Well, I didn't need anyone to tell me that the Blizzard on the 23rd and 24th was one for the ages, I lived it. If you were able to stay comfy, cozy and safe how wonderfully lucky for you. As all the snow is melting and the temperatures are back (way) up where they were before the storm, I'm experiencing a bit of whiplash. I'm assuming some of you are, too.
But here we are on the brink of another new year, and it is onwards and upwards. Though our hearts are with everyone who is still suffering as a result of the storm, we are moving forward into 2023 with new lessons learned. If you follow us on Instagram (@therootdownfarm) you saw that our oldest growing tunnel collapsed in the insanely high winds and snow accumulation on Friday night. Luckily most of the crops had been harvested from it, but we are still going to try and save any remaining crops if possible. We consider it a minimal loss given the intensity of the storm. Unfortunately many other farms lost tunnels, too. We were lucky enough to have power throughout the storm so that we could run heaters in our coolers (remember it was 10 degrees with a windchill of -20), and keep our root cellar protected as well. Since our barn was built in the late 1800's and root cellar in the 1920's we were a bit worried about those structures, but alas the big barn shed it's snow all by itself and we were able to clear the snow from the roof of the root cellar by hand. It's been a harrowing learning experience, but now we have ideas to implement to make the next storm easier to handle.
But as for the new year we have our 6th week of the Winter Share pick up this week! The share will include lettuce, kale, cabbage, carrots, beets, parsnips, onions, celery root, radishes, turnips, potatoes, squashes, and more!
The next Winter Share will be 1/17 and 1/19