What Do You Do In The Winter?
Every year since we've been farming at least 10 people ask, "What do you do in the winter with all that down time?"
Every year I answer the same, "Sit in front of the TV, watch Oprah and eat bon bons."
The 'winter' doesn't start for us until December. Markets aren't finished until the end of October. In November we pick up the pieces of what's been left behind and ignored for the entire spring and summer. We mow the lawn for the first time, for example. We put away the 50 or so hoses that feed our gardens. We plant garlic. We plant tulips. We clean up all the messes we've left behind all summer long. We chop down overgrown trees, bushes and weeds. November is as crazy as June.
December rolls in and we often times give ourselves three or four minutes a day off. We raise livestock, not just tomatoes. In the summer, livestock feeds itself on pasture. In the winter, we roll in bales of hay. All the time. They eat fast.
The seed catalogs arrive in early January and it frightens us into creating a business plan for the coming season. We assess last year's crop profits. We pick and choose the items and varieties we want to sell in the upcoming season. We feed the animals. over and over again.
February has now arrived and we start talking with other farmers. We talk about how to sell goods to one another's customers. How to best distribute food. We go to farmer's market planning meetings. over and over again. We scramble to figure out where we'll house 150 hens, how we'll brood 1000 broilers at a time and how we'll keep up with the endless demand for lamb chops. And we need another hoophouse. We have to plan to build it in March. Oh and we still feed those sheep and chickens in the barnyard.
March brings seed starting and emergency set up of greenhouses, buildings and what not. Because we've spent out winter eating bon bons and watching TV - we're just never ready.
