If you wondered why we call a CSA season that stases in late October a “winter” season, it’s because November through April is traditionally not a gardening season here in Missouri as evidenced by the hard freeze we all experienced last week. For most of you, this was probably your first dip below freezing and it probably hit somewhere between 22 and 25 which is plenty cold to kill most traditional garden vegetables. For us, in our low lying farm location, it was our 4th freeze and it got down to 14.9 degrees here. That’s pretty much like winter in our book!
That’s quite a bit colder than normal for this time of year so the day before we spent many hours preparing for it filling sandbags and arranging huge sheets of fabric to cover everything in the fields. Then we anxiously waited, watched the thermometer drop and prayed the crops would survive.
By noon the next day, the frost has melted and we could remove the covers to assess the damage. Thankfully, most of the crops were unscathed. It is likely that those earlier lighter frosts helped acclimate the crops to this winter weather.
So we’re happy to announce that the outlook for the next several weeks outdoor veggie production for the winter CSA is looking good. This gives us time to continue harvesting from outdoors to let the crops in the greenhouses grow to mature size before shifting to them in the dead of winter when the outdoor crops finely succumb to winter’s deadly assault.
What's hot this week?
Radishes and salad turnips are especially sweet and juicy. We had to run around checking on those after the cold to make sure they hadn’t been damaged. Part of the test was randomly harvesting and munching from all around the farm. We can attest that they’re so juicy and crunchy right now.
Ginger is really sizing up nicely and we need to keep harvesting this to make room for more deep winter spinach in our greenhouses, so don’t feel shy about stocking up and freezing ginger to help us clear a path for winter veggies to go in.
Bread and Cheese
Farm to Market Rosemary Olive Oil Artisan Loaf
Hemme Brothers "Brother's Keeper" (sharp cheddar) block
We're so excited to be growing veggies for you this winter. Thanks for being part of our CSA.
Dave and Sheri
