I’ve been an anxious, non-functional disaster all week, but this picture pretty much sums up the mood on the top of the hill!
It felt really good this week to get out of the house, away from the constant non-update updates, and get some work done in the sunshine and warmth. If only we had this upcoming absolutely gorgeous weather minus the big freeze, we’d be overrun with goodness. There’s no sugarcoating it – we lost A LOT to the freeze. Although we still have more than enough to get us through till Thanksgiving (thanks in part to a big root pickup from Tangerini’s Farm in Millis), the variety won’t be the same.
I’m not sure if I would have done things differently had I known the 2″ of snow and 24 degrees forecasted was going to turn into 6.5″ and 17 degrees. Everything I had growing (minus the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant) can handle 17 degrees, as long as they get acclimated to the cold. But it hadn’t been below 32 before then! I technically could have covered everything…but I think it would have all just got smashed down under the covers by all the snow. Plus we were frantically harvesting on Thursday anyway (in the pouring rain) for the Saturday CSA. There certainly would have been a mutiny if I then asked the crew to go back out and start covering everything when we finished!
This will be the first week that I can remember that we won’t have lettuce…since May maybe? That was the biggest blow – we had loads and loads of it out there. There will be lettuce again (looks great in the tunnel), just not for a couple weeks. Similar story for the other greens – I’m hopeful the few perpetual spinach leaves left standing will bounce back. I mowed the heavily damaged spicy salad mix, mustards, and arugula on the outside chance we’ll get enough regrowth to get one more harvest before winter truly settles in. The plants themselves were still alive, but the damage was so widespread that it would have been impossible to dig through the destruction to just find the good leaves. This weather gives me hope that I haven’t had my last arugula of the season!
Veggie Ordering and Pickup Procedures: Put your veggie orders in online before 8pm Sunday. The website is a little buggy so if you don’t see a wide variety of items or you see items out of stock, try refreshing your browser. Also confirm on checkout that you have the correct number of each item in your cart. The two pickup windows are working well, so we’ll keep it going. Choose your pickup window while checking out online: 1230-2pm and 4-5pm Monday on the farm at 64 Potter Hill Rd in Grafton. Pickups are in the long white garage on the left across from the beat up tan and red barn at the crest of the hill.