Winter Growing

* Beet greens
* leeks
* endive
* spinach (I grow Space for fall into spring)
* kale (Winterbor, redbor and Red Russian)
* arugula
* tatsoi
* pac choi
* mache
* lettuce – Black Seeded Simpson and Winter Density are my favorites

Collards, mizuna, claytonia and minutina also do well in the winter high tunnel. I don’t have markets for these.

Harvesting slows down drastically in mid December because the days are very short. Ground Hogs Day, February 2, marks the day the sun is again high enough in the sky and are long enough to break dormancy. Growth is slow at first but picks up as the days get longer and warmer.

Young leaves have pliable cell walls that stretch when they freeze. An older leaf has more rigid cell walls that burst. When the cells burst open the leaf wilts and dies. You harvest leaves before they get to this point.

I’ll have 3,000 sq ft of high tunnel space and an undetermined amount of low tunnels this winter. It sounds odd to hear a farmer say “I hate summer” but I do. I won’t be dealing with late blight (have it), grasshoppers, slugs, flea beetles and other pests. I’d spend most of two days shoveling out the sides after a 12″ if we hadn’t bought a snow blower.

Before fall is over I’ll be insulating the north wall of the tunnels. The ground freezes 15″-18″ in on that side. I’m hoping to reduce that by at least 6″. I’ll gain approximately 22 sq ft of growing space by doing this.

We’ve built PVC hoops and tried to nurse them through winter. PVC is no match for 120″ of snow. We moved up to heavier conduit but that’s still no match. From there we went up to 1.66 steel. I never worry about that house. Last year my husband built a tunnel using steel electrical conduit. I watched it carefully for several storms before relaxing. It did very well. The only problem with it was not having the poly on tightly and water from melting snow building up in pockets at ground level. It thawed, pooled and froze many times over the winter. That makes it hard to remove snow adequately. We won’t make that mistake again.

This summer has been a disaster because of 3x the normal amount of rain in the rainiest June on record, ridiculously cold temps (fast, hot fires in the wood stove in July) and now, late blight in one high tunnel. I’ll be glad when this summer is nothing but a horrible memory and I can get back to real work in the high tunnels.