Wrapping up the growing season and getting prepared for winter is a busy time on the farm. By the beginning of November, Plants that will be overwintering in the greenhouses are covered in frost cloth…an extra blanket to keep them alive over the cold winter. All of the hoses are rolled up and stored, so these plants will go dormant until Spring.
By early December, all of the tulips and ranunculi are planted in the hoop houses and covered with a thick bed of straw. They’ll enjoy the cold temperatures until early spring when they’ll pop up and be wonderful to behold after the long, white winter.
Then…a hush settles over everything as temperatures start to drop and the snow starts to fall. We take some time to reflect on the season past, and start to dream and plan for the seasons ahead.
This is the time when we add warming lights and heated water to the chicken coop. We give them extra grain in the morning and evening so that they’ll stay warm during the cold nights. And on shockingly cold days and nights, such as our recent -45 degree nights!, we give them warm oatmeal, lentils, and rice to help them stay warm and happy.
And happy they are…they continue to lay eggs all winter long. These are the best eggs you’ve ever tasted! Because we have a variety of heritage breed hens, their eggs are all different colors and sizes…really large to more petite, blue-green, light and dark brown, and speckled!
During the growing season, you can find our eggs right in our Farm Store. During the winter, they can be ordered through our web site for pick up directly on the farm. You can also find them at Gilfeather’s Market on Highway 7 in Ferrisburgh!
In January, we inventory our seeds – many collected from our own plants, and we browse through seed catalogs and then get our seed orders sent in. Then, it’s time to update the seeding schedule…quite an impressive spread sheet that guides us on what and when we’ll be starting seeds for many of the things we grow here on the farm. We also plot out where we’ll be planting everything, and what companion plantings and succession plantings we’ll do.
We place our tree orders in late December. These will be picked up for planting in late April. Every year, we’re adding more fruit, nut, and evergreen trees to the farm. Many are planted along the swales on the hillside…along shallow ditches that have been dug on contour with the hillside in order to capture spring and summer rain water, which will be the only source of irrigation for the trees. This is an important concept in permaculture…working with the land in every possible way.
Seed starting begins near the end of February…greenhouse tulips will start emerging in March, the Japanese Magnolia tree will burst into bloom in April…then lilacs, daffodils, and early spring greens in the greenhouse. Another growing season will be off and running!
