04/01/2026
Wintertime is weird as a vegetable grower. A time when everything slows down, yet it still doesn't feel possible to get caught up. Old tasks of battling the heat get replaced by battling the cold. But there is something satisfying in watching the smoke drift gently from the wood stove. Greenhouses are great on sunny days, but Decembers are often so cloudy and always so short. The wood stove keeps it a balmy 50° on cold, cloudy days, but it's still an oasis in a snowstorm. The warm radiant heat feels nice when you come inside, arms full of logs.
I'm really looking forward to 2026. The crop plan is better, the varieties are more dialed in. I have an actual schedule of when to plant what and when. It feels less overwhelming knowing the work is staged. Imagining prepping all 50 of my beds is paralyzing, but prepping 10? A nice afternoon. The work will come in stages- prepping beds here, transplanting there, irrigate. Repeat until the startup is done. Transition to the good part- snacking on cherry tomatoes when I'm supposed to be trellising, slicing open a cucumber and salting it with the shaker I stole from home, stir frying some zucchini on the propane burner meant for the popcorn kettle...
In years past, I've set big goals. Do this many tomato plants. Harvest that much radish. Produce this much a month. Sell that amount at market. Grow the CSA x% This year I think it's time to have only one goal: accomplish the tasks necessary, in their time, and give the rest to God and Nature. Instead of all the things I need to do, focus on one. Do whatever comes next. I've found it helpful to start using a whiteboard to write out tasks in different priority buckets. Erase them as they're complete. If the board isn't blank at days end, then I've already got a head start in figuring out what gets done tomorrow. And in a weird way, that is more peaceful than a blank board and open ended options. This year, I'll be focused on one thing: do the next right thing.
