It got down to 19 degrees here at the farm two days ago! We keep our walk-in cooler at 37 degrees, year round. In the summer, we have to make clear to our children that no - you may not go in the walk-in cooler to cool down your body. It's only for the vegetables! However, the crates of vegetables do have to be organized/rearranged sometimes, and on a 90 degree day there are way more staff volunteers for that job than on a 50 degree day. :) But today's funny moment is the winter-time version of this story. This time of year it is a walk-in warmer! Sunday morning one of our children had to skip to the walk-in "cooler" to get an item for our family's breakfast. This child ran back to the house exclaiming with delight how really wonderful of a walk-in warmer it was! At almost 20 degrees warmer than outside temperature, the walk-in felt like an attractive place to be during the heart of winter.
Here on the farm winter jobs continue. Last week we completed our annual walk-in cooler (or warmer, as the case may be) deep clean. We emptied it completely out, ripped up the old floor, bleached walls and ceiling, and put down a new vinyl floor. Yesterday we emptied out our FarmStand area and put down a load of pea gravel, plus emptied out our Bakery and stained and re-sealed the Bakery floor. We're also in the middle of supervising construction of an insulated/heated space to allow a warm place to wash and pack vegetables in future winters, a Farm office that's not in our home, a space to store our Tomatoes at the proper storage temp, and a few other functions to make our farm system work better. We've also redesigned some of our drainage systems. Did you catch the news that 2020 was the 3rd wettest year on record for our area --- and 2018 was the 2nd wettest! That puts 2 of the past 3 years in the top 3 wettest years recorded. Now that doesn't exempt us from periods of draught, but it does compel us to pay a lot of attention to drainage.
Meanwhile, we are tending the vegetables. We're in the coldest time of the year now so growth of everything slows down, but we're prioritizing our harvest for you, dear Farm Share members. Enjoy your vegetables this week!
Blessings on your meals ~
Janet, Dan, plus family and the very hardy winter-time crew!
