Many of you ask what happens at the farm during the winter. Like most people who live in the Lakes Region, we pass through the benchmarks of winter based on holidays and local events:
I seeded our greenhouse tomatoes on Martin Luther King Day.
Seeding hydroponic lettuce happened during ice hockey week.
Our greenhouse cucumbers were seeded by fishing derby weekend.
The opening day of our farm market was just before Valentine’s Day.
We planted our transplants into our tomato and hydroponic houses by Presidents' Day and school vacation week.
So, I think we celebrate just about every significant winter event in our own way!
Something else happened during the winter that won't be immediately noticeable to our customers. We made changes to our refrigeration and freezing systems, improving efficiency and capacity.
Even with the perennial unknown of the weather, our 2025 season looks promising. Our farm is fortunate to have a passionate, seasoned team returning in all departments. Early traffic through our farm market has been excellent, and we plan to open full-time starting on April 3rd.
All our field supplies are in stock and equipment is being readied to go into our fields as soon as conditions permit.
Speaking of conditions, we have recently been fielding many gardening and grounds questions. We had seen a diminishing interest in gardening since the 2020 Covid season when folks were rushing to grow their own produce due to the pandemic. Now, with some uncertainty regarding food costs, interest in gardening seems to be on the rebound.
One thing I do recommend is getting your garden soil tested for acidity and nutrient content. We tested our soils in the fall, and we know our fertilizer and lime needs for the new growing season. Have you had yours tested?
I’ll be talking about soil testing and other important basic gardening principles in our first free workshop, “Essentials for Vegetable Gardening Success.” Interest in this workshop has been so high that we’re offering the same workshop three times between late March and late April. We’ve posted information on our events page.
We’ve got additional gardening workshops planned for the spring, summer and fall, so be sure you’re signed up for our newsletter to get notices of these events.
With any luck, within a month, we will be picking rocks from our fields as we prepare to plant in the soils warmed by the bright spring sun. It is neat to realize this farming cycle has been around for hundreds of years, and we can continue farming due to our loyal customers and our hardworking team.
Thank you for your ongoing support!