Here it is, the Holidays are upon us and the CD player is awash with the likes of the Cambridge Choir, Dean Martin and Tommy Emmanuel regaling with seasonal hits. The winter wonderland we hoped for came, and with a vengeance last Friday and everybody in a 10-mile radius of the farm was without power for 2 days. As luck would have it, the farm survived without ever a flicker or power surge. The propagation house motored along quite comfortably through the storm. Mother and I were pleased to be holed up in the house with lights and a woodstove, and never even had to consider firing up the generators. Perhaps it’s time to buy a lottery ticket…

Despite the recent weather, there was plenty to do this fall, and it was a long fall. We are about finishing up packing out the root crops this month before we will begin to eyeball the upcoming greenhouse season. We had a very benevolent fall (thank you, climate change) that allowed us to get things cleaned up, serviced, and put away before the snow came. All in very comfortable temperatures. That said, the summer was made very difficult by a drought that went unabated from the time the snow went away in the spring until mid-September. (No thank you, climate change!) This resulted in some serious crop shortfalls where we were unable to move water around. The other most challenging part of the year was a shortage of help, we were off by a man and a half for the whole growing season. The upside was the crew we had were champs, worked steadily and in in harmony. A benchmark of any good season is the workplace being drama free, and our field crew was a mix of men and women of varying ages. Sarah and Anne had pretty much a returning greenhouse crew although a round of illness went through them in the later spring. Allie anchored the farmstand with some returnees with experience and some great kids. The kitchen crew always seemed pretty happy the few times I went in there, but I need to retrain them to save the broken cookies and scones for me, as I came up empty handed….

As we have all became a little bit more comfortable with the pandemic, it became easier for customers and our retail folks to interact with customers and get the products and information they needed. It also helped reestablish a community connection as the comfort level increased. Jenny continued to deftly engage the CSA community, and we found folks more comfortable shooting the s…t with one another at the greenhouses and farmstand . Many of us traveled to Manchester for the Biennial NE Fruit and Vegetable Conference last week and all of us are entertaining a notion of traveling somewhere in January and February before we ramp up greenhouse operations. Probably the biggest news from the farm is that by the time you read this blog is that we are well along our journey of turning over Edgewater Farm LLC to Ray and Jenny. What does this mean in terms of you and the farm? Nothing you will notice. It’s a legal measure that just makes sense because neither Anne and I are not getting any younger. You know, the age old plan for when the elders kick the bucket? Ray will continue to manage the vegetable production and wholesale and day to day field operations, Anne and Sarah will continue to manage and grow the greenhouses and plants, Jenny will remain the face of the CSA and our social media efforts. Alle will remain in control of the stand. Mike will continue to be fixing our messes and broken toys and there to stare us down and keep us in line when we need adult supervision. George, at 92 years of age, will still drive up from Bradford 4 days a week to operate tractors, do land prep and mowing. Roy will continue to arrive from Jamaica wanting to know how we are coming on the plans for his retirement party two years ago and I will still be found sleeping on a bench up in the greenhouse or in a truck somewhere. Same as it ever was, only a year later. If you are still looking for me, call my cell. Leave a message. I will call you when I wake up…

In no time we will all be at it. But its nice to take a deep breath this time of year and reflect on the accomplishment of just getting through it. Anne and I started our joint foray in growing vegetables in 1973. We didn’t know enough about it to fill a thimble. Thankfully we were resilient and had other forms of income. But here we are, and not going anywhere soon. We are grateful to all of you and have you been a supportive community that keeps the farm up and running. We thank you and wish you the very best Holiday Season with family about , good food, good music and good health.