Cherry Rock Farms making the most of a tough year

NEAR BRANDON, S.D. (KELO) — This time of year is mostly for picking and selling produce at Cherry Rock Farms.

But this year looks different for the Brandon-area business.

Marco and Laura Patzer lost 90 percent of their crop because of flooding.

“It’s been the craziest summer we’ve seen so far,” Marco Patzer said.

That’s why Cherry Rock Farms has been doing late planting of some crops, such as onions.

“Sounds crazy, but the onion seed and we thought, ‘Well, we’ll just go ahead and plant them and put them in the ground and hopefully they’ll size enough that we can sell them,’ you know stuff like that…planting late cabbages and cauliflowers, broccolis, those types of things,” Marco Patzer said.

Still the Patzers are selling what they can in their store, which has also seen some adjustments this year.

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“We still have other producers who are counting on us to sell some of their products, so we open the store for a couple hours on Friday just to have a way to move some of those items. For the rest of the week, we’ve been doing a self-serve market, which is just grab and go. If you need a tomato or cucumber or pepper, we’re just really limited on what our supplies are,” Laura Patzer said.

As the Patzers press on, they’re grateful for their customers’ support.

“It really makes you realize the impact you have on the community and just how important our job is to feed families. We have so much gratitude in our hearts and are so thankful for our customers and everyone that comes out,” Laura Patzer said.

And they’re already looking forward to celebrating 100 years next year.

“It’s been some rough days. It’s an emotional rollercoaster for sure, but we’re tough. We’re going to be alright,” Marco Patzer said.

The Patzers says the pumpkins are looking beautiful so far, but they did have to replants some so there is a concern about the yield.