It is Christmas today according to both the Christian religious calendar and the capitalist economic calendar and that means for many people around the world, a day off. But it is not a day off for the Boulder belt farmers. We did try to take the day off, we really did. I even postponed the Winter Share pick ups that should have happened this week to Feb 5/7th. But the weather has dictated that we work today, at least for a few hours harvesting and washing rutabagas, carrots, parsnips and golden ball turnips for the Winter share pick up that will happen next Thursday January 3rd. This is because we are now under a winter storm warning that predicts we will get at least 6" of snow tomorrow. A Boxing Day Storm. And 6"+ of snow means it will be quite difficult to harvest anything and about impossible to get at the root crops. And the mice and voles will get quite active under all the snow cover and will likely start eating the roots, especially the rutabagas and turnips
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| Rainbow carrots, They may not look like much now but they clean up nicely |
So this morning we dug and pulled a lot of roots out of partially frozen earth and under very frozen and quite stiff row covers (with about 1/2 the rocks stuck firmly in place)
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| Freshly Pulled Golden ball Turnips |
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| The Chickens get a hoophouse to get through the storm. This will keep the snow and wind off and hopefully the will be happy. |
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| Golden Turnips under a very frozen cover |
The roots will be topped, we will save the greens for the laying hens (that's right we have layer again after a 9 year absence) so they can have greens even though there is snow on the ground covering up everything. Than they will be washed and put in the fridge for safe keeping.
Merry Christmas!
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