Happy New Year and welcome to Terra Firma’s 30th CSA season!
The new year always offers new hope, a chance for a fresh start, an opportunity to make changes and improve. But January on our farm can throw a wrench into those hopes. Sometimes we return from our two-week vacation to find our fields looking sad and dreary, flooded or damaged by freezing temperatures in December. It can be foggy, freezing, or raining for weeks on end. That is definitely not the case this year.,
December was quite wet, along with November. In fact, we have already gotten just under half our average annual precipitation. But most of it fell during the weeks we were closed for Thanksgiving and the year-end holidays — almost ideal timing. And while we had a month or so of very chilly temperatures, it never fell into the 20s and mostly hovered just above 32 degrees — frosty but not freezing. The combination of abundance moisture and moderate cold seems to have been almost perfect for most of the crops we are currently harvesting.
And now that we are back to work, the weather is almost perfect: sunny, warm, and breezy enough to dry up some of the puddles and firm up the soil. Which is good, because we have lots of beautiful vegetables to harvest for you. Our crew is busy trying to get caught up, but everyone’s rested and relaxed after a nice long holiday break. And working outside in the sunshine is way better than sitting inside watching it rain — or slogging through the mud during a big rainstorm.
You can look forward to a nice selection of really gorgeous cool-season produce in your CSA boxes for at least the rest of January. And the nice conditions right now should also help ensure that our winter crops continue to thrive into February and March.
Thanks,