are planted within the mat, which acts as weed control. So this kind of experimentation is one aspect of what's going on."

Then there's the 38 acre vegetable garden.

"They're using organic methods, though not necessarily going to certify it as organic," she added. "There are going to be trials of tomato varieties, seeking disease resistance. There are also going to be experiments with a lot of root crops."

Meanwhile the Farm Hub "small grains trial" continues.

"Two things are happening there. A scaled up grow-out from last year's trial of spring varieties is underway. That's been planted on the Hurley Flats, across from the state police barracks. Some varieties of wheat and barley are involved there. They've set out 1.5 acres of each variety both organic and conventional, and they'll see how they do," Pickering-Cole explained. "Meanwhile, over toward Hurley Mountain Road, small squares of winter varieties of grain that were planted last fall will be harvested in July."

She added that J ustin O'Day from Cornell Cooperative will be holding a small grains seminar in early July for farmers to come and hear how the trials have gone so far.

And meanwhile, back among the corn and vegetable growers, this week's sudden chill down had some of them holding back on the next round of planting.

"We were going to plant the 'hot' crop, — tomatoes, peppers, eggplant — but with the temperature dropping so much, we decided to wait," Cippollone said. "It's a risk reward thing... Reward if they grow, but if they don't then you're just risking them out there, with the bugs, disease and possibly a frost."

On one question, all the growers are very clear. The sweet corn you see at local farmstands is not genetically modified.

"No GMO corn grown here," Nick Cippollone was quick to note. "People are misinformed. If you want GMO food then it's in your cornflakes, your crackers, anything that comes in a package. No one I know is growing Monsanto corn varieties here."