Winter 2016 at Soil Start Farm
by Anna Cassell
Last week, after a month of gradually decreasing temps and some cold rain, a chill — and the first few flakes of snow — settled over New York City. Soil Start Farm is ready for the winter; cooperators, new apprentices and volunteers have been working to put our little farm to sleep for the season.
For a few weeks now, we’ve been saying goodbye to the seasonal crops. We hung fresh herbs up to dry in the shed, and stray lettuce plants from the greenhouse found indoor homes with some of our coop members. We uprooted the summer crops, especially our many rows of tomatoes.
Once the crops were gone, we saw some rows had long, feathery tangles of mugwort roots clinging to the soil, and worked hard to pull them out. They’re intricate and beautiful, but so tenacious!
Before the frost hit, we also made sure to plant a few half-rows of garlic seed. They’ll lie dormant under a bed of compost this winter, and in spring we’ll plant other crops, like tomatoes, next to them. Hearty, pungent garlic repels pests that like to feed on more delicate vegetables.
We gave the kale plants, Asian greens, chard and artichokes some extra care to help them stand up to the brisk weather that’s coming. They’ll sleep on beds of compost and straw this winter. For blankets, we unrolled swaths of white “Re-may” fabric over top of the rows and secured them down with heavy objects from around the farm. We’ll see them next season. And we hope to see you too!
Earth Matter is always grateful for our wonderful volunteers. If you’d like to find out about what it would take for you to become a 2017 farm cooperator, please contact us at soilstartfarm@earthmatter.org.