Winter is always our planning and paperwork season. We eat food that we saved over the last growing season, and figure out what the next growing season will look like. This year's field plan is exciting and satisfying - with a new, bigger space to work with, we can spread things out (proper spacing! no inter-cropping!) and get strategic about where different crops go. The high-value, high-maintenance, and/or frequently harvested crops will be closer to the house (and thus wash station and storage) while full-season, lower-maintenance crops go further out. The field is parcelled out into sections, and whole sections will be one type of crop (i.e. quick greens, roots, nightshades, cucurbits). We are also planning on a lot of fabric mulch, to keep the weeding pressure down. We hope all of these plans will lead to a field layout that is efficient for planting, weeding and harvesting. It's daunting to jump from managing 3/4 of an acre to managing almost 2 acres (plus our hedges of berries) but it's also really exciting to imagine what we can do. In some ways, spring can't come soon enough!
Taking the winter to slow down is really valuable for us. We go for walks, read books, and take our time with things in a way we aren't able to from April to December. This winter, we still have a lot of things to figure out before seedling season starts in March - and a lot of big purchases still to make. But with support from our CSA members and Market Supporters, we can make it through our first winter of living on our own land, and get a strong start to the spring.
For more info about our CSA, branchingpathfarm.com/csa
For more info about Market Memberships, branchingpathfarm.com/market-memberships