Happy Holidays!

Farm News

Mornings have been very cold leaving a frost to cover the landscape and a much smaller window for harvest that begins later when things have thawed and ending early at four when light has diminished.

Luckily, the plants are still recovering throughout the day and although we are grateful there are no lakes of water in the fields, we are hoping there will be another window of warmer, wetter weather coming up so we can retrieve the last of the celeriac, cabbage and turnips without too much struggle.

The colder it gets the better the greens taste due to a neat trick of metabolism that causes starches stored in the plants’ cells to convert to sugars. The same process happens with roots as our purple top turnips and watermelon radishes walk the fine line of obtaining sweeter flavors, but not succumbing to frost on their tops as they peek out of the ground.

As the cold has set in and food for the wild animals of the farm is increasingly scarce, we have been seeing more of the coyotes, owls and elk. Yesterday we had a mama coyote and her young in the leeks very close to our barn, which is highly unusual, and my dogs were over the moon crazy to chase them. The snow geese and tundra swans have only appeared on occasion as the water levels are down, but you can hear their hoarse trumpet calls high in the sky.

As we head into the holiday swing of connecting with family and friends around tables, we hope that the magic and the focus of your energy and love are with healthy, organic vegetables and local, sustainable fares. We can never go wrong when we are good to ourselves and family with food. As always, if you are in a place to donate food to those in need at this more challenging time of the year, we offer this option to donate your box (whether you are going out of town or not) to a local food bank.

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