Oh my, how time flies! Hard to believe that we have arrived at the fifth box already. Today marks the half-way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. January 31st is typically the day modern pagans celebrate the Gaelic festival, Imbolc, which is held to celebrate this transition into spring. Because I’m a writer, I’m extraordinarily interested in etymology, which is the study and history of words and their origin. Imbolc comes from the Old Irish i mbolg which means “in the belly”. This refers to the pregnancy of ewes or ewe’s milk. In agriculture, ewes and does are bred in the fall and as the snow falls and the weather turns cold, their bellies grow until spring when they birth onto the warm ground. For farmers, spring brings birth, renewal, warmth, growth, celebration—everything we farmers love.
I’m happy to say goodbye to January today. January is the hardest month for me personally. While it invites refuge and introspection, I find it becomes too dark and too deep for me. Our plates of food become repetitive—kale, squash, roots and protein. By this time of the year, I’m ready for some new vegetables. How do you spice up your dinner plates during this time of year? Do you celebrate the half-way point between winter and spring? We do. I joy in this transition from winter to spring, especially as the sun comes back for longer stretches of time. I know then that warmth is not far away. And too, in February, the plants start growing again. That’s a reason to celebrate, if anything. We also begin sorting seeds, planting seeds, planning. It is a all a good time. As William C. Bryant has written, “the February sunshine steeps your boughs and tints the buds and swells the leaves within.” Or William Blake, “”In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.” With that, embrace your February and enjoy your box!
P.S. We raised enough money to purchase the hoophouse and plastic! Thank you everyone who contributed. You are all so wonderfully supportive and amazing!
P.P.S. Save the Date for our February 17th Winter CSA brunch. This is a special event on our farm just for CSA members. The meal is made entirely of Barking Moon vegetables and local meat. We eat in our greenhouse together while enjoying music and sun (hopefully!). Fulcrum Dining will be catering the event. More details to come. We hope many of you can come.
In Your Boxes:
- 4# Carrots
- 2# Yellow Onions
- 3 ea Sweet Dumpling squash
- 1/2# Salad Mix
- 4# Yellow Finn Potatoes
- 3/4# Braising Mix (Kales are not growing right now, but they will start soon…we hope!)
- 1# Black Beans
- 1# Beets
- Burdock Root, also know as Gobo: This may be new to some people, so I’m sending you some links for more reading on what this is and how to prepare it. Serious Eats Burdock & Burdock recipes & this looks amazing: Braised Beef & Burdock
- 3 ea garlic
- Red Savoyed Cabbage
RECIPES FOR YOUR CSA BOX: Jan31Recipes
Have a great two weeks,
M, J, E & A
This was taken at last fall’s Farm to Fork event at our satellite farm. We are standing in our winter/fall crops, which you’ve been eating all winter!
Glad to hear that you raised enough to purchase the hoop house and plastic! I hope you put out the word on when you will be needing the help to pull the plastic. It will be so fulfilling to help with that.
I had to chuckle about your writing about the monotony of eating kale, roots, squash and protein. I try to only use the veggies in the CSA box in my meal planning, mostly because I strive to eat seasonally, and I must admit that I sometimes run out of ideas, or find that I long for a different flavor. I think my husband will rebel if I make stuffed cabbage again.
Melissa, I enjoy your writing so much. Thank you for sharing the story about this time of year. I had never heard it before, and it makes sense since the days are noticeably longer and I find myself readying for spring.