This time of year is one of dormancy for many including our pastures, certain crops and much of the foliage and fauna around us. But while they slumber, our team is still plenty busy behind the scenes keeping things running smoothly while taking time to refresh and refine various processes and plan ahead for spring. Here’s what we’ve been up to this winter:
At the highest level I’ve been helping to plan the operating budget for 2026. The budget is important in many ways in that it paces and steers us when making weekly and monthly decisions. Ultimately, the budget building process helps to give us direction for the coming year. Ann and I, with help from others, have also been busy recruiting, interviewing, and discussing various candidates for the several posted positions we have open.
In the pastures Mac, Coulter, and I are busy doing daily animal husbandry chores. While all our animals are still out on pasture, they sometimes require extra attention in the coldest of weather. The pigs and poultry still need some daily grain to supplement. We often have to carry water this time of year when the surface water lines have been drained. Then on the coldest days the poultry need to have windbreaks lowered while the pigs get some extra hay to both eat and nest in. The cattle and sheep are doing some combination of grazing stockpiled pastures (not grazed in the fall but saved up for winter) and eating hay. And like the pigs, they get some extra hay on the coldest days (more food to digest generates more body heat).
Emery and I are busy tweaking the crop growing plans for the upcoming season based on existing customer feedback, potential new customer interest, and things we have learned since last year. We are also in the middle of ordering seed and supplies and believe it or not, it’s time to start sowing the first transplant seeds in the greenhouse in the next week or so!
As we speak, I’m working on building a new farrowing hut. It’s basically a fancy portable country cabin for our single pig mom. Our newest gilt is fixing to become a sow any day now. (Gilt is a young female pig, sow is what we call them after they have had kiddos).
During these slower months, I have been spending time refreshing our farm store and getting our software and team ready for the Winter/Spring CSA season. We are busy washing and preparing storage crops like potatoes, winter squash, and carrots, stocking up on meat products for the months ahead, and even cooking up a few ideas for new pantry items that might make an appearance in 2026. This time of year gives us the space to prepare so everything runs smoothly when CSA picks up again.
On a daily basis, we are packing and boxing customer orders and loading them onto everyone’s favorite delivery driver Erin’s van, as well as working closely with our meat team to ship meats all across the country. I am also working to help members navigate our software and always looking for ways to make the experience on our website easier and more enjoyable. We are preparing our team for food safety check-ins and continuing to improve cleanliness and organization around the farm. While winter may look calm from the outside, it is full of steady work and excitement as we get ready for the seasons ahead.
Winter feeding is my big task right now. Every morning we have to break the ice to make sure the animals are able to drink and in the afternoon we check back to make sure they all have enough water. We watch for any signs of dehydration based on how aggressively they’re drinking. Luckily we haven’t had any issues with that but especially this time of year it’s important to check.
Since the sheep aren’t grazing like they usually do we make sure they’ve got plenty of hay. We use the big bales we gathered up in the summer and peel off layers of it, like a giant cinnamon roll for them to eat.
We also have to line up our butcher processing days way in advance so we’ve been scheduling all that too. New pullets are also on their way to us and I make sure to get the right feed on hand for them when they arrive.
This is also the season for equipment repair. Our electric netting often gets torn so we’ve been working on fixing those to avoid buying new ones. There’s always plenty to do, even during the “slower” seasons!
The first thing that our production team has been occupied with has been our winter crops in high tunnels. We are continuing with our normal greens and lettuces but also doing some kale and collard greens. Everything grows much slower in the winter so we have to plant everything far in advance to make sure we have all of the produce we need.
We are also growing crops like spinach and kale outside in beds that we won’t harvest in the winter but will be ready and abundant in spring. We also have flowers sown and growing in the greenhouse for early spring bouquets with some new varieties we want to try.
Lastly, this time of year is a great time to tidy things up and get well organized before summer production starts.
We’ve been wrapping up all of our end of year numbers to close out 2025. That entails reviewing how many CSA shares were packed, how many orders were fulfilled, how many meat boxes were shipped, how many home deliveries were completed, how many farmers markets we attended, how many products were harvested, how many trips to the butcher were made, etc. In tandem we’ve been setting up processes for 2026 including the budget, donations, the number of CSA members the farm has capacity to provide for, the number of employees needed, what farmers markets to attend, and more.
As sales and production on the farm both grow, we created two new positions to fill with individuals who will be working in sales, fulfillment, and marketing. We’ll be on-boarding and training and welcoming them to our team!
Winter/Spring CSA season kicks off this week and we have a good amount of year-round members. We are thrilled to grow good food for them, and think of them as part of our food and farming family.
P.S. Here’s something new coming in 2026: we have some improvements underway for our website that will allow it to be easier and more intuitive to use, faster loading, and lovely to view on mobile or tablet! We can’t wait and we’re excited for you to see it too.