Though it is not quite 2025, our first on farm pick ups and Farmer’s market of the New Year are just days away. It’s time to set the alarm clocks, sharpen up the tools and get to work on yet another season of growing delicious organic food. As with any year the to do list already seems suspiciously long with things like cleaning and reorganizing the nursery, installing heat in a garage for a winter workspace, high tunnel maintenance and fencing projects just to name a few. Of course beyond all the miscellaneous not quite farm work lies a rigorous schedule of seeding, up potting and transplanting to set the groundwork for the season to come. First things to come to mind are lettuce, beets, choys and scallions, all of which we will be starting this week. Throughout January we’ll begin the first tomatoes, onions and herbs and come February we will have to hit the ground running starting a lot of the summer veg we love. For now we plan, order seeds and take stock of the successes and failures of the previous year, hoping to learn a lesson and glean some wisdom.
Meanwhile out on the farm itself though quieter and a bit subdued there is still a lot happening. As bed space slowly opens up we will prep and plant either by direct seeding or transplant. One must keep and eye on the forecast waiting on favorable conditions for germination if your seeding and watering for both. As you can imagine we are taking advantage of this current warm spell both seeding and transplanting yesterday and today. In spite of the warm up the hardiness of the veg was really put to the test the past couple of weeks and although some plants still look a little sad overall everything is doing well. Temps above freezing the next few days should further benefit the veg just in time as we will be ringing in the New Year with a mid week harvest to get ready for the weekend’s orders and market.
We are thrilled to be back at it this week filling the fridges, stomachs and hopefully hearts of all of you the Good Food People. On farm pick up is back on schedule with Friday in Durham and Saturday in Middlefield. A quick side note on pre orders, CSA transactions from 2 weeks ago are being processed today so you may receive and email from that. Saturday in New Haven we are returning to Conte West School, moving inside to the auditorium and running from 10 to 1. Despite the fact that it is only 2 weeks this Friday from the last market and pick ups it feels like more than that and we’re sure if you’re running low on veg than you know what we are talking about. This community that we are all a part of the Good Food Movement is something special and we are looking forward to spreading the food, the love and seeing all of your familiar faces in the New Year. We hope all of you and yours had wonder Holidays and will have a Happy New Year.
Have a Great Week