Happy New Year and Welcome to Terra Firma’s 2020 CSA! For many people January represents a blank slate, a fresh start, a chance to get things right that might have not gone so well the year before.  We often see a jump in the number of folks subscribing to our CSA, as people make resolutions to eat better, cook at home more often, or buy more local food.  If that describes you, then welcome!
At the farm, we start each January having rested up for two weeks.  Farming is exhausting, difficult work that can feel like it never ends — especially when you are harvesting and planting very month the way we do at Terra Firma.  It’s hard to take more than a day or two off most of the year, as things are always growing and it’s almost always busy.  Shutting the farm down completely is the only way we have found to allow many of us to actually relax.  The end of the year — the coldest and darkest time — is the best and most obvious time to do that.
Still, we’ve had many unpleasant surprises upon returning to the farm after our vacation.  Most of them are weather-related.  The last week of the year can see damaging freezes, floods or brutal winter storms hit California — or all three.  Many a year we’ve left the farm on Dec. 21st and returned to almost-complete devastation.  That can be an uncomfortable disconnect between demand — subscribers eager for abundant harvests of healthy winter vegetable — and supply.
Given how chilly and wet December of 2019 was, I would not have been surprised at all if our fields had looked quite a bit worse for the wear upon our return.  Instead, things look pretty great.  It hasn’t been cold enough to damage any of the fruit or vegetables, nor wet enough to cause rotting, nor windy enough to tear up the leaves or knock fruit to the ground.
Quite the contrary, we’ve got more to harvest on the farm right now than we often do in January.  You can look forward to an abundant winter harvest of healthful fruits and vegetables for the next 8-10 weeks to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions.
Thanks for Subscribing,
Pablito