*row cover pulled back to harvest some spinach, photo by Ryan*

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have:

Greens: green curly kale, rainbow chard, green cabbage, bok choi, baby lettuce, spinach, baby kale, claytonia
Roots: red beets, yellow beets, chioggia beets, carrots, watermelon radish, yellow potatoes, French fingerling potato, daikon radish, Gilfeather turnip, rutabaga, parsnip
Alliums: garlic, yellow onions, red onions, shallots, leeks
Herbs: cilantro, parsley
Miscellaneous: fennel

Click here to order your veggies for a delivered bag to Ludlow or Rutland

Farm News

Looking at the blanket of snow that covers the farm during the winter, it’s no wonder most folks ask what we do this time of year. Even peeking into the tunnels during these cold spells, there is just more white with the 3 layers of heavy duty row cover tucking all the cold hardy greens in for these below zero nights. It really doesn’t look like anything vibrant and green stands a chance against winter’s harsh temperatures and snow cover. But thanks to the plastic and steel of the high tunnels, and the thick row cover that still lets the sun’s UV rays through, we do have 3 large tunnels full of eager greens that freeze solid, converting their starches to sugars, and then defrosting when the sun warms the tunnels enough to create the gorgeous microclimate of a high tunnel. Despite having done this for 15+ years now, it still feels like magic when I see greens that are icicle versions of themselves, come right back to life as a non-frozen green once it gets enough sunlight. (We learned the hard way in our first couple winters that you cannot harvest a frozen green… If you cut a frozen solid head of lettuce, for instance, that will become a melted pile of mush as it defrosts. But if you let that same frozen solid head of lettuce completely defrost while it is still in the ground attached to its root system, then you cut it into a perfect salad. Sunshine and patience are key to winter growing.)

The lower temperatures of this past week and upcoming week always make for extra work for us and extra planning. Space heaters on thermostats keep all our walk in coolers warm enough this time of year. Water lines in the wash station get drained daily. The wood stove gets fired up early on a harvest and wash day to make that space functional enough to work in. Things just take a little longer to make sure everything is done well.

We have had a couple inquiries this past week about making donations as a holiday gift to someone to NOFA-VT’s low-income CSA program that we partner with. If you are also thinking about making a donation in someone’s name to someone on your gifting list this season, here is the link to NOFA-VT. If you select “Farm Share” under “campaign” and then mention “Evening Song Farm” in the “donor note” section, then 100% of your donation will be used to subsidize a CSA share for someone in this community. It’s a cool program and provides tangible support for folks to access fresh, certified organic food, and we are the only participating farm within an hour radius, so we are really the option for many folks in this region looking for a CSA share on a budget.

Have a great week,

-ESF Team: Kara, Ryan, K2, Cindy, Taylor, Leah, Natalie, Katie, Galen, Vanessa, Georgia, Amelia, Kristina, and Hannah (and Sky and Soraya)

Lemon Potatoes

Sometimes in the winter, I just enjoy trying new potato recipes. I love this recipe blog, and my kids loved these potatoes.