Two Feet in the Dirt

With overnight freezing temperatures and morning frosts becoming more and more the norm, the farm is really starting to move into winter mode. Only the hardiest crops remain in the field, among them several of the baby greens, kale and collards, turnips, and the extremely cold-hardy spinach. But even these we have covered in floating row cover, a product that acts like a mini-greenhouse, maintaining a slightly higher temperatures underneath than what is reached outside. And more and more of our harvest is coming out of our hoop house.

Also known as high tunnels, hoop houses have become very common on small-scale farms like our’s in the last few decades as they allow an extended farming seasons in colder areas. When you’re making your living off of a small area of land, it is essential for it to be productive for as long as possible and hoop houses are a key component of this. Unlike heated greenhouses, which also rely on a mechanized heating source, high tunnels like our’s rely exclusively on the power of the sun to keep them warm. The hoop house is essentially a metal frame with clear plastic strung over it. We built in a door and window on each end that we open for ventilation along with the sides, which roll up about 4 feet. During the summer, the sides, windows, and doors are open all of the time unless it’s raining. However, at this time of year, we fully shut the hoop house every afternoon before the sun is off of the structure, allowing it to trap solar heat that helps keep it warm over night. Each morning and throughout the day, we gradually open doors and windows and then sides (depending on the outside temperature and amount of sunlight) in order to allow the hoop house to vent and not become too hot and humid. And it’s good we’ve got one of these ingenious structures because with Friday night’s lows forecast to drop down near 20 degrees, we’re probably going to be relying a lot more on the hoop house for our harvest after this week!

Despite the cold temperatures forecast for Friday night and Saturday morning, we will still be at Burke for the usual 8am start time and plan to continue to be at the Burke market until Saturday, December 7! And with last weekend’s time change, it should fortunately warm up a little earlier than in past weeks. We’ll still have a wide selection of products, which you can find below on our harvest list. We hope to see you on Saturday!

Farmers Katie & Mike

This week at the market: