The farm is pretty quiet right now and that's a breath of fresh air after the whirlwind year we’ve had. The fields are routinely checked while the last of the tunnel beds are planted and prepared. This is the one point where we feel all caught up with the crops, which is good because most of us have mile-long holiday to-do lists we haven’t touched.

Last week was a big push to plant ranunculus corms along with anemone, poppies, snapdragons, and other spring favorites. After that major planting, it was unanimous that Tunnel 5 is our current favorite. There’s lots of life tucked in there and beautiful potential for 2022. We will be making a plan to fill last-minute spots in the bottom three tunnels and then cover the remaining beds to reassemble the fields.

If we get all this done, it means the week of Christmas can be filled with tabled “winter projects” like cleaning and inventorying tools. The field mum rootstock has been dug for cold storage until January ship and the crew has been busy keeping inventory numbers updated and monitoring the roots. We can’t wait to dig into the tunnel crop next week and get the final 2021 plants out of the ground.

The last of the holiday greens are being transformed into wreaths, swags, and greenery sleeves to adorn homes. Harleigh is spending the final days of our Holiday Market in the barn, listening to festive tunes and helping those who pop in to select the perfect gifts. I absolutely loved having a Christmas store in the backyard - there isn’t anything that can make me feel the holiday magic quite like walking into that barn for a few minutes. This was one of our favorite things this season and we are already gearing up for how to make it even better next year.

We are reviewing blueprints on the new farm shop and hopefully will be pulling permits and breaking ground in the not-so-distant future. It’s a big project of ours for 2022 and we’re excited to see action on it at the beginning of the year. While I’ve gotten used to living amongst construction (the house is still under remodel with no finished bathroom), the crew has not. We are doing our best to plan what workdays will be like in the throes of building the new shop and are preparing as much as we can for tight confines this winter and spring. It’s going to be a lot.

Don’t ask about the FedEx house - it’s still not operational. While I have some really smart and dedicated people working on it, talking about those frustrations is a bit too much to handle right now. As we all make huge efforts to keep our warm crops on track, I’m thankful we are a bunch of Wonder Women.

The farm is tired, happy, but tired. We are all really excited about the upcoming holidays and a little time to downshift work so we can upshift our focus on our friends and family. We are comparing reviews on fuzzy socks and swapping family-favorite recipes while packing orders and watering plants. The days may be cold, but the holiday spirit of the farm keeps us warm.

- xoxo, Jess