WINTER

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second best time is now." - Chinese Proverb

One would think that the winter would provide a time of respite and rest on a farm - and one would be well advised to think again.  What the winter provides the farmer in physical rest, it makes up for in administrative preparation and mental work.  We think - and hope - that with more years under our belt, this will flow with more ease...as our knowledge and experience base broadens and things that are now new (i.e. building low tunnels, raising earlier and later season crops, etc.)  become more automatic - but we have been warned not to count on it.  As we become better farmers and take more risks, the challenges will rise to meet us - and vice versa.  Our task lists from this winter read like strange beatnik haikus:  

finish calendar

manure management planning

Eliot Coleman book

Get contact re straw

Farm stand construction planning

Equipment order 

And on the lists go....we are eager to take all this brainwork/these mental "seeds" and join them with the physical - in the hopes of an abundant and fruitful harvest.