February-That's Our Cue

The polar vortex came bearing arctic winds last week, unleashing North Pole conditions, which came creeping down the Northern hemisphere and enveloped us in a tundra. The media effectively communicated the polar plunge, and the masses unduly raided the shelves of the grocery store that I ducked into to pick up a case of mini Sprite cans for Aquarius Jack's birthday celebration. I really thought berry lemonade would cut it, but the boy discovered pop and what's a celebration without a little indulgence? The energy of the store-goers was frenetic, and the shopping carts boiled over with staples and comforts. By the time our kids' generation is employing the news outlets and online blogs, polar vortex visits will likely be written about with more familiarity. Generational adaptation will inevitably bring a general prehension of weather events and encourage personal cache's of pantry staples to always be stocked.

But you can't blame them...the sense of control that a mountain of provisions can give you is mollifying. It's a primal part of us that is stirred when ungodly cold and the threat of power outages and snow-ins are looming. It reminds us of our humanity maybe. Our mortality. Our dependence on each other and on resources. Maybe it makes us appreciate each other and our resources more than ever. On the farm, Rich chopped the wood that's left to chop. We weren't expecting to go through this much wood. There's no way to predict the arrival of the polar vortex back in the fall when considering these things. Going forward, we'll fill the shed with enough for two winters, just in case. We stocked up on propane for the little growhouse that could. That house is so smart that on a sunny day, even with a high temperature low enough to cancel school, I can turn the heaters off by lunchtime. The trapped heat from the sun's rays is enough to grow the greens I'll harvest by the week's end. We cooked a few big batches of food, Rich made us bread, and I baked a fresh batch of granola. We filled up our water carboys from the kitchen sink just in case we were to lose power to the well pump at some point. And then we waited for it to unfold.

On the first morning of the vortex's arrival, I set out into the newborn world to feed the barn cats and check on the grow house. It was stunning to feel and to see. Arctic air is cruel to the skin and the lungs. The outside would have been completely inhumane if not for the outstanding snowscape: the texture of it, the hush of it, the sight of it a fantasy to the eye. The very fantasy I had in my mind's eye so many times as a child: layers and layers of white with crystalline stalactite fringe hanging from the rooves. Speaking of children, there were mine: May and Jack pressed against the window, impatient for me to come in to help them exchange their pajamas for their snow suits. I would transform them into little chickadees, first packing their bellies full of energy-dense food and then feathering them out in layers of cotton and down to trap heat under so much insulation. Because if those littlest of our feeder visitors are out flitting about, making the most of the winter world, can't we too?

Rich and I could, but after a walk about and bringing in another batch of wood and watering the greens and draining the hose and breathing in the air, we retreated to stoke the fire inside. And we watched the kids cavort, the little beaglet sisters chase each other through the snow drifts, and the chickadees take turns at the feeder, packing their bellies with energy-dense food outside the window. And we took the cue from Mother Earth or Boreas riding on the northern wind, to sit tight. We will not seed our carrots in the high tunnel, which would defer their germination in the soil until the vortex has shifted anyway. We will not seed the first batch of spring lettuces and kale in trays until the ten day forecast shows us something worth fighting for. And we will put off disassembling the summer growing chamber for microgreens and shoots as welling as building its replacement until the weather is warm enough for our hands to do the work well.

And it's a good thing that we have had this extended period of down time on the farm, so that we are free enough to make snow ice cream with the kids and then enjoyed it together, everyone with their own spoon, right out of the bowl :). And time enough to have "exercise dance parties" in our bedroom...with two little chickadees jumping on our bed while I ride the bike. And time to celebrate the start of the "luckiest year of (Jack's) life" which started with one snow day that bled into four, during which we finished reading our latest kids fiction together called The Girl Who Drank the Moon and I at how beautifully the author wrote to kids a story about challenging oppression and good triumphing over evil. And time to get our house projects done and to itemize a year's worth of Foxhole expenses for our accountant. Time too for Rich to recover from an elective surgery while the kids put on puppet shows for him. And enough idleness besides to lay on the living room floor with Jack in the evening hours to notice the sky outside the window doubly lit by a nearly full moon and a very prominent Jupiter hanging by its side. Before we see it coming, another cue will call us out of our holding pattern and the 2026 growing season will commence.

Updates from the Farm:

-Online Ordering this Month-We will be offering online ordering with pick up on Saturdays in the Oakwood parking lot on the following dates: Saturday, February 7th, Saturday February 14th, and Saturday February 28th.

-Seeds ordered- We are enthusiastic about this growing season. We have our field plan, which is always subject to change, but which gets more grounded and realistic every year :). We will be growing more of what you have come to expect from us this year, plus some exciting new additions. Here's a list of what we intend to grow this year: salad mix, microgreens and shoots, komatsuna and pac choi, spinach as possible, tomatoes: all our favorites you've seen at market, plus san marzano paste tomatoes and a few new varieties, the typical peppers we offer plus yellow carmens and birdseye chilis, more onions of all colors + cippolinis, negi onions, salad turnips, radishes, beets, carrots all year if possible, more potatoes including fingerlings, eggplant, chard, collards, basil and dill and cilantro, ginger, broccoli and cauliflower, cabbage, snap peas, kale, kohlrabi, zucchini and patty pans, winter squash (honeynut, delicata, kabocha, trombocino, spaghetti! and a small butternut). And we are playing with celery, cress and tuscan melon. Unfortunately after two total wipeouts of garlic crops due to a pest that destroys the bulbs, we are foregoing growing garlic on a big scale. Maybe we will look at tackling that challenge in years to come. We have loved growing garlic in New York and Michigan. The conditions here are not as conducive to growing garlic.

-Ginger Seeding-Ginger seed gets shipped to us later this month and we will begin the months-long sprouting process, which beckons in the start of our growing season. There is so much hope in sowing seeds!

-Seeding Carrots and lettuce and kale- Once we are reliably seeing more double digits than single, we will direct seed a whole high tunnel to carrots. We will also seed trays of kale and salad mix to be transplanted in the other hoops a month later. When that time comes, we will direct seed radishes and salad turnips and likely cress too. It's an exciting time and we wait for our turn to jump in.

-New Layers-We are due to adopt a new band of laying hens this month. We are looking forward to having all of their personalities bringing life to the chicken coop where we installed beautiful new nesting boxes. Stay tuned, as we are waiting for the call from our newfound local source as to when they're ready to come to the farm. Personally with this frigid weather, I'm happy to wait a few more weeks.

-Oakwood Market 2026- We just signed on for another season at the Oakwood Farmers Market and if you missed the memo, WE GOT OUR WISH!! Market will start a month early, running from May 2nd-October 10th on Saturdays from 9-noon. And! We are planning to have three tents this year to accomodate the produce and more room to check out. As I said last year, if the harvest was as fruitful as it was considering last year's conditions, we have a good feeling about this season :).

Thank you for reading.

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