Notes from the Field Fall/Winter Pickup 4:

We did it! We are wrapping up our longest harvest season yet at LexFarm: 28 weeks! Many, many thanks to our wonderful farm crew, work shares, volunteers, and board members for sharing the hard work of keeping this farm running through a long season! Special thanks to Tim, Betsy, and Greg for joining me in the cold today as we got ready for our final CSA and stand hours.

Due to this very cold fall, our fresh harvests have been kept short this week. I harvested our final scallions, spinach and kale from low tunnels in the field, and I’m looking forward to hanging up my harvest overalls for the season. It’s getting hard to fit the harvest into the few hours above freezing each week!

So what happens now? We’ll make our final produce donation to Food Link on Monday, and make sure the farm is snuggled down for winter: we blow out the water lines, begin regular tractor maintenance, clear the way for snow plowing, and clean!

Then we turn our attention to next season. Tim and I have been working hard on the 2019 budget, outlining every purchase needed to keep the farm running next year. We think about the things we need every year (labor, seeds, fertilizer, band-aids, printer ink) and things we want to invest in to make the farm better next year (new furnace parts for our greenhouse, fencing to keep critters out of the fields, and some exciting changes to our glass greenhouse). Once the budget is finished, it’s time for farmers to enjoy some rest and downtime, before crop planning begins in earnest for the next year.

I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed your vegetables from and visits to the farm this season. If you’ve been shopping with us or picking up your CSA share since we opened in June, you’ve been eating organic, fresh produce from our farm for over half a year! Thank you.– Elena Colman Farm Manager