Come the time when we have to start thinking about the farm going into hibernation, the tomato trellises are long gone and storage crops like celeriac, onions, cabbages, and root vegetables are piling high in the walk-in coolers.  There are subtle changes to be noticed on the farm, like the slow disappearance of greenhouse seedlings that are normally ready to be transplanted out into the fields; and there are other signs that are hard to miss, like a foot of snow in October.  The shorter days, almost nightly frosts, and the fact that the chickens sleep in on cold mornings, are more of the gentle reminders to our still summer-crazed minds that it’s getting to be that time of year again:  time to shift into a lower gear, time for us to buckle down and tuck in the farm for winter.

I think this is different for everyone involved with farming, but for me, the start of the whole process is marked by the blanketing of the strawberry plants with row cover (a light fabric that helps protect the plants from damage by the cold).  Then a rhythm begins: bed after bed the fields are stripped of weed barrier fabric, irrigation lines are taken up, and any remaining rough plant material is removed and brought to the compost pile.  The hoses and water pumps, mowers and tillers, are all brought in under the cover of the field house.

In The Sylvia Center Children’s Garden–the slice of the farm devoted to farm, food, and culinary education for kids–the asparagus, raspberries, and rhubarb are given their last feeding of nutrient-rich compost and surrounded with straw mulch to protect the soil.  Perennial herbs that need a little extra protection over the winter are potted up and brought inside the greenhouse.  Winter greens like lettuces, salad mix, and spinach are seeded and transplanted into the greenhouses. The chicken coop will be moved closer to the barn to avoid daily treks through snow-drifted fields to do chicken chores.  The scuffle hoes, spades, hay forks, garden rakes, and other hand tools are given their annual spa treatment of rust removal, sharpening, and conditioning.

The farm’s soil gets a spa treatment too.  Out in the fields and in the Children’s Garden, the soil may get spread with compost or seeded with a cover crop.  Winter hardy cover crops such as rye, wheat, and vetch are planted with no intent to harvest their biomass, but to instead let them grow and keep the soil ecosystem active during the off-season.  Turning that biomass back into the soil next season will replenish soil nutrients, increase organic matter, and improve the overall health and quality of the soil.  We’ve asked a lot of the soil since the springtime and as we put the farm to rest in the fall, we get to give back.

 
As fall makes room for winter to settle in, our to-do lists guide our time and energy toward end of the season reports, greenhouse work, farm “fix-its” and improvement projects, and planning for the next turning of the seasons.  Meanwhile, we continue to cheat the northeastern cold as the starter greenhouse pumps out microgreens – mustards, cilantro, basil, and mizuna, while the other 6,000 sq ft of protected growing space gives us gorgeous greens.  A little bit of the summer, all winter long.

-Julie Cerny, Farm Education Director for The Sylvia Center