2015 Farm Forecast

Woooho! This winter has been surprisingly busy! Every winter, there comes a day (usually in early to mid January) that I finally feel like I finally hit winter; eventually I get bored relaxing and antsy to farm again. I find time to knit and read DURING the day (not just before bedtime)! It's a wondrous feeling that happens once a year for a few months. But between building the greenhouse, moving farms, ordering seeds, crop planning and trying to keep the house in order, that feeling only hit me about last week! So what did I do these last couple weeks in my yearly winter down time? I cooked six new recipes in the last week, I baked (successfully! twice!), I finished my organic certification application one month early, I started moving things to the new farm and I am about to dabble in cheesemaking. Almost all my to-dos for this month and the next are finished. Except the dreaded greenhouse heater... Yes the greenhouse is fully enclosed but there is only three weeks left until I begin seeding and the heater must be installed before then. It'll happen- I'm not worried :)

Few updates since the last time I wrote:

After a bit of market research and extensive conversations with my business consultant brother, I have decided to experiment with a new CSA share size for 2015: personal sized! I know there are a lot of single people or couples out there who just can't eat as many vegetables as I give in a small share so I wanted to offer this smaller option for those folks who want to support a local farm but also not feel like they are drowning in produce. The personal share size will be about 1/2 to 2/3 of a small share depending on the week (it'll even come in its own tiny CSA box!). There will be less items (5-8 in the personal vs. 8-12 in the small/full share) overall but in quantities that are enough for cooking a single or double sized meal. I am offering a very limited amount of these so if you know you want to sign up, do it NOW! And, if you are signed up or planning to sign up for a personal share, PLEASE give me feedback throughout the season as not a lot of other farms offer this size so I have very little frame of reference if I am giving too much or too little. It's one big/little experiment! But I am very hopeful this will be a popular option in the years to come.

2015 Farm Events are happening! Check out the events page here: http://winterfellacres.com/events

We will be having a high summer farm tour and tomato tasting and an end of season potluck just for CSA members. It'll be great fun and I hope to see everyone there.

Organic Pork Quarters, Halves and Wholes and Egg Shares will be available in 2015!

Although moving Winterfell to a new farm location has been a lot of work, I feel so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to be farming on already certified organic land and very close to our home. Landowners Deanne and Jamie run an organic, grass-fed (yes completely grain-free!) dairy on 100+ acres along with chickens, goats and pigs. So working in conjunction with them, we will have organic pork quarters, halves and wholes available in 2015. We might also have some beef and a limited number of eggs shares available. More information will be coming this spring on how to sign up for these awesome add-ons to your vegetable share.

Lastly, I forgot to mention another thing I love about winter: weightlifting! During the winter I have more time to coach, teach yoga and workout 5+ times/week at Travis and I's gym, CrossFit Atavus. Here are some awesome fish eye lens pictures of me split jerking 68kg taken by my amazing friend, Rebecca Gallagher. I was so happy after because (I know this is a language not many people speak) this is 3 kilos below my 1RM clean and jerk!