What a first season for us! Though there haven’t been sufficient blog posts to cover it all, this 2011 season has been filled with successes and excitement. Thank you to everyone for their support, encouragement, feedback, and help. Our last market day of the year was November 26th, but we will remain busy. (We had planned to be at market on December 3rd but thought I was in labor so we missed it! Turns out that as of this writing, I am still pregnant. Lots of false labor with this little one, apparently.) For those of you who didn’t know I was expecting, we’re delighted to share with you that there is another member of our family waiting to meet everyone. I shared the news with everyone at market this season through my t-shirt:

If it’s not clear, my shirt says “I’m growing more than just vegetables.”

Many people ask what we will do over the winter. We have decided not to push production out of our greenhouse this winter, focusing instead on needed infrastructure in order to start next season as well equipped as we can. Here’s a peek at some projects that will keep us occupied until the greenhouse starts up full swing again beginning the first of February.

Our walk in cooler is finally getting the attention it needs in order to be complete. The roof is under construction this week, along with its second layer of insulation and siding, followed by metal roofing and staining the wood. This will results in a good looking, waterproof, and well insulated cooler. (We’re using board and batten siding, milled from trees here on the farm.)

A new greenhouse looms large on the project list. This one will be bigger than our current one. Our seed starting greenhouse will also need maintenance before February. The deer fence has been compromised recently, leading to the loss of a lot of greens, broccoli, etc. See the damage below? Heartbreaking. We will be adding a strand of electric fence to the perimeter.

The deer have also started nibbling on the orchard. Who can blame them? There isn’t much attractive greenery in the non-cultivated world right now, while our farm is still quite lush from a deer’s perspective. (Cover crop is not so palatable for us humans, but irresistible for those ungulates; see below.)

The chicken fence also needs work in order to prevent the chickens from eating all the greens that we are intending for human consumers. Lastly, there’s this detail still missing from our house called insulation, and a newborn awaits our attention very soon. So we will take this opportunity to tighten up our house, making it warmer for all of us and especially the little one still in my belly.

Thanks again for supporting  a new business, a small family farm, and organically grown food!  Please stay in touch, feel free to ask questions, request crops for 2012, and let us know how you are doing. (And yes, news of our baby will be posted here as soon as we are able.)

I’ll close with some recent images of our market stand and of things still growing here on the farm. (And – our hens are still laying some eggs, so we have eggs available for pick-up here on the farm. Call in advance to be sure we are home and have some available.)