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You’d think that winter would be a slower, more relaxed, season for a farmer, but that’s not the case around Love ‘n Fresh. Never a dull moment around here, especially in January and February as we meet with a bevy of brides to collaborate on their wedding designs. But today, like everyone else on the East Coast, I’m snowed in yet again. It’s a great excuse to catch up on the newsletter/blog, writing between breaks from shoveling and boiling the kettle for tea.

I’ve been painfully joking with friends that spring has been canceled this year. It certainly feels like that at the moment. After a record-breaking summer of rainfall in 2013, we’re now hot and heavy on the heels of breaking another precipitation record. As of this morning (before another 8 or so additional inches of snow fell), we were at a total 52.1 inches of snow, making it the 5th snowiest winter since they started keeping track of these things. By tonight, we’ll probably be in the 4th place position. Another storm coming on Saturday will probably bump us to third. And given that it’s only mid-February and there’s no signs of a thaw in the forecast, I bet we topple a few more records along the way. This current storm is the fourth of the season to hit us with more than six inches at once (way more than six inches!) and no other winter in Philadelphia has ever done that. Oh joy!

Sure, we can all complain about the weather for hours, though I personally find snow shoveling invigorating and a good workout! (No, I will not come dig you out.) But it has made farming challenging. Heavy snow on the hoophouse and greenhouse can cause the structures to collapse. Any seasoned farmer can tell you tales of getting up at 3 AM to go sweep the snow off their plastic houses for fear of collapse. Unfortunately, I don’t live at the farm. Instead, it’s several miles away on treacherous roads the city has failed to plow even once this winter. Oh the irony that we’re an urban farm but probably have worse roads than a lot of rural farms! It takes a few days for the road to the farm to become passable again after each storm. It doesn’t help that it’s on a very steep hill. I’ve been joking that I need a snowmobile. Today I started looking on Craigslist for one.

I have to hike into the field across the snow drifts since there’s no way my van is making it up the snow-covered farm lane. I’m always teary-eyed when I see the hoop house standing tall still, thankful that I had the foresight to put up the tall Gothic style that sheds snow more easily.
I immediately go to the walk-in cooler that we’ve turned into a large germination chamber (instead of heating the whole greenhouse to start seeds, we’re using the insulated cooler to get things started, saving on about a month of heating the greenhouse with expensive propane). I’m always relieved when I open the door and see the grow lights are still on. With all the bad snow storms, we’ve been losing power around here regularly, and I’m constantly having nightmares about the germination chamber going dark and cold, killing all the tender seedlings before I can get to them again. Thankfully this has not happened yet.
We’re firing up the greenhouse next week because my nerves can’t take this anymore. The seedlings are doing wonderfully well in their cozy bright chamber though. Already up and thriving are agrostema, scabiosa, cerinthe, feverfew, stock, poppies, purple kale, tweedia, eucalyptus, dusty miller, gypsophila, buplerum, dianthus, carnations, snapdragons, and more.

After I’ve watered the seedlings and taken notes on their growth, I tromp through the snow down to the hoop house at the bottom of the field. Inside is always paradise in the heart of winter. It’s warm and still, the snow piled up outside around the walls, creating a thick insulation. The hoop house is unheated (that’s the difference between a hoop house and a greenhouse) but the thermal gain every day is significant when the sun is out. In fact, on sunny days, I need to open the doors wide to vent for a bit, it’s so hot and steamy inside.

The hoop house is full of anemones and ranunculus that are thriving, despite Mother Nature’s cruel temperament this winter. Their healthy robust green leaves give me such hope for spring, whenever it may come! The anemones were just putting up their first buds yesterday when I checked on them. I’m sure there will be blooms my next trip in!!
Also gathering steam in the hoop house are the sweet peas that I sowed directly into the ground in the fall and now are germinating as they sense it’s the right time. They’re about three inches tall at the moment and tough as nails, having been born in the winter’s chill rather than a hot greenhouse. There are also some fragrant stock seedlings doing their best to make a show of growth. They’ve been the least happiest with the cold and might not make for a good crop this year.

After checking on the hoop house, I head over to the low tunnels outside in the field, sheltering thousands more ranunculus and anemones. These are a little hard to check on so I only do so about every ten day. I dig the snow off the edges of the plastic in order to lift it up. Then I kneel in the snow and mud to get my head under and say hello to these champions. They haven’t flinched once! They’re growing just as well as the ones in the more sheltered hoop house, maybe even better. The low tunnels, made of bent metal electrical conduit and greenhouse plastic, have held up incredibly well this year to the snow and the bad wind storms we had earlier in December. These are definitely the ticket to growing lots of early spring crops without the huge investment in a large hoop house.

After tucking the low tunnels back in and shoveling the snow back onto the plastic edges to seal them up, I usually go kick around the perennials to see what new damage the deer have done. It’s a desperate year for the deer, and they’ve even taken to eating my beloved hellebores!
One final survey of the field and structures and I’m hiking back out to my van, fingers freezing and heart happy. Then it’s back to the office to meet with clients and work on the ever-present stack of wedding proposals.
Check out this blog post from this time last year to see how things were growing in the greenhouse. It’s fun to look back and compare, a definite perk of keeping a good blog. I’ll start up the official “Greenhouse Walk” series again next week when we fire up the greenhouse.
xo