Happy Winter Solstice!

We made it! And just in time, with the challenging cold and wet weather headed our way late in the week and over the weekend. Thank you for your support during this brief Late Fall CSA season, it sure flew by. I hope you enjoyed the produce mix this time around. It's a bit different every year thanks to the vagaries of Mother Nature, as well as our own decisions, but we do try our best to craft a balanced share.

Because we are adding two additional weeks to next year's Main Season, which will probably extend that season until the week before, of, or after Thanksgiving (depending on when distribution begins in May), we aren't sure what the 2023 Late Fall CSA will look like. At this point anything is possible. The farm could hibernate earlier and descend into winter slumber with the conclusion of Main Season, there could be flash sales in December, or there could be something like a 4-week Late Fall season. This winter I'll be developing our 2023 Crop Plan and there will be plenty of updates and edits to make for growing and harvesting next November since we'll have 300 members picking up each week instead of the 100 we now have for Late Fall. Timing and space arrangements in the tunnels will need to be heavily adjusted and modified. We can all look forward to more spinach!

We began our late season experiments following the 2011 season, so I think this was our 12th Late Fall CSA (or maybe 11th). It has been an interesting journey, one where we've learned a lot, realized what's possible, made many mistakes, and tried our best to get better every year. We couldn't have done it without your support, and we're grateful. A lot has changed since those early days. Growing under the protection of tunnels went from nothing to more than a quarter acre of sheltered growing this year. Two additional rodent proof climate controlled produce storage rooms in the barn were built. Proper storage techniques for roots, tubers, cabbages, alliums, etc. and having fresh quality greens from protected spaces are the bare essentials for a successful winter program and we realized early on that that was what we needed to figure out.

I hope you have a nice winter and are able to enjoy the holidays. We'll be in touch.