Incredibly hardy lettuces!

This picture was taken today of some of the lettuces growing in the hoophouse at the farm.

I decided to experiment and followed Elliot Coleman's recommendation of using a basic plastic hoophouse with row cover inside the hoophouse directly over the lettuces - a double barrier against the elements. What is truly amazing is that this year we have had a really hard Winter already with zub-zero temperatures for almost a month. I don't think I would have even considered attempting to overwinter lettuces if I had anticipated this weather. Even more amazing is that these plants have survived after the hoophouse collapsed on top of them too (see previous post)!

Maybe they will make it?!

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snow, snow and more snow!

Since my last post we had two more snow storms! Yep, one the day before christmas and then one the day after - phew! This is what you can see at the farm - absolutely nothing!
Except for a couple of hoops barely peeping out above the snow - hard to believe that anything could survive underneath all this snow, especially since there has been rain and freezing temperatures so the snow is frozen solid, you just walk on the top of it now, when these photos were taken you sunk down to your knees!Below is what the hoophouse looked like when we arrived - pretty sad!

It was the sides that had collapsed inward from all the weight - it took a lot of digging:This is what it looked like inside.............you can see the snow weighing down the sides:Today (January 2nd) we replaced all the broken hoops and added a wooden beam across the top with some extra wooden supports in the hope that this will be enough to withstand another snow storm. I didn't take any pictures because I just wanted to get it done - my fingers and toes and nose were frozen! It is no fun doing work like that in zero degree weather. To show how cold it was one of the pipes that was broken had a lump of mud frozen to it. I tried to get it off as we needed to reuse this specific pipe - I couldn't, it was frozen solid!

Not sure that I like farming in the Winter. Roll on Spring! :o)

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