Hello friends! All of us at Horton Road hope you are well during this holiday season.
Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and the start of lengthening daylight which will lead us into the 2021 farming season. As many of you know, the farm shuts down at the end of October as we do not grow any vegetables for market in the winter months. We attended our last market of the year on Halloween, said our goodbye’s to the 2020 crew as they moved on to other opportunities and took a much needed rest. We look forward to returning to the Lane County Farmers Market in April, but until then, we are keeping busy with all of the planning for the 2021 season.
Here is what’s happening at Horton Road Organics:
- We are currently in the process of interviewing apprentices for the upcoming season. We hope to have our new crew selected by the end of January. It is inspiring to see how many people are interested in diving into organic farming.
- Our seeds have been inventoried and our orders are being placed. Bill usually takes care of this now so that we have all of the seeds we need to start the new season. Decisions about trialing new veggie varieties are made during this time. We definitely have our tried and true varieties, but the seed catalogs are always intriguing.
- In January, the active farm work will begin. The first projects include hand-digging and prepping the greenhouse beds for the first salad mix of the season and starting our first seeds that will eventually be transplanted outside. We will also start some clean-up and repairs during this time.
- We are committed to a robust CSA program as this has been a dependable source of produce for many families and stable income for the farm in these uncertain times. In 2020, we had 70 CSA members. We are looking to keep this same membership number in 2021 and will begin registration in January. If you are interested in joining the CSA in 2021, there is nothing you need to do right now. We’ll send you the registration information as soon as we have that ready.
- In 2020, farmers markets were very strong for us. The Amazon Community Center Market on Thursdays was especially good as this market increased sales by over 50% from 2019. Thank you to everyone who supported us this season. There is no better reward than seeing people enjoy our produce.
As we near the start of 2021, we are ready to move forward, welcome a new crew and continue to engage with all of you through food and community.
Thank you for being a part of Horton Road Organics! Stay healthy. We will see you soon!