You can't harvest frozen lettuce or spinach. It sounds obvious, but standing in a hoophouse at 7 a.m., watching the sun slowly inch toward your crops, waiting for them to thaw enough to cut—realizing that they've been killed by deep cold—that's winter farming.
This winter has been particularly challenging. When we had an early snowfall in mid-November, we lost many of the field winter crops that we had planted and covered. In previous years with less snowfall, many of our "Hail Mary" field plantings have worked, and we've harvested and offered bountiful greens well into late December. While we realize these field plantings are risky and may result in a loss, it still hurts to lose about a quarter acre of bok choy, lettuce, salad mix, and greens we planned for winter members.
Frozen lettuce was stolen by extreme weather.
Beyond that, this winter's weather (ie extreme cold, many cloudy days) also foiled our plans in the hoophouses, making it impossible to harvest winter salad greens and spinach. We cannot harvest greens when frozen, so we must wait until they thaw in the sun (around 2-3pm but before sunset) or on a 30-40 degree afternoon. The extreme cold reminded us that a) we no longer have a heated hoophouse since the 2018 storm damaged it beyond repair, and b) we need to more aggressively manage extreme temperatures in winter for both animals and crops. We haven't performed this balance in some time, and frankly, there's nothing like a rock-solid water line or completely frozen, beyond-saving lettuce heads to humble us and remind us how to more work we need to do actively manage double-covering, uncovering, and recovering crops on extreme days.
So why did we return to winter CSA shares after taking some years off?
Firstly, we had a great outdoor growing season, which meant we had access to summer produce that our hard-working team could freeze, and our fall roots, cabbage, and greens were plentiful. We went into the winter season with a lot of stored food for winter share members for over 12 weeks of winter!
Secondly, we're fortunate to have a dedicated growing team living on the farm who share these responsibilities with us. With animals to feed and water, classes to teach, plant sales to plan, marketing, field planning and more, we're grateful to have a team of us (Jeff, Jen and Saul) watching for cooler conditions, monitoring the weather, and making decisions quickly as needed in a difficult growing season.
Thirdly, our CSA members were interested in eating local year-round, and we couldn't be more grateful for this passion. CSA members realize that winter crops may need additional creativity, just as our ancestors used to consider when making meals. As we shared in earlier writings, in winter, it's easy to assume local eating takes a seasonal pause. But winter is one of the most important times to support your regional food system.
We've already started reflecting on our learnings and considering ways to evolve our winter farming to better adapt to extreme winter weather events. Being on the "front lines" of climate change, Jeff is even actively teaching his students how we're adapting, and they're learning in real time from our challenges and how we'll change for next time. Modeling our adaptation for students and growing food for our community in winter feels like a purposeful project that motivates us. Thank you for supporting Midwest winter farming!
Your farmers,
Jen, Jeff & Saul
