It really feels like winter these days with all the snow and freezing weather. We were thrilled when the ground thawed Nov 22nd to 26th... we were able to plant all our garlic for next year! Sadly, it has frozen again and we're not able to do our usual harvests for our deliveries next week. We have found some treasures in our fridges like lettuce, cilantro, hakuri, fennel, and kalettes that will get shared around randomly (based on your preferences of course!). We've got a crop of bok choy and lettuces busy growing in the greenhouse, which we're looking forward to sharing with you in the new year. If you like fennel, pumpkins or squashes we had lots of different sizes which were tricky to auto-fill into your shares, so if you didn't get one check out the swaps/extras!
November also gave us a chance to relax a little and visit with some family and friends after a long season. Adriana and Marina are now both back home in Mexico to enjoy the winter with their families. Kelly, Valerie and Rebekah are able to help us packing up the winter boxes and Stephanie and I can split our time between packing and planning for next season. While there's less people around now, here's the crew that grew your veggies this season along with a few extra family members that joined in for a mid-summer adventure.
From left to right amongst the families you'll find Kelly, Adriana, Rebekah, Heather, Stephanie, Marina, and Valerie. It's a mixture of full time, part time, seasonal and full year labour that makes this farm work! This week Stephanie and I were busy at the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario annual conference, which was hosted right near home in Belleville. It's a charity that supports farmer to farmer training and learning, and we always bring home new ideas to improve our farm. Today I was excited to be on a panel discussing different labour strategies on farms to help other farmers decide what might work best for them. I love our mixed approach, with flexible help year round and a crew that can pull long hours with Steph and I in the summer months. Farm work is hard work and long days working around whatever the weather decides to throw at us. By focusing on labour saving improvements to the farm we've kept a small core crew that are our extended family and support us every step of the way. I'm forever grateful to our hardworking crew who are all dedicated to growing you good food!
Wishing you all a tasty holiday season with loved ones,
Heather
