Welcome to Week 4!
This has been a momentous week for us. We have finished harvesting ALL of our storage root crops, and they are cured, cleaned and in their final storage locations. You will now see carrots available! We also planted garlic and flower bulbs. The rest of the fall, hopefully before it snows, entails field clean up.
We don't like the term "putting the farm to bed", because it implies that we stop working and the ground takes a rest. On our farm, neither happens! While the outside fields won't produce vegetables for a number of months, they are still busy soaking in water, decomposing, and hosting myriad microorganisms that love our rich soil filled with vegetative matter and roots. As the farmers, we DO rest up quite a bit, but our crew of three will still work around 20 hours per week all winter long.
All that said, here's what we do to get the farm ready for winter:
- Clean up fields (pull tall crop residue but leave the roots so we can pull tarps over)
- Clean up everything (like those plastic tomato clips that seem to make it into every corner of the farm) so we don't lose anything under the snow and we don't have an ugly mess waiting for us in the spring
- Organize (make the snow blower and shovels accessible; consolidate and re-inventory packaging supplies etc.)
- Beautify (add shale to muddy spots around our wash/pack area, wipe all surfaces in the wash/pack area etc.)
That's about it! Our farm outside of structures will look like a sea of tarps and some beds with greens on the surface (we try to always keep the soil covered with something). Our "active" farm will be inside our four large high tunnels and will look like a veritable jungle of life, complete with warmth and humidity!
Enjoy this week's produce and have a great week!
Katherine and Spencer
