December 14, 2020
A Snow and Cold Test
by Farmer Derek

Looks like we're in for a nice midweek wallop of blustery snow followed by some serious cold. By then our crop footprint will have shrunk to two tunnels so it will be a bit easier to provide extra protection where needed. We'll probably throw on an extra sheet of our thickest row cover then wait with our fingers crossed until moderate temperatures return next week. Cold nights that follow cloudy days are the most challenging. We have the heat turned on in our greenhouse to keep temperatures just about the freezing mark so that space should be all good as long as we don't lose power. Even with the extra work/stress, I am pretty excited to see some snow once again. It is unfortunate that it coincides with a scheduled pick up (which has been rescheduled for Tuesday) and during the same week our tractor is due for its annual tune up (which has also been rescheduled).

We're blazin' through the 2021 Crop Plan and soon we'll embark on the always fun space and time puzzle that is the Crop Rotation. Our goal is to keep crops in the same family off a piece of ground for 3-5 years to break any pest and disease cycles as well as manage nutrient uptake. For some families, like nightshade/solanaceae/tomato/potato and brassica/cole/cabbage/kale/arugula it's a bit more difficult because we grow a lot of those crops, and they may only have a 3 year gap. For others, like the apiaceae/carrot/fennel or amaranth/chenopod/chard/beet, it's a bit easier because their footprint is smaller. Besides organizing our farm space with these parameters we also try to plant fields temporally so that field work and irrigation infrastructure is more efficient.

In anticipation of a major snowstorm and cold weather, yesterday Pat and I harvested all the greens needed for this week, a total of 530lbs harvested over 4 hours. That's a lot of greens. Late Fall stalwarts kale and lettuce mix plus a newcomer to this time of year for us, bok choy, were cut. Bok choy seems to be about 99% water, which makes it much heavier. We're excited to share them with you!