Frosty Fields & Reading Time

Farm News

Sweaters and hats are the order of the day as the sun breaks through the frosty, brisk mornings to a quality of light and saturation of color in the fields that are so inspirational.

Now that sunset is at half past four, there is plenty of time for reading and on our shelves we have an oldie, but goodie − the 1927 edition of “Root Development of Vegetable Crops” written by John Weaver and a fellow plant scientist from the University of Nebraska. Its painstakingly rendered technical drawings are works of art in and of themselves and as one reviewer said, “The text is like a complete gardening course delivered from underground.”

Nothing much has changed in plant physiology since 1927, and it is truly amazing how vast the root systems of ordinary vegetables can be. The carrot in your child’s lunchbox could have occupied a space the size of a broom closet!

We farmers know how our crops grow and can certainly sense their living presence under our feet as we walk the fields, even now in the cold quiet days of winter, but we never physically see them in their entirety. Maybe we are nerds, but we find the facts fascinating. We hope you will find them –or at least the images- very cool as you peruse books for holiday giving, check out the sometimes overlooked, but beautiful agricultural publications on soil, vegetables and health − there are many to choose from!

Don’t forget to find us on Instagram (@fullcirclefarms).
– Wendy