Chamomile, hibiscus, and lemongrass are among the herbs that Kendra Payne, owner of The Herbal Scoop in Narrowsburg, said customers tend to gravitate to in the summertime.
“Everybody’s looking for hydration. Now that we finally have some sunny weather, [people are] pushing into summer flavors, which is incredible,” she said.
But a few of those herbs – like hibiscus, Payne’s favorite herb – do not grow well in drastic weather changes and excessive rain.
Over the past two decades, rainfall in the Catskills region has increased steadily. Annual rainfall in Sullivan County jumped more than 25 inches from 237 inches in 2004 to 264 inches in 2024.
Climate experts warn that climate change is driving heavier rainfall. As the Earth’s temperatures get hotter, the air can hold more moisture. And that warm air can hold more water, releasing more intense, short rainfall across the country, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This year’s heavy rainfall comes as the Trump administration freezes hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. Department of Agriculture grants, funds that had already been approved. Local farmers worry that climate change, coupled with shifting federal policies, could define the future of the state’s agriculture industry.
READ: Young Farmers Feel the Freeze of Federal Funding
Funding for vital irrigation infrastructure, pulled
Payne was expecting a $50,000 grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service that would have helped build out proper irrigation for her two-acre farm’s high tunnel and a more resilient water management system. The funds have still not been disbursed.
“A lot of water is collecting into the tunnel, which has made about a quarter of [crops] unusable for this season,” she said.
Due to the constant moisture and lack of sun, Payne says, her plants are not doing as well this year. She has tried to use more grow lights to mimic sunnier conditions, but “it’s just really not been enough.”
“I feel behind. I am hopeful with this sunny day that more will come so that I can feel like I can catch up and get the type of harvest that I’ve typically been getting over the last five, six years,” said Payne.
Since Trump’s abrupt funding cuts aimed at shrinking federal spending, Payne says she’s had to scale back her operations and opt for growing more weather-resilient herbs that could handle different climates and temperamental watering patterns. Still, she worries that her number of harvests could shrink, especially with the Catskills’ already short seasons.
“Typically… I can probably get three cuts of [tulsi] in a season. I might be working with two cuts [now] because of the way that things are growing and how small the plants were when they went in to begin with,” said Payne.
Water, water everywhere
Payne is not the only resident who’s had to pivot their operations due to the increased rainfall. At the Livingston Manor Library in early June, Maria Grimaldi hosted ‘Water, Water Everywhere,’ a free water management clinic for homeowners, farmers, and gardeners.
“We’re all agreeing this [rain] is not gonna go away. It’s going to possibly become worse,” said Grimaldi, a garden and permaculture consultant.
Around a large wooden table inside the library, Grimaldi and seven other attendees discussed the risks of extreme weather and exchange permaculture strategies to manage and harvest water in the face of climate change. Excessive precipitation can lead to crop damage, soil erosion, and increased flood risk, according to the EPA. More floods could lead to more injuries, exposure to mold, and infrastructure damage.
Attendees share different plants that thrive in excessively wet soil, like sweet flag and purple iris. Grimaldi said she’s most excited about the exchange of resources to mitigate climate change.
“ What I have found with these workshops is the sharing of information is much more than anything I can bring,” she said.
Back at The Herbal Scoop in Narrowsburg, Payne says that while the federal government has retracted on many of its promises to farmers, it could be an opportunity for local and state governments to step in.
“Sullivan County is built on agriculture,” said Payne, adding that now is a crucial time for farmers, communities, and lawmakers to work together on new sustainable ways to protect the land and keep farming thriving.
“If we don’t have the support coming from local, state and federal levels to help us manage the climate change [and] water management,” added Payne. “I just fear that we’re going to lose more farmers than we’re gonna gain.”
Image: Rain droplets on a watery surface (Photo Credit: Roman Grac, Pixabay, U.S. Geological Survey)
Our local and state government representatives need to listen to this. And we could do our share by supporting our local farmers and keep listening to this local radio station , an invaluable way to keep in touch with our community. Great report .
I will have to shoot this article down as a journalistic malpractice and a scientific nonsense.
Unhappily, none of the claims about the rising Earth temperatures, more frequent “Extreme
Weather” and the increasing rainfall in Sullivan County, NY are true. Such articles are written
by people who get their PhD in “journalism” these days by studying courses such as “Internet
and You” and “How to Understand Science.” Yes, I checked.
I am not interested in political proclivities and a political bias of these authors and neither do I write from those positions myself.
But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations’s data for Sullivan County, NY
available on the NOAA own website shows no increase in temperatures or rainfall in Sullivan
County, NY since the year 1895 ! The rising trend would have to demonstrate itself by higher
highs and higher lows but there is nothing like that whatsoever:
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/county/time-series/NY-105/tavg/1/0/1895-2025
I will conclude by saying that scientists use scientific data. Charlatans (this is not a curse as the definition of a charlatan is “somebody who claims to have knowledge he or she does not posses”) and politically biased journos jump on the scientifically unverified hypothesis of “climate change” without any scientific evidence. As a PhD wrote to me: “It is just common sense!”
It would be best to disassociate ourselves from such charlatan approach to science in the interest of truth and accuracy. Unhappily, such scientifically unverified articles appear frequently these days. I will only point out that we have been through a similar unscientific nonsense in the 1960s and the 1970s when the scientifically faulty claim of “global cooling” was defended with the same zeal by similarly scientifically deficient defenders.
With best regards,
Ivan Orisek, MSc (Eng.)
Forestburgh, New York
845-866-9971
P.S. As a side issue, it is well known that by grouping scientific data for 130 years shown above in a certain way and by selecting data in a certain way, it may be possible to confirm just about any theory including completely contradictory theories.
For instance, by grouping the data and selecting a suitable period of time out of 130 years shown above, if is possible to confirm the “hottest year on record” as well as “the coldest period on record” encompassing the “hottest year on record.”
Alittle addition: For years the defendeders of “Climate Change” used to give as a support for their beliefs that “hotter air holds more water and this causes heavier rain and therefore ‘extreme weather’.”
I never paid much attention to thie particualr issue as the NOAA own data referenced in my previous comment show beyond any reasonable doubt that there has been no increase in ambient temperatures in Sullivan County, NY since the year 1985. (This may different in the Central Park in NYC as there was been a large increase in hot car exhaust fumes and the hot exhaust of aircoditining.
So I looked into the issue of air temperature, relative humidity of air and the amount of moisture in the air. It turns out the the author’s clain in the article above is also false. It is like this:
1. Warmer air indeed holds more water
2. But the relative humidity of air goes down with higher air temperature
3. As the rain happens only when the relative humidity reaches 100%, it is obvious if the air temperature would go up, as falsely claimed by the author, for the same amount of moisture in the air the relative humidity of air would drop and IT WOULD RAIN LESS AND NOT MORE as also falsely claimed by the author.
Isn’t the science a pesky thing?
I apologize profusely for the typos above. The website does not give me an option to edit my comment. Among other things, the temperatures have not increased since the year 1895 and not only since 1985.
Otherwise, I trust the reader would understand my comment in spite of the typos.