January 29, 2017
Sign Up For 2017 Main Season And Help Us Plan For Membership Numbers

Log in to the website to purchase your Main Season share and mail your $200 deposit to secure your spot. Thank you for your continued support! Spread the good word to other past, present, and future members!

January 29, 2017
Greens and Roots of Course

Winter Harvest #5 (Week A) should include potatoes, cabbage, onions, purple top turnips, kohlrabi, beets, celeriac, radishes, lettuce mix, spinach, arugula, baby kale, mizuna, and greens mix. Some items will be a choice.

January 29, 2017
Here Comes February

With the arrival of a new month, a calendar page flip, winter's midpoint, seasonal unexceptional cold returns, descends. Crop structures will need to be closed and sealed up before nighttime to trap daytime heat. We'll probably also add interior covers as well, as added insurance. All of these crops have experienced deep lows already so they should be prepared for this round of cold. Very soon daylight will lengthen beyond the 10-hour mark and will increase rapidly to the 12-hour equinox in March. During February we're anticipating accelerated crop growth which will hopefully translate into additional fresh greens in the share.

We hope you've been enjoyed the winter share thus far. If you have any comments or suggestions (or criticisms) for us please send them our way!

January 22, 2017
Mid-Winter Harvest

Winter CSA Harvest #4 (Week B) should include potatoes, garlic, cabbage, kohlrabi, beets, turnips, radishes, celeriac, baby kale, arugula, and greens mix. Some items could be a choice.

January 22, 2017
Sign Up For 2017 Main Season And Help Us Plan For Membership Numbers

Log in to the website to purchase your Main Season share and mail your $200 deposit to secure your spot. Thank you for your continued support!

January 22, 2017
Continued Growth

Is this a mild winter or a mild stretch of weather? I think I can remember a few nights of single digits. We're almost at the end of January and March is only a month away, which basically signifies the beginning of mental spring. The northeasterly winds of last winter dumped two feet of snow but today we're looking at rain. Protected crops are growing and we're keeping records and collecting growth data to better plan for future seasons. We're busy contemplating improvements for the 2017 Main Season and wrapping up leftover jobs from this past year. The warmer weather and unfrozen, albeit constantly wet and squishy, ground enables us to spend more time outside. Crops are easier to harvest when our fingers aren't frozen. Washing is manageable when pipes aren't blocked with ice. Are we spoiled this year or would some deep and long cold be good for the fields and spirit? Of course we have to take what comes, what we're given. All we can really do is plan, assess, reflect, and act. What will the rest of 2017 bring?

January 15, 2017
Whether We Weather The Weather
By Derek McGeehan

Is it winter or not? For a few days it feels, sounds, and smells that way, then the next round of a thaw arrives and with it a beckoning to be outside, a solitary confused peeping frog, and the smell of decomposing daikon radish cover crop. On the one hand I want it to be cold to set back bugs and diseases for the following season, but on the other hand mild weather is pleasant and productive. Thermal fluctuations are probably normal and happen most seasons but going from a low of 2 degrees to a high of 65 degrees a few days apart is extreme. Give me one month with temperatures consistently below freezing with a long autumn and spring on either side and I would be happy. With an extended forecast of above freezing temperatures and daylight slowly getting back to 10 hours a day, thinking about spring and earnestly getting ready for the next growing season will probably commence.

January 15, 2017
Mid-January Thaw Slaw
By Derek McGeehan

January 8, 2017
Grating is Great
By Derek McGeehan

Winter CSA Harvest #2 (Week B) should include potatoes, cabbage, beets, garlic, baby kale, arugula, mizuna, turnips, radishes, and celeriac. Some items may be a choice and/or may be unavailable if the sun doesn't thaw the interior of the high tunnel.

A simple way to incorporate your miscellaneous roots or cabbage into any meal is to grate them. This was a splendid epiphany recently because it is so easy, improves a dish, incorporates seasonal produce, and adds quality nutrition. We highly recommend you try it, especially if you're having difficulty using some of the less-familiar roots.

January 8, 2017
It's Winter
By Derek McGeehan

And it's cold! At 7:30am Monday morning it was 2 degrees outside, 10 degrees inside the high tunnel, 25 degrees under the two layers of inner row cover in the high tunnel, and 30 degrees in the greenhouse, thanks to some subtle propane heat. This was our 3rd single digit morning this fall/winter and probably won't be our last. By 3:00pm Monday afternoon it warmed up to a balmy 23 degrees outside, 42 degrees inside the high tunnel, 46 degrees under the two inner covers, and was 47 degrees in the greenhouse. Fortunately, miraculously, marvelously all of the unheated greens survived and looked happily content by this afternoon. Quite a rebound since this morning, but they were only exposed to 25 degrees or so, which is tolerable, apparently. It's pretty amazing that the simple addition of inner covers protects crops this much, all passively without added heat. This cold arrived on the back of a warm spell, so the leftover warmth of the soil is probably getting trapped under the covers. Twenty-five is low, especially for relatively mature greens that need to be harvested soon. These greens began their lives at the end of October and should be around for a second cutting at the end of February. After we're through with the first cutting in the high tunnel we'll begin cutting in the greenhouse and around then we'll also take a second cutting from the lettuce mix, spinach, and chard in the hoop house. These are our goals anyway. Please enjoy these nurtured organic greens!

January 1, 2017
Winter CSA Harvest #1
By Derek McGeehan

Winter CSA Harvest #1 should include potatoes, garlic, cabbage, beets, arugula, baby kale, mizuna, greens mix, radishes, turnips, and celeriac. Some items could be a choice.

January 1, 2017
The Calendar Flips
By Derek McGeehan

Welcome to the 2017 Winter CSA! Share distribution begins this Wednesday 1/4/17 1-8pm for Full Shares and Week A Half Shares. Week B Half Shares begin next Wednesday 1/11/17. To find out what week you are, log in to your account. If you participated in the Late Fall CSA as a Half Share, your pick up week is the same.