Greetings all! We've got snow on the ground and freezing temps, and like I said in the last newsletter, it's the exact kind of weather that's good for our fields! I love it! Granted, the snow slows down operations on the farm a little bit, but the benefits outweigh the hindrance. Plus our gravel driveway is frozen solid, which will make it a much nicer surface to plow without pushing rocks and dirt all over the lawn when we get the storm tomorrow.

Speaking of the storm, we are cancelling our farmers' market at Cheshire Med tomorrow due to snow. Usually if it snows overnight we'll be there, but this one is supposed to hit right when we'd be leaving and won't stop until we'd get home. We will have spinach, kale, chard, carrots, cabbage, and beets available in the walk-in for folks on the winter greens distribution list. Let me know if you would like that email. There are also eggs in the walk-in! Can you feel the light coming back? Our neighbor's chickens sure can!

We're chugging away keeping up with our winter greens schedule, prepping for 2025, and trying to enjoy the winter down time. Yesterday we were picking and washing greens, today and the next four sunny days I am soil steaming in the greenhouse. Soil steaming is how we control weeds organically in the tunnels. It is a pasteurization process for the soil where we heat the top 2 inches to about 170 F for 30 minutes. In doing so we sterilize weed seeds that would otherwise germinate in the spring and summer. It saves us a ton of time in the growing season, plus it makes for nice, warm soil to plant the first seeds of the year in.

Soil steaming is an original organic practice from when there was no alternative to organic. In the 1880's farmers were experimenting with soil steaming for weed control. It picked up traction among commercial growers, but with the advent of chemical weed control, soil steaming quickly fell out of favor. The past few decades has seen a resurgence in soil steaming as farmers in the new organic movement saw its usefulness.

We wondered if there would be any detriment to the soil when we started steaming a few years back, but from our own observations backed up with annual soil tests, as well as testimony from other growers, that does not seem to be the case so far. The long term goal is to reduce weed pressure enough that we do not need to steam annually. Joe and I are going to see how the tunnels do this year and reassess if we need to steam again next winter.

After steaming I get to plant the first seeds of 2025!!! It's a momentous occasion as it officially kicks off the new season. We'll be putting in spinach, kale, chard, carrots, peas, radishes, turnips, bok choy, lettuce, lettuce mix, spicy salad mix, and probably a few other things I can't think of off the top of my head.

We always seed at the end of the Persephone Period, which is one of my favorite farming expressions. It marks the return of the sun with days lasting longer than 10hrs. Our winter and spring greens can grow in sub-zero temperatures, but they will not grow much with less than 10 hours of sunlight, so we "bank" greens leading into the persephone period to harvest through the winter (basically we do not harvest the same bed more than once during the Persephone Period). Now that the sun is returning we should see plenty of growth on those winter planted beds until the spring seeded crops come to maturity!

The first day out of the persephone period was on Sunday when we had 10hrs 2min of daylight. Today we will have 10hrs 10min of daylight! It's right around this time that the days start getting longer by significant increments. Between the winter solstice on December 21st until February 2nd, we gained one hour of sunlight--9 hrs 1 min to 10 hrs 2 min. By the end of February we'll have over 11 hours of sunlight! This is a natural rhythm, and it did not surprise me at all that the neighbor's chickens chose this week to start producing again. Next year I should try to predict it!

Last item for the night, but I thought our members would like to know that Rachel and I got married last Wednesday!! I'm sneaking it in here at the bottom because we're not considering it our real weddding yet. We thought we would do it in fall of 2025, but we want to throw a big party on the farm and there are just a couple of improvements that we didn't have time to make before then. We decided to move the big wedding back to the fall of 2026 and do something small in the meantime. We were joined mid-day on Wednesday, January 29th in our living room with a small group of parents and friends. It was a sweet moment and something that we will always remember.

Rachel fills me with love, both for her and for our community. We envision the farm as a place for people to gather freely and where they can find comfort and peace. We want to host more farm parties (something that stopped during COVID), invite people to spend time on the farm, and incorporate more spaces for quiet reflection. All of this is to say, that in delaying our wedding, we crystalized a vision for the farm that we want to achieve for 2026 and into the future. And that we will be having a farm party this spring/summer--maybe a couple--so keep your ears out!

2025 CSA Shares!

Shares are open and we're already over a third of the way full for 2025!

CSA shares are slightly different this year as I have outlined in previous newsletters. We will not be doing a fall CSA share and instead have extended the summer CSA to 20 weeks starting in July and ending in November.

Key Things About Shares:

▪Season begins July 2nd and ends November 12th

▪Market Style Pickup in the barn on Wednesdays from 1pm - 7pm

▪Home Delivery on Wednesday Evenings by 7pm

▪FLEX 10-week shares available to pick up on your schedule. (any 10 weeks out of the 20 week season)

▪PYO Flowers and Herbs for CSA members

It's gonna be a great CSA season this year and we have a few things planned that should make it an even better experience for our members. PYO will be expanded to include flowers, herbs, and hopefully some veggies like peas and beans. We're trying out sweet corn for the first time this year, expanding our melon patch, and honing our mushroom production. There's a lot to look forward to and I hope you will join us!

Click Here to Sign Up For CSA!