Winter Perma-Thaw

Hello!

My word, it is warm out there. This weather has us a little boggled. We are trying not to step outside to often, because each time we do with are inextricably drawn toward the plow and bags of pea seed. It sure feels like pea planting weather. This is usually the month that we do our taxes, plan the season, get our brochure ready for next year, and spend a little more time cooking dinner than we can give it in the summer. I'm not complaining. Getting ready for the winter distribution is a luxurious proposition in this weather, and extending the two big greenhouses is going to be a joy if this continues. But, there is a quickening edge that creeps into us each time we walk outside, making it hard to focus on the inside work that needs to be done right now. And, truth be told, a bit of buried panic as our bodies remember the sheer amount of work that awaits us once the soil is workable and the season is upon us. April, May and June are wild times on a farm my friends. Its kind of like being in labor - it hurts. You have the energy to do it when you're doing it, and you get something magnificent out of it, but it is because your mind partially fogs over the memory of it that you'll ever do it again. Ok, maybe that is a little far fetched, but there is a nodule of truth there.

The food is looking good - we usually don't have kale this long, but with the mild winter it is doing great out there. Everything else is storing well, the aforementioned weirdness in some of the onions aside. Tonight I'm inspired to make an Asian beef soup with thinly sliced High Point minute steaks, chicken broth, Good Life Farm ginger, garlic, carrots, and Napa cabbage ribbons. Yum. I'll probably shake a bunch of hot sauce in my bowl.

Veggies with week: we hope the three week interval has primed your veggie eating pump (I'm not sure if that's a scientific term or not)

carrots
beets
parnips
potatoes
onions
celeriac
rutabagas
turnips - scarlet queen, purple top, gold ball (my all time fav)
cabbage -napa and green
winter squash
kale
spinach
komatsuna
kohlrabi
daikon
watermelon radish
garlic
possibly collards
rosemary