What do farmer’s do in the winter?

I am often asked what I do in the winter, the assumption being that the answer is “nothing”. In actuality, there are lots of  things on the “to do” list.  Most are large projects that can’t be done during the summer; re-wiring the walk-in cooler, improving and electrifying the deer fence, and the annual tune up on all the tractors.    Then there’s all the office work to do… crop planning, completing the Organic Certification application,  closing the books for the year end and redesigning the web site.  Each of these projects will take about 80 hours of work.

And, of course, there will be other things come up.  So far, one of the canopies over the packing area has blown over twice.  Another has broken so badly that it needs to be replaced.  Oh for the day when I can afford to replace those canopies with a pole building!  Until then… I’ll keep patching them back together.

As you can tell,  the farm is a busy place during the winter.