This past week kicked off with some gorgeous sunny days! Monday through Wednesday saw temperatures upwards of 18°C!
This sunshine inspired our clever little email title here — overwinter(ed). In many ways, it feels like we are over winter, and it’s full steam ahead to spring. There’s action in the fields already, and our heated greenhouse is starting to fill up with seedlings! Looking ahead at next week the temperatures will be dipping back down, but either way we are getting so excited for what’s to come.
As we look ahead and prepare, we are also excited to have a good number of overwintered crops stashed away, which will help bulk up our spring Market Box and Farmers’ Market offerings. More on those overwintered items in a bit!
Pictured above are some shots from our heated greenhouse. As you may remember from our updates last March, we start many of our crops in trays, in a greenhouse (either our small heated one, or our larger glass one). Right now we have a patchwork quilt looking mix of Swiss Chard, spinach, mustard green, onions, and shallots in our heated greenhouse. It’s a lovely view! And it’s very exciting to know that all of these fresh goodies will soon be heading our way.
Out in the fields, we are already seeing the first sign of growth. To be honest, it’s pretty early for temperatures like this! We were looking through our records, and typically the first sign of rhubarb (the photo on the right just above) isn’t poking up through the soil until closer to the last week of March. But, we’re rolling with it! We are no strangers to unpredictable and strange weather patterns; it’s pretty much a given in farming. We will make it work! We are also seeing signs of the first green garlic (aka baby garlic). If you aren’t familiar, take a peek at some of these recipes for some early inspiration.
We also successfully overwintered some carrots for the first time, and are so thrilled to have an extra pop of colour and flavour on hand for one of our May Market Boxes. We’ve been test-tasting and can confirm that they are still delicious!
Speaking of overwintered crops, we are delighted to have some onions and potatoes on hand, along with cabbage (not pictured). Once again, these will pair well with our freshly harvested asparagus, rhubarb, greens, and herbs in our May Market Boxes.