I was visiting family in Kentucky last week, where it snowed and blowed a small blizzard most of the time I was there.  I think the snow followed me home (sorry).

We have 3-5 inches of snow forecast for Tuesday night, and temperatures will remain below freezing Monday night through sometime Thursday morning.  The sub-freezing temperatures mean we won't be able to harvest anything until late in the week, and the snow will most likely prevent us from being able to get into town at all on Wednesday.  All of which means we are going to have to cancel yet another mid-week delivery due to nasty weather.  Our field greens (spinach, mustard, chard, kale, collards) are still tucked in under row covers, but the recuperation process isn't happening very quickly when the days are so cold.  Truth be told, we are hoping for a nice thick blanket of snow tomorrow!  A good layer of snow insulates the plants and their roots, which results in less damage on bitterly cold nights. 

In the meantime, old man winter is still limiting our selection to greenhouse crops, and a few super-hardy field crops.  If this winter has gotten you down, and you're looking for a balmy vacation spot, it has actually been warmer in Anchorage, Alaska this month than it has been around here.  In the meantime, I try to keep reminding myself this can't last forever, right?

Only 54 days until the first day of spring...

A few weeks ago, we had to skip our mid-week deliveries because we can't harvest vegetables when the daytime temperatures don't climb above the freezing mark.  Even one day entirely at or below freezing is rare in our area; this week both Wednesday and Friday are forecast to remain in the low 30's (...is it spring yet?).  I hate to miss even one regular delivery per week, let alone two, so this week we're trying to anticipate what we'll need, and harvest your produce a little farther in advance.  We want to get your produce to you as fresh as possible, so we usually harvest on Wednesday mornings for Wednesday's pick-up, and on Fridays for weekend orders.  Root crops keep very well, so we dug what roots we think we'll need for the week this morning, the rest will have to happen on Tuesday or Thursday.  That's not how I'd prefer to do it, but it's this way or nothing this week.  It's all still far fresher than anything you'll find on a supermarket shelf.  If you can send your orders in a bit earlier than usual this week, it'll help us out tremendously!

You all ate almost all of our parsnips last week - in just one week!  Just a few of those parsnips left, and we're also getting down to the last of the beets.  Don't worry, there's still a slew of carrots to be had, and we expect to start pulling some sweet winter turnips out of the greenhouse in another week or two.  The bulk of our greens are still in recovery mode.  We are still limiting eggs to one dozen per order this week, but we also have some dainty little pullet eggs.  A pullet is farmer-speak for a female chicken that hasn't quite reached her full egg-laying stride yet.  When a pullet does start laying eggs, for the first few weeks she lays small eggs, which gradually increase in the until she's producing regular large eggs.  I think of these as "practice eggs," laid a bit sporadically until those flighty teenage girls settle down to business.  Pullet eggs can be a bit difficult to bake with in a recipe that calls for "two large eggs," but they're fine for any other use, and make some really cute miniature deviled eggs!

What to do with all these roots?  Roast 'em!  Cut carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and leeks into equal-sized pieces.  Cut your beet roots a little smaller, as they tend to take longer to cook.  Toss everything together in a shallow roasting pan.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and roast in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  Flip it all over and around, and roast another 10-15 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and look slightly browned.  When they're done, I like to drizzle them with a little balsamic vinegar and shower them with chopped celery leaves.

Before the arctic weather last week, we made sure our chicken coops were as snug and cozy as possible.  We threw a few more of those unattractive (but effective) tarps over to make sure the coops were draft-free, and piled a truckload of extra clean straw into the coops.  The coops stayed above the freezing mark even on the coldest single-digit night.  What did they do on the coldest morning of the year?  Played king-of-the-mountain on top of their houses.  Temperatures were in the low 'teens when I snapped that photo, and the wind was blowing quite a gale, but I guess if you're a hen, it was more entertaining to stomp around on the roof of the house than stay inside where it's warm?  The days are growing a bit longer, and those crazy girls are starting to take note and get back to work again.  Slowly, slowly, they're easing back into being productive members of the farm again.  In the hopes of spreading the egg-love about as much as possible, we will be limiting eggs to one dozen per customer for now until they pick up the pace a bit more.  It shouldn't be long before we're neck-deep in eggs, and we'll be able to provide you with all the eggs you can eat, and more.

Poultry antics aside, our crops took quite a beating in the cold snap last week.  We don't expect any more cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower until the spring crops are ready by April or May.  (Yep, we've already got those underway).  The brussel sprouts are done until next winter.  No, we don't even have much in the way of leafy greens right now, which are usually the backbone of our winter offerings.   We grow all of our hardier greens outdoors through the winter months.  And they've always grown just fine through the winter, without any protection.  Ever.  When all else fails, there's always kale.  Always.  Last week we covered up the kale and collards, spinach and mustard and chard before the cold, but it wasn't enough.  We hunted and pecked through row after row of greens on Friday, found a few salable leaves, but the rest of the larger leaves are gone.  The central crowns of the plants still look green and healthy, which means that they should eventually re-grow.  That's going to take some time, however, as plants don't grow very quickly this time of year.   Or as I overheard from another farmer at the market this weekend, "you know you've accomplished something when you've killed off your collard greens."  Sometimes you just have to shake your head, try to laugh, and re-plant.

Yet in the midst of all this crazy weather, we do actually have something new this week - parsnips!  As with the rest of our root crops right now, these will get to you without any leafy green tops, but then can anyone out there claim they've ever seen a parsnip top?  Unless you've grown your own, probably not.  Parsnip greens aren't edible, and the tops can cause a skin rash for many who handle the greens, so they're always removed before sale.  Parsnips are said to be at their sweetest in late winter after a hard freeze...mission accomplished!

I know, I know, it's been a while since I've remembered to update you all over here.

Last week I promised that we would get back to our usual full schedule after all these mid-week holidays, but it looks like the weather has other plans for us all.  It's supposed to dip well below freezing (10 degrees!) tonight, and remain below freezing until at least Wednesday afternoon.  Lest you think we're just too delicate to go out in the cold, vegetables cannot be cut when they're frozen solid.  A possible few hours at 35 degrees on Wednesday afternoon isn't long enough to allow those vegetables to thaw completely (think about how long it takes to defrost a frozen turkey in your refrigerator), so it may be sometime late Thursday before we're able to harvest again.  It's quite rare in the winter that the weather prevents us from harvesting or delivering your veggies, but it does happen on occasion.  We'll be back to our usual full schedule next week - we hope!

The list of what we have available for this weekend is a little more uncertain than usual, also due to the upcoming big chill.  Central NC hasn't seen temperatures this cold in about 15 years.  I've only been farming for about half that time, so I can't claim from experience that everything we currently have available will survive.  Sweet potatoes were harvested and boxed up for winter storage in September; I think our root crops will sail through though they may lose their leafy green tops; leeks are indestructible; I just pray we don't lose too many greens.  We have everything tucked in and covered up as best we can, but it is entirely possible that our harvest lists will be a bit shorter by the weekend.
 
In the meantime, stay warm, and keep your fingers crossed for milder weather next week!