Steve Stycos has seen some changes in his 13-year tenure as manager of Westbay Farm.

The Beacon recently asked Stycos, the only permanent employee at a farm otherwise run by volunteers, whether he’s noticed a difference in the weather as a result of the Earth’s changing climate. His response was immediate, “Yes, definitely.”

“The thing I’m most sure about,” says Stycos, “is when it rains, they’re bigger storms.” He said Westbay is lucky to have been built on a hill, allowing water to drain with relative ease; there hasn’t been any trouble with field erosion, but the dirt driveway has started to need frequent refilling. The volume of rain has “really encouraged the weeds to grow,” too, he says.

Just because it rains buckets doesn’t mean it rains regularly, of course, and Stycos says that this year, he lost a crop of snap peas to dry weather in the spring. “Usually, in the spring, it rains,” he says, but for three weeks after planting the peas, there was CFspringtime shower that never came. In the end, the peas “just didn’t come up.” He replanted, but the loss of the first crop meant he wound up with a third of the yield.

Aside from the rain, the recent heat has been of interest to Stycos as well. “I think it’s hotter, but that’s a real hard one to gauge,” he says. Based on the scientific literature he’s read, however, he thinks his senses are right. “The season is a little longer,” he notes, keeping it “warm enough to grow things” a little later than he normally would. The downside is that the height of summer is hotter than it would be in a normal year. Stycos, a former Cranston City Council member, isn’t sure whether the heat has had a negative impact on his crops, but says it has impacted his volunteers, making the work in the fields more strenuous.

Westbay Farm is funded by Westbay Community Action, a nonprofit organization that aids Kent County residents with “food, utilities, health, safety, and education,” according to their website. The 65-acre farm is on city owned land, formally Barton Farm  and leased to Westbay Community Action.  The farm uses organic methods to grow—“No junk on the food,” says Stycos—and provides “fresh vegetables and a little bit of fruit to low-income people.” The farm’s “Can O’ Peas” program delivers a food pantry bag to about 100 housebound individuals in the county. The rest of the food will usually either go directly to Westbay Marketplace, a food pantry open daily, or be sold at the weekly farm stand that runs from 3 to 6 p.m. at the farm each Thursday.

In 2012, two years into Stycos's tenure, the farm produced 11,000 pounds of produce. Today,  about 20,000 pounds is harvested each year. The fresh market stand open Thursdays generates about $300 to $500 each week. This year’s crops include tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, onions, zucchini, winter squash, lettuce, rhubarb, and blueberries. It’s been a “really good blueberry year,” says Stycos.

Perhaps a more immediate threat than climate change to the farm’s activities is something rather furrier. Several species of small furry animals, including woodchucks and rabbits, have wiped out this year’s crop of green beans and most of the Brussels sprouts. Indeed, the animals have chewed on many of the crops: as Stycos enters the enclosure where some tomatoes are growing, a rabbit exists out the back. The farm has ways of deterring the animals, of course. A fabric called Agribon, which keeps bugs out and discourages larger animals while permitting light and rain to enter, covers many of the crops. The arrangement of crops around the farm is also a factor; for example, Stycos decided to move this year’s kale nearer to the road in the hopes that the traffic noise and better fence would deter animals after they ate previous kale crops. “Every winter I sit down and make a map” for the coming year, said Stycos.

The basic process of planting at Westbay starts with purchasing a large volume of potting soil in the spring. Seeds are first planted in small trays, with a cell in the tray for each seed, and grow until their roots hold the soil together when lifted up. The next step depends on the plant. Plants like tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers are moved to larger trays and then to pots before finally being put in the ground, while others will be transferred straight from trays to the ground. The farm also uses dead leaves as mulch. Landscapers dump the leaves in huge piles scattered across the farm, and then volunteers bring them to the fields by wheelbarrow, where they help to keep weeds down before decaying, adding important organic matter to the soil. Some plants are grown in hoop houses—similar to greenhouses, but without a controlled temperature. The farm is opening its first heated greenhouse next year.

Stycos’s observations point to the greater complexities of the threat climate change poses to farmers. Some crops, like Stycos’s peas, will be severely impacted by rising global temperatures, while others, like his eggplant and peppers that “keep producing longer,” may be well-suited to a warmer climate. For example, a 2021 study by NASA projected that if emissions remain high, corn yields could decline 24% by 2030, while wheat production could increase 17%. The increase in heavy rains and other extreme weather is bad news for all crops, however, bringing about soil erosion and more.

The farm is “always looking for more volunteers,” says Stycos, who turns 70 next July. The number of volunteers has a direct impact on the volume of crops produced, he says. This year there are around 12 or 15. “A lot of people I think are intimidated by ‘farm’…” says Stycos. “They think they’re gonna spend eight hours moving hay bales.” Volunteers choose their own schedule, he says, but most come one or two times a week, to work a few hours in the morning.

Westbay Farm is located on 1351 Centreville Road.