2024 Growing Season Wrap-Up

A working farm like ours requires attention 365 days a year and the transition from late fall to winter season is never as slow as you would think. The day our stellar seasonal crew leaves, all of the projects that get put off during the growing season meet you at the door.

Summer 2024 ended in a flurry and we harvested plant material every day for close to two months straight. It leaves you feeling fulfilled and exhausted.

The end of the 2024 season is also the time we wrap up any fields that have not been cleaned up and planted to cover crop. This year we used a mix of oats, winter peas, and turnip as our winter cover crop. The oats establish fairly quickly and provide good erosion control. If any of it survives the winter cold, they will continue to grow in later winter/early spring and provide great organic matter for the coming season’s crops. Winter peas are wonderful; winter hardy, good biomass, and they fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, providing natural fertilizer. New to the cover crop mix is turnip. This plant is winter hardy, grows large leaves that outcompete weeds, and develops a deep strong tap root which helps loosen hard soils.

Another important off-season job is winterizing our wash line and greenhouses. We don't want pipes freezing and breaking and they need to be ready come early spring.

Wrapping up the season also involves assessing what worked and what didn’t. How can we be more efficient, where is there room to grow and evolve as farmers and stewards of the land? Although the farmer is always in motion, it is also a job of contemplation and preparation.