By Andrea Yoder
Happy February! It’s
hard to believe another month has passed us by since our last farm update, but
here we are approaching the end of February.
Despite the slower pace of winter, we’ve actually had a lot going on over
the past month. Here’s what we’ve been
up to.
Polar Vortex Sunrise on January 31, 2019 |
First, we’re happy to report we survived the Polar Vortex of
2019! For those few bitter cold days,
our valley was eerily quiet and still. I
have to admit they were also several of the most gorgeous, sunny winter days
we’ve ever experienced! The skies were
bright blue and totally clear. The sunrises in the morning were gentle as the
sun woke up and shined a rosy smile upon our valley. The trees were so cold we
could hear them cracking and moaning in the crisp, bitter cold morning
air. Before the cold set in we made sure
the animals had extra bedding in their shelters and the cows got some of their
“chocolate” hay to encourage them to stay inside the barn for shelter and
warmth. We made sure furnaces were
working, drained any water pipes not in use and were diligent about doing
frequent checks of employee houses as well as the packing shed. All in all, it wasn’t so bad and we realize
others in the region experienced much colder temperatures than we did.
Snow Mountain after clearing snow this Thursday. |
I’ve lost track of just how much snow we’ve actually had
throughout the month, 4-5 inches here, 6 inches there….the bottom line is it’s
really starting to pile up! As we
started this week, our snow piles looked more like snow mountains and on
Wednesday we got another 5 inches. While
we all enjoy a good snow day, it has
made it difficult to get our winter work done.
Nonetheless we’ve tried to make the most of our days and the packing
shed crew and office staff have been working their way down the winter to-do
lists. The packing shed crew did a
thorough top to bottom cleaning of the shop and lunch area….wow what a
difference! Everything looks much
brighter and we love clean! Nearly all
the greenhouse flats have been washed and sterilized. The potting soil arrived at the end of
January and we have three big bags thawed out and ready to go. We had hoped to start planting in our first
greenhouse earlier this week, so last week the crew did a thorough cleaning of
the nursery and finished setting up the heat table system on Monday.
Simon checking the water temperature as he sterilizes seeds. |
Snow falling on our Curly Willow & Fantail Willow Hedgerow |
Mike changing one of the tractor tires. |
We’ve also taken advantage of winter down time to get some tractors
repaired. One of our little IH Super C
cultivating tractors was hauled to a shop last week for repair. This week the two Allis Chalmers WD 45
tractors that pull harvest wagons got new tires. Thank you to Mike & Mark from our local Cenex station for helping
us with this repair project!
Andrea spent several days this week visiting some of our
buyer partners in the Twin Cities and scouted out our two new CSA sites
including The Power House at St. Louis Park & Roseville City Hall! Kelly & Gwen continue to process CSA orders and have
been working hard on getting our promotional materials up to date, putting
together this year’s CSA calendar, and a whole host of other tasks! We’re still working on finalizing our
Thursday CSA route in Madison, but we’re almost finished! We’re happy to have added new sites in the
DeForest/Windsor and Waunakee areas. We
also have new sites on the northeast side of Madison as well as one on Sherman
Avenue and another near Monroe St. We’re
excited to be partnering with several business locations as well. Some locations are for employees only,
however we do have several that are open to the public including one in
Middleton! Thank you for your patience
as we have been working to put together all the logistics for this new
route. Now it’s time to fill the truck!
Promo materials we have been working on. |
Photo from DishingUpTheDirt.com |
On March 17 we’ll be attending the Fairshare CSA Open House,
now called the Find Your Farm event. If you live in the Madison area, we hope
you’ll stop in to say hello. This is a
great event to share with anyone who may be considering joining a CSA but
hasn’t yet made the commitment.
That’s a wrap for this month. In case you’re wondering, we’re only about 10
½ weeks away from the first CSA delivery week!
Keep that in mind as we gear up for another winter storm this weekend!
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