Well we just had a run in with another arctic blast. This one was milder than the last but somehow hit us harder. We managed to keep most of our crops alive and harvestable through it, but we had a little mishap in our kitchen. More on that in a bit.
The featured image above is of our wonderful crops of celery, fennel and lettuce. We harvested all the fennel last week before the freeze and it went into the 15th week of our fall CSA.
We also harvested half of the celery (the bed closest to the colder edge).
We put incandescent (warm) Christmas lights along the paths, covered with two layers of frost fabric and closed the tunnel. This kept everything perfectly fine through the 5 days of below freezing weather. We registered around 13F at the lowest point.
This lettuce, onions and carrots were also covered and made it through.
We harvested this kale hard last week. We left it uncovered. All the little leaves that were left were frost burnt. Same with the Tuscan kale.
The collards and parsley were harvested and left uncovered. They made it through.
We also managed to save this beautiful crop of pea shoots and kept lots of other plants alive!
Now for the bad part… A pipe busted right in the middle of our kitchen ceiling. It soaked through multiple panels of drywall, started raining on everything in our kitchen and then the drywall panels busted open and fell, sending an explosion of both wet and dry insulation all over the place.
The culprit.
We had a water mitigation company come out with a moisture meter and rip out everything that got wet: most of the drywall in the kitchen and our cabinet system and sink. Our kitchen was entirely gutted.
Turns out, the framing of the load bearing wall where our cabinets were was almost completely compromised by termites and needs to be rebuilt (let me know if you know a good contractor).
Whew, I’ve got my work cut out for me. First and foremost, I’m setting up an outdoor kitchen area so we can make ourselves respectable meals while we rebuild.
And Ara’s about to be 37 weeks pregnant!
We’re expecting our baby boy soon and have to get our house ready for him.
Let’s go!
Never in my wildest dreams did I think organic green veggies and great produce would make a difference in my health. I became a CSA member and can see and feel the difference. I’ve learned to prepare and eat what is in season. It’s fun putting different veggies together in stir fry’s. Thank you Jim & Ara for your tireless work on the farm.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Vicki! I will post on the testimonials page 🤠