ELLSWORTH — Royal Farms in Ellsworth was lucky to have had much of their stock not affected during last week’s ice storm, but that doesn’t mean they came out unscathed.
Many parts of the farm are covered in branches and trees taken out by the storm, and unfortunately, they are unable to travel the property and see how many trees were lost.
“Initially, it’s really just like digging yourself out of a hole, making sure that you can get to the equipment,” Royal Farms co-owner Sara McGuire said. “The tractors, making sure that you can, that we can put gas in them, even, clearing out the gas tanks. And so we haven’t even really had the opportunity to completely scout out the farm. That’ll be coming, I’m sure, this week. ”
The farm also still lacks power to two areas, including the living quarters for the employees, meaning they have had to find other housing.
The main problem the farm is running into is clean-up, especially as they start the busiest time of year.
“Feeling super lucky. Very blessed.” McGuire said. “But we do have a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of cleanup. Clearing trees and, you know, just putting things back together. And that is going to be, that’s going to be challenging at a time that is already gearing up to be very busy. ”
There is also still the possibility of some loss in their peach and grape crop this year.
Sara says that their peach trees are more susceptible to damage, but overall the fruit trees faired well,” she said. “Our trellises are down in some cases, and so, we’ll have to get those back up and working, holding out with the vines. But that’s where I say, you know, I don’t think that we’ll have, like, I don’t think we had a ton of breakage on the vines and the trees.”
However, they are still trying to give back in light of their luck.
“So as soon as we had power, I wanted to do something right away,” McGuire said. “That’s what we offered free soup for our community, like anybody who wanted to come in and get it. And as things unfold and we’re able to help out, ”
The Frostbite Trail is also coming this weekend, and Sara hopes it can bring a little light to a dark time.
