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Growing Season Update January 2015


Dale Kinney from White Pine Farm is starting to plant. He turned an old freezer into a germination cabinet and is upgrading the attached green house so he can heat it. Last years cold weather contributed poorer than usual transplants. Each year he tries to improve and each year poses new first time challenges.
On sunny days the hoop houses get very warm and the chickweed still grows like crazy.
Even it what is suppose to be downtime for farmers is not downtime but bundle up time, long johns, carhardt coveralls, extra socks and what ever it takes to stay warm. The cows can stand in the field with the snow piling on their backs so long as there is water, food and a place to get out of the wind they seem content. Last extreme cold winter was one reason beef prices rose. When it gets cold animals put all their energy to staying warm and not towards growing. In some areas of the country it was so cold herds died. We were lucky our small handful of animals did well, they did not grow quite as much as normal, but they still did well.
This winter so far has been a pleasant blessing, the early cold snap in November took out a lot of hoop house plants but so far after that the winter is somewhat more typical of an average year. Let us hope for a good spring so we can harvest fresh lettuce, kale carrots and more in March. I was forced to buy lettuce from the grocery store instead of eating our own from the hoop house and my first question was Where is the FLAVOR—-there was none, so I too am anxiously awaiting fresh greens.

Until Next Time
Marian Listwak