GRANBY, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - As we continue to deal with poor air quality conditions, we want to know how they are impacting your local farms.

Our weather coverage now turns to how these dangerous conditions have been impacting your local farms. One of them in Granby still operates normally while also taking precaution.

No matter where we go to get groceries, many of us have the urge to get fruits and produce. At Red Fire Farm, their freshly grown berries and crops are essential both for their customers and for business. In order for them to ripen, they need two things: water and sunshine.

“The way they grow is by accessing the sun and turning it into energy and then making their plant leaves and fruits from it. If we don’t have enough light coming down to the ground level, then we don’t have as much growth on the plants,” said co-owner of Red Fire Farm Sarah Voiland.

This week could have been the fourth heat wave of the year for much of western Mass., which would have meant a lot more solar food for those berries and greens. However, that has been overshadowed by the smoke from wildfires in Canada.

The smokey situation on Wednesday brought the air quality levels down and caused the sun to barely show its rays. Despite this, Voiland told Western Mass News less heat can be a good thing, “that’s exhausting for us to work in and it’s sometimes damaging to the produce, too to get that hot.”

The farm is still operating normally, Voiland said the low air quality did not keep people from stopping by the stands, “luckily, it wasn’t on one of our peak farmer’s market days, so I hope that we’ll not see an impact from that.”

Most of the farm’s work is outside, and Red Fire is currently at peak season.

Right now, damages to plants are not expected; but Voiland said she and her employees are keeping their guards up, “we have adjusted our schedule for the heat, so depending on what we have for information, we can make changes to when we’re doing things to some extent. But, there’s only so much you can do in the summer.”

Should we have poor air quality levels again later this season, Voiland said the farm will have protocols and masks on standby to operate safely.

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