January News

Happy New Year to All,

Icicles hang from the barn door and the chickens huddle close together on their roosts. The cold weather brings a hardiness to our farm that, despite my squawking about chapped lips and cold toes, I consider a rite of passage. There is a little victory in standing up to this weather, chipping ice out of the water buckets and bearing our cheeks to the blasting wind while shoveling snow. And then there is the anticipation of the lunchtime stew made over our office woodstove. Frozen tomatoes set aside from summer's harvest, roasted potatoes and onions from the root cellar – winter blesses us with the mental space to linger over what we preserved in haste last year. Strawberry jam, carrots stored among black walnut leaves to preserve their freshness, and the last of the maple syrup. There is much to do this time of year, and as the sunrises and sunsets start to stretch out again we feel the greatest anticipation of all – seedlings!

The Leaf Drop: Our autumn ended on a high note. Every November we invite local landscapers and homeowners to bring truckloads of leaves raked off yards to our farm – a critical thank you gift to our soil after a long season of its hard work. These leaves are the “organic” deposit into our soil’s nutrient bank that allows The Hickories to continue to run without reliance on chemical fertilizers. The leaves decompose a bit during the winter and recharge the soil for the next season’s harvest. For all the crops we take from the land, we must return an equal amount of organic material to the soil in order to keep Nature’s balance scales even – true sustainability. Too much compost and soil overflows, making pollution, too little and soil starves.

CSA Expanding – Sign up for the CSA Waitlist on our Website: December and January have been spent in intensive planning for next season. Our number of CSA families will grow a great deal – and we are readying ourselves for the challenge: bigger and more detailed crop plans, online sign-ups, grant applications, scouring the greenhouses, attending seminars and workshops, and pouring over seed catalogs. These are the reading months too, and I am currently filling notebooks with information about organic peach orchard management and intensive grazing systems. Our trusty office wood stove, salvaged from the town's garbage dump, is good company these days.

The invitations for the 2009 Summer CSA Shares will start to go out in February, so make sure you have signed up for the waitlist on our website and be sure to keep an eye out for our email – slots fill quickly.

Fresh Eggs from The Hickories are now being sold at Ancona’s Market: We have been so pleased with the warm and thoughtful reception our farm has received at Ancona’s. It is encouraging to see a local family grocery store and local family farm working together in this community. This winter and spring we are selling fresh eggs (as in REALLY fresh) from our hens at Ancona’s. Look for them and make yourself a special weekend locavore omelette! Our little Ameraucana chicks from last summer are laying now, too, so don’t be surprised to find one of their lovely blue eggs in your Ancona’s dozen!

Good luck with your resolutions!

Best,
Dina Brewster