Deep Winter Chill…

That sound you hear outside your window is the ice shifting and the air breaking in half.  Geeze Louise it’s cold out there!!  So what is a farmer to do in the heart of winter you may ask?  Well, there is a lot actually.  Get seed orders ready, map out the field production plan for the year upcoming, go look at machinery at other farms or dealerships, mend broken machinery, just to name a few things which make the short days of winter pass and prepare us for the upcoming spring.  

The greenhouses are in limbo right now as we do not have heat supply other then the sun and the leeks which are wintering over are relatively snug, and soon the greens will emerge to provide salad for our March and April markets.  The field tunnel grant came through and shortly we will have a season extending field tunnel which was and is very much needed for our farm to make the 12 month a year growing we desire.  

It’s also nice to enjoy the rest of winter. The toil in the fields does indeed take some recovery time.  While thee is still some out door work to be done, the cold arctic chill makes the desire a little less so to chop wood and shovel snow.   We also need this cold weather, the frozen ground will help cull some of the animal/pest population while also making the chance of any disease lingering in the fields from last season all but irrelevant.  

So, bundle up and enjoy the chance to skate on the pond, or grab a book and saddle up to the arm chair next to the fire.  Winter is here.