We hope you are enjoying the winter months. We had our bit of snow and cold weather, whether it will be the last for this year, we cannot know, but we are planning for the spring!
The Field Crops
The fields are bare at the moment, but only of saleable crops. Most of the fields are covered with cover crop – oats, peas, radish, rye, and clover.
We are pruning grapes, kiwis, gooseberries and currants.
The Tunnels
The tunnels are in full swing now. We are harvesting lettuce, chard, kale and spinach weekly. We have beets and radishes almost ready to pick. The weeding and replanting is continual. As soon as one weekly amount of lettuce is picked, the bed is cleaned and a new flat of plugs is planted. Now that the daylight hours are above 10 hours per day, we will begin to direct seed lettuce, spinach and radishes for March and April markets. We only had to cover the beds with row cover 2 weeks ago and then we took it off on Janaury 26 and we do not need it on now. This is very good as it will allow the plants to get more sunlight and we do not have to uncover everything to water.
Greenhouse Seeding
We have not been seeding much in the greenhouse yet, but we are buying the seeds now. We have bought over $5000 worth of seeds so far and we will need to get a couple more varieties yet before we are stocked again for this year. We like to buy the whole year’s worth of seeds in the winter so that we have them on hand during the spring and summer when we are too busy to order them.
We have the first batch of greenhouse tomatoes ordered to be planted in mid-March. We buy these tomatoes ready to go into the ground since it is cheaper for us than having to increase the temperature in our greenhouse just for 200 tomato plants in February. We also have strawberry plants in the greenhouse that we cut out in the fall. They are being cleaned up so that they will be ready for sale in April.
CSA
The new dates for the 2024 CSA are on the website. We have not changed any of the prices. Things will remain the same. We have begun to take checks for the 2024 CSA. If you are interested, you can email and let us know that you are signing up for the CSA and then send us a check. We will let you now when we get your check. Be sure to include an email address so that we can get in touch with you. Send an email if you have any questions.
Canning, Gardening, Grilling and Preserving
I hope everyone is enjoying the fruits of their labors from last summer’s canning and freezing. We are!
I eat yogurt every morning for breakfast. I canned quite a few half pints of fruit preserves and conserves to add to the plain yogurt. It is very good and nutritious. I have apple, apricot, and plum preserves and blueberry and peach conserves.
I try to make a pie every other week. Gregg loves fruit pies. This weeks pie is peach. I take the canned peaches and drain them using the juice to make pie filling by adding cornstarch. I do not add any sugar because I can my peaches in a light syrup which has enough sugar for pies. I usually make two-crust pies because everyone likes the crust. I use half coconut oil and half lard for the crusts. This combination makes them very light and flaky.
We hope you are enjoying the winter outdoor season. If you are able, come and stop by the farm stand at St Luke’s Episcopal Church on Fort Hunt Rd in Alexandria on Saturdays throughout the winter. We would love to see you.
One thing that is on-going in the winter is repairs. Oliver is repairing two tractors that need serious work. We had two sheds repaired that were on the verge of blowing away. The metal roofing was flapping all of last fall. We also cleaned out old coolers, half bushel crates, bins, freezers, pig pens, and chickens. We repaired pens, doors, roofs plus cleaned up all the pumps for irrigation and fans for drying. We are planning to replace one of the box trucks yet before the winter is over. I will explain that project after February. By then I will know how much of it can be done with the time that is left. By late February, Oliver will need to be pruning peaches full time.
Let me know if you have any questions about the CSA, markets or food tips.
Farm Stands and Markets
The St Luke’s Farm Stand is open every Saturday from 8 – 1 pm . Come out and support the local farm on Saturdays!
Have a Great Day!
Louise
