A farm is a multifarious and everchanging thing, but the growing year has its touchstones. Though it isn’t as sensuous as sneaking the first ripe cherry tomato or as dramatic as the first hard frost, the first day that Mark warms up the tractor and breaks ground out in the field is a big deal. Some years this moment is fraught or critical, as we wait impatiently for the soil to be warm and dry enough to work with. But this year, we may as well have smashed a bottle of bubbly on the front forks of the John Deere to commemorate our voyage into the next phase of 2026. On a bright Sunday afternoon (on the first of March, no less), Mark got his first few passes in. It was just a little patch, but the aroma of the freshly turned soil hit like a whiff of coffee, and it made me want to throw open every door and window in the house, forthwith. Sure, we woke up to frost crystals in the field again this morning, but being able to get things rolling ahead of Spring is such a gift! Just a little more Winter to go. Another round of fresh greens, heavy on the Bok Choy this week, makes it a little easier.

Best,

Katie

We’ve got four more weeks of Winter to go, which means that Springtime is merely a month away, depending on how you look at it. Mark is busily trying to check items off of his “stuff I mean(t) to get done before Spring” list as great big totes of potting soil, packages, parts, and pouches of seeds start closing in on the periphery. Passing through the farm stand last week, you might have caught a glimpse of the crew busting up bulbs in anticipation of planting out Green Garlic (when they weren’t serving up their best Revolved Forward Bends in the greenhouses:) It will all be happening before we know it, but for now, we’ve got just enough Winter to reckon with. Maple, Claire and Kelly harvested a round of Mustard Mix from the hoop house this morning. These greens are great for stir frying but tender enough for a Winter salad to go with this week’s pot of soup. Aaahhh, remember how excited you were for Soup Season to land last Fall? Hold that feeling in your heart and direct it toward your stockpiles of Winter Squashes and Roots.

Feast your eyes and your tummies, because it looks like we got around to harvesting the second flourish of Purple Sprouting Broccoli right in the nick of time! Successfully harvesting PSB in Winter is starting to feel like finding a four-leaf clover. If the sweet little purple florets needed to endure one more night of frost, we might not have been so lucky. The forecasts show that the next few days are going to be flat out cold and yucky. Maybe freezing rain, maybe lowland flurries, maybe much ado and a whole lot of nothing. But, I do know that between the PSB, winter Radishes and Frozen Blueberries from Sunrise Farm, we’ll have the chance to serve up a little pop of color an otherwise grey day.

Have a great week,
Katie