Winter CSA week 1; Summer temps (and veggies) in November?!

  • Labneh & Pita tasting Saturday (Nov 8) 10am-12pm in the farm store. Come sample some of Shovel & Spoon’s delicious products, now available at Sweetland unless Norah has eaten them all!
  • Holiday Dessert from Piper Brook Sweets. Available for pre-order here until November 19, pick up at Sweetland Nov 23 & 25.
  • Help Feed Our Neighbors in Need. We are raising money for Willing Hands to donate Winter CSA Shares to area food pantries. With food insecurity rising due to uncertainty and cuts to the SNAP program, donations of fresh, healthy food are more needed than ever. Look for a scan tag in our farm stand to make a donation, and stay tuned for a benefit raffle next week.
  • Use your Winter CSA discount in our Farm Store! All members receive a 4% discount in the store in November & December. Enter your phone number at checkout to apply to all purchases. Ask a crew member or call (802) 649-6250 if you need help.

Weekly Update; Summer temps (and veggies) in November?!

There has been a solid layer of ice on the puddles most mornings this week, but in our greenhouses it still feels like summer. Until this year we have never had heat in our high tunnels and rarely turned it on in our propagation house once the seedlings were launched, due to the environmental and monetary costs of the propane heaters. But starting this fall all of our tunnels are heated with our new wood-fired biomass burner! We purchased the state-of-the-art boiler with the help of a USDA Wood Innovations Program grant, and spent the spring and summer installing, learning about, and testing the unit. Now, with cold weather settling in, we are delighted to have winter kale growing faster than ever, spinach and scallions sizing up, and tomatoes (yes, tomatoes in November!) ripening on the vines. We’ve also moved our wash-pack setup into the propagation house, so plunging hands into cold water tubs on harvest mornings is about 100 times more bearable.

We are very excited to see how far we can take this new sustainable heat source in our winter growing. The boiler burns wood chips sourced from local logging jobs and uses some of its own heat to pre-dry them using forced hot air. The rest of the heat is stored in the form of hot water, which is then circulated through insulated pipes to each of the greenhouses. The electrostatic precipitator removes particulates from the exhaust, and the wood ash amends our compost piles that feed the soil in the veggie fields. Winter production adds new challenges and requires new systems, and we are working out the kinks as we go. In December we will attend a 2-day conference on winter greenhouse production, and we’re excited to learn from extension agents and experienced growers and offer our own observations and questions. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy these fossil-fuel-free tomatoes!

Cheers

Norah and the Sweetland Crew

Week 1 Winter Harvest

Apples
Carrots
Celeriac
Garlic
Napa cabbage
Potatoes
Georgia Candy Roaster Squash
Tatsoi
Tomato (from our wood-fired greenhouse!)

What’s Cooking This Week

You can find ingredients for all of these recipes in our farm store! We source meats, dairy, grains, beans, sweets, and more from local and sustainable producers. Don’t forget to use your CSA member discount!