Greetings from the never-ending winter of 2013!
T.S. Eliot’s famous first lines of “The Waste Land”–“April is the cruelest month”–were meant to convey the injustice of plants being roused from their winter hibernation by the cruel warmth and sun of spring. From the perspective of dormant roots underground, “Winter kept us warm, covering / Earth in forgetful snow, feeding / a little life with dried tubers.” This April has been especially cruel to this poor farmer, but not because the sun has been luring me from my winter hibernation or coaxing cozy shoots from the dirt. The continual snow hasn’t been helping me forget the work that has to be done–it only covers up the work I love to do!
Finally, though, it looks like spring has arrived and we’re about to begin calling seeds and plants out of their long, long winter’s rest. All of the work that I usually tackle in April is about to begin, along with the full force of May’s planting and weeding. Thankfully, our farm hand Jeremy will be arriving this weekend as the work load picks up.
I’m trying to not compare this spring with that of last year, which was preposterously early. While we were planting out seeds in March of last year, I’ll be lucky to get anything in the ground in April this year. That said, the growing season this year is certainly in no peril. We will still be planting all the carrots, tomatoes, and everything else that we would have with a perfect spring–it just might be a week or two late getting to you.
As of this point, I’m not ready to commit to a starting date for CSA delivery. Too much depends on the weather this May. With enough warmth and sun, we might forget just how long this winter dragged on.
Thanks to all of our members, new and returning, for helping us to sell all of our CSA shares this year! We appreciate your support and encouragement as we prepare to kick off this season, and we hope you enjoy the year. I’ll write again in a few weeks, when snow is a distant memory.
Fox & Fawn Farm 