• Saturday, December 4th from 1-4pm

You are receiving this email because you have signed up for a winter share. Like last
time, families picking up their winter share should come to our new greenhouse located on the east side of the farm (beyond the little brick building and the learning garden, right next to our older greenhouse). Some of your share will be boxed up for you while the
remainder will need to be assembled. Please bring bags or totes to carry your share back to your car.

• Yellow onions
• Shallots
• Leeks
• Cabbage
• Brussels sprouts
• Collards
• Kale
• Spinach
• Tatsoi
• Bok choy
• Endive
• Escarole
• Lettuce
• Watermelon radishes
• Celeriac
• Carrots
• Purple top turnips
• "Greenwave" mustard greens
• Butternut Squash (from Picadilly Farm)
• Potatoes (from Picadilly Farm)

 Here we are, the last harvest of the year! Funny to be saying it in late November, but itreally couldn't happen too much later. Even with the mild fall we've had to date, it's about time to get the food out of the ground and call it quits for the year. Slowly but surely, the nights are getting colder and longer. Night temperatures are dipping well into the 20's here in Waltham. We may have mentioned this before, but as long as we can harvest veggies when they're not frozen, they'll be just fine. Sunny days in the 40's are great for thawing the vegetables after a cold night. It's really quite amazing; cut a head of lettuce while it's frozen and it will turn to mush. Cut that same head after it thaws in the mid morning sunlight and you'd never even know it had been covered in ice crystals hours before! Thankfully, we have all of our crops tucked in under row covers. These "blankets" give plants the extra warmth they need to get through the more extreme cold nights. We've been lucky with these mild days this fall. In another year the ground could be frozen or we could have had our first snowfall by now. We've been taking advantage of the relatively warm whether these past few weeks and have continued harvesting our storage crops for this upcoming winter share distribution.

I have to admit, I like the shorter days that this time of year brings. I especially like the warm quality of the light. A friend once called it the "muesli light", referring to the old
TV commercials depicting a bountiful harvest and pastoral beauty bathed in a golden, glowing light. In the summer, this light is usually found an hour or so after sunrise and an hour or so before sunset. This time of year, it seems as if the light has these qualities all day long. It makes being outside very enjoyable, although somewhat disorienting. With the sun never really reaching any great heights during the day, it constantly feels as if the sunset is just "an hour or so" away. But after working long days well into the summer evenings, it's nice to have the days come to an end a little earlier now. I suppose that's what winter does though; it forces us to slow down. We simply can't do as much as we could 6 months ago. It's the time of year for rest and renewal. It's the time of year for spending time with family and friends.
Like holiday shopping catalogs, the seed catalogs seem to come earlier and earlier every year. There is already a stack of them sitting in my mailbox in the farm office. Lots of folks love looking at the beautiful photos and possibilities for next year as soon as they can. But personally, I'd rather not look at them until after the New Year; there will be plenty of time in January for leafing through the catalogs and planning for next season. This time of year, our greenhouses serve as our storage place for onions, shallots and winter squash. It's hard to imagine, but in just 3 short months, the greenhouses will begin filling up with thousands of new seedlings, once again starting the cycle for another year. But between now and then, we farmers will take our rest so we can be ready to get back at it next spring... it'll be here before we know it! Enjoy your winter and we'll see you in June!