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After a restful week off, your farmers are heading back to the fields and back to the markets. The big battle of the time off was being pulled right back to time on because of the horrendous cold snap that hovered around Thanksgiving. The crew answered the call to rescue the farm with purposeful hours of preparation on Wednesday to cover crops with frost blankets to protect them from the worst effects of the cold. At that time, we were seeing a forecast calling for 17 degrees, which would have been enough to ruin all the outdoor root crops (carrots, watermelon radishes, turnips) and to make unsalable the greens in the tunnels. All the crops got at least one cover, which increas0se the temps by about 5 degrees for the protected crop. Very sensitive crops like lettuces got two covers.
Even knowing we made those efforts, it was dismaying to learn in the midst of Thanksgiving shenanigans that the forecast sank downward with a new prediction being 12 degrees. It’s enough to give you quite a post-feast stomach ache, thinking that everything you’re growing may die, and trying to imagine how business cash flow will be managed in that event. Farming is stressful!
It actually got down to ten degrees on our farm that night.
It wasn’t until all thawed out two days later that it was clear that the damage was actually very minimal- something to be extremely thankful for! It was a fairly bizarre reprieve. The crops did indeed freeze solid for days, but were able to thaw out and perk up again. The current favorite mind-boggling explanation for that good fortune is that for the first time the muddy mess of 2018 was of assistance. Muddy soil was slower to freeze than drier soil and held thermal mass better under the blankets. It’s entirely possible that we would have lost all the root crops if it had been dry. What an adventure this all is…can’t wait until the cortisol has lowered enough that I can laugh about it!
Eat well,
Your frigid Chickadees
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