(Mt. Vernon, Iowa)
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Thursday, Dec 10
Greetings everybody,
Well, except for the face-numbing cold and the shoulder-high snow drifts, it's a pretty nice day. So good to see the sun. You will be jealous to know that the furnace in my underground house has been turned off since 8:00 this morning. As soon as the sun comes out, this house warms up so nicely. Even at night, it doesn't get all that cold with the furnace off. Someday, I'm going to make some drapes, which will help a lot to hold the afternoon heat inside after the sun goes down.
I'm headed out now to try to plow my driveway. It may or may not happen. Depends on if the tractor will start, and if the snow isn't frozen so hard that my blade can handle it. I've seen one road grader and one pickup with a blade go by my house in the last 36 hours. I don't really want to go anywhere today, but it's nice to have the driveway open, just in case. Plus, I'm registered and paid up for a workshop on storing fall crops in Madison, Wisconsin, tomorrow morning, so I hope to get cleaned up enough that I can go.
The cooler is still above freezing. So far, so good for the leafy things. The potatoes, onions, and squash are safe and sound in my garage. There are still too many complications for me to get your vegetables to you tonight, and tomorrow I'll be gone. Saturday morning, I have committed to be at the Mt. Vernon farmers market. There's not enough room in City Hall for me to bring your things up there for you to pick up on Saturday morning, and likely not enough spunk left in me to do it Saturday afternoon.
So, how about having the next pick up on Sunday afternoon. I can be ready for you about 1:00, and can stay open until 4:30 when it starts to get too dark and cold. It will be much easier to do the pickup in the daylight. If you can't make it on Sunday, I can take you on Monday sometime, but it would be great to see as many of you as possible Sunday afternoon. I'm not sure how nice the greens will be since they will have been harvested for a week already, but I think we will get at least some good eating from them. If it suits you, I'd like to give you all the potatoes, onions, and squash that I had planned to give you between now and Christmas on Sunday. Since there will likely be no more greens, this could then be the last pickup of the season. I think that might save all of us lots of trouble over the next two weeks.
If you CAN make it on Sunday, will you please zap me a note. If you CAN'T, tell me that, too, and tell me a time on Monday that would work for you. The only weakness I can see in this current plan is the 40% chance of rain/sleet/ice that is showing on the Channel 9 forecast for Sunday. But let's not worry about that until the time comes.
Let me know what you think,
Laura
Wednesday, Dec 9
Greetings shareholders,
I just came in from watering the chickens. It's not all that nice out there.
Actually, my driveway is plugged, and I wouldn't be surprised if my road blows shut sometime today, if it isn't already. The chickens and cats are fine and will handle the cold without too many problems. (The cats will just sleep right through it.) The remaining crops in the hoophouse will likely be killed tonight, although it will be interesting to see what happens. Spinach and arugula might make it through. The only thing I'm really concerned about it the cooler. I've got it jammed to the ceiling with greens from the hoophouse, and I'd really like it not to freeze inside. As the air temperature goes down, I wonder how long the cooler will be able to hold its heat inside. I'm keeping an eye on it, and I've got a heat lamp ready to go in. As long as we don't lose electricity, I'm hopeful I can keep it warm enough to get through the next few days and nights. I'd like to have the things for you, and also for the farmers market in Mt. Vernon on Saturday morning.
Thankfully, I didn't have to give my talk in western Iowa yesterday. The ladies over there called it off.
So, no vegetables this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow afternoon. Whenever the wind stops blowing, we will sort it out. I'll keep in touch.
Have a safe day,
Laura
895-6924
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Posted by Laura
@ 07:26 PM CST
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have potatoes, onions, squash, turnips, beets, kale, and radishes. Depending on how cold it gets between now and then, we might also have lettuce, bok chois, Chinese cabbage, arugula, and spinach. The things in the hoophouse have been freezing every night, but as long as the sun comes out even a little, they thaw and I can harvest them for you. They suffer a bit from freezing and thawing, but the damage is pretty minor and they still taste very good. They might not have a long shelf life, but we'll never know because we eat them up so fast, right!
There are, however, a few possible complications. There is a big storm coming on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, followed by very cold cold. I have to give a conservation talk in western Iowa on Tuesday. The plan at this moment is that I will have an uneventful trip home Tuesday evening, harvest things for you on Wednesday when the sun shines between noon and 2:00, easily set up the tractor and plow the snow out of the driveways, and have everything ready at 3:30. However, there are a couple of weaknesses in the plan. I might get stuck in a snowdrift somewhere in central Iowa and not get back until too late on Wednesday. Or, the sun may not shine long enough for the lettuce to thaw. Or, I may not have all the drives plowed by 3:30 and you won't be able to get in. Or, the door to the shed might freeze shut. Or, the vegetables might freeze sitting in the room between 3:30 and 6:00. Or, the farmer might freeze sitting in the room between 3:30 and 6:00. And on and on and on.
So, here's the tentative plan. If I'm not going to be ready for you by 3:30 Wed, whatever the reason, either I or Cindy Strong (cstrong@cornellcollege.edu) will send you an email by noon that day that will say not to come that afternoon. We might have to change pickup to Thursday afternoon/evening (but it's going to be a lot colder then), or we might have to move pickup location to a church basement in Mt Vernon. Or both. Or neither. Either way, you'll hear from somebody Wednesday midday, so be sure to check your email to save yourself a trip out here on slippery, cold roads. If everything else fails, I'll deliver your vegetables to you on Thursday.
Sorry for the inconvenience of all of this. You know I'm practicing on all of you good natured greens eaters.
Please remember to check your email Wednesday, and see you sometime this week,
Laura
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Posted by Laura
@ 02:45 PM CST
Greetings shareholders,
This Wednesday, we'll have potatoes, onions, squash, a little broccoli, a little spinach, kale, baby salad greens including arugula, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, bok choi, mustard greens, lots of radishes, turnips, beets, and cilantro. This will certainly be the last week for broccoli, spinach from the garden, baby greens, cilantro, and mustard greens. They are all pretty cold-hardy, but not tough enough to resist the kind of cold that we're going to have here by the end of the week.
I sure have used these last couple of weeks of warm days to get much closer to being ready for winter. More things have been put away, cleaned, scrapped, or sold. The two old corn shellers that we used to use every December to shell the seed corn finally got pulled out of the mud yesterday (with a winch, regular farm machinery failed) and are going to be sold to a central Iowa antique guy. I describe them as "old" and "older". He's very excited about them. I sure don't know why. But, soon they will be gone and we'll start pulling out all the old machinery that I should have scrapped last year. Scrap iron prices follow the price of oil, so when gas was $4, that would have been a great time to get rid of the many old machines that have died on this farm. The iron in them isn't so valuable now, but it's the first time in several years that I've had the time and the weather to deal with them, so hopefully, much of it will be moved out by the time you all return in the spring. Some old stuff is good to keep around in case you need a part, or need to make an invention, but I have too much of that kind of interesting stuff. It will be glad to see some of it go.
The replacement layers that grew up in the chicken yurt have been moved to the layer house for the winter. It was World War III for a while, but everybody is a little less stressed every day so I think it's going to work out OK. At least nobody has died so far. The goal is to have 70 or 80 chickens laying eggs by next spring, and having lots of those yummy, grass-fed eggs for my egg people (you will be able to be one of them).
Got to get outside now. This is the last very nice day of the season, and maybe my last chance for a while to drag lots of mud around on my boots and tires. Can't let that get away from me.
See you Wednesday,
Laura
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Posted by Laura
@ 10:18 AM CST
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