Hungry Bear?

With pretty much every conversation I have right now, I think the first subject is “Well, do you think that’s it? Is the winter behind us?” I think for anyone who makes their living around what happens with the weather, we would like to fake it til we make it, and just say “Yup, that’s it!”, then throw our shoulders back and our hips forward, and strut into the new season like we own the place. That would feel great, wouldn’t it? Damn.

But that’s not the answer we tell each other. “I don’t know. Maybe…I mean, remember that one year…” We go forward into 2021 crouching, hunched, alert…for winter to jump out of the shadows again. Like cave dwellers after hibernation. It’s too difficult to tell if the light we see at the end of the tunnel is the reawakening of Nature beckoning us to soak up more sun than is advisable, smell the fresh pine sap, and feast of springs bounty, or a hungry bear, wanting lunch, luring us out with a natural spectrum flashlight.

It’s just so hard to know, ya know? Either way, whether we go forward with a swagger or a creep, we can’t resist. We will go forward. It is clear that it’s time to get moving for us seasonal hustlers. The weather has been gorgeous (but maybe its a bear who’s fattening us up first), and that focuses the senses.

For my part, that weather has been going towards project that are not yet including planting actual crops. Building, fixing, refiguring, machine tuneups…the usual putsy stuff. In another couple weeks we’ll start planting our onions in the greenhouse, and hopefully looking at some snowless fields. This may seem a little late for some of you green thumbs, but after years of running headlong out of the cave, I have landed on this later start. For one thing, there is the satisfaction of seeing all the Instagram posts of greenhouses across the farm network firing up for the season, while I’m still sipping coffee and watching Saturday morning cartoons. For another, it hasn’t seemed worth burning all that propane just to have onions in the ground early and have winter come roaring back like a hungry bear. Hungry bears and burning propane should be avoided if possible.

Between now and then, there is plenty to do. Hiring continues for the season, and I am confident that it’ll be a crew of wonderful folks to help you all at the markets this season.

I’ll try and get back on the blog horn and keep you all updated as the market season approaches.

For me, that’s the moment that we are really out of the cave. When we can show up to market with a table of veggies. If this early shot of spring is not a false alarm, then that could be right soon. I hope so. See you on the outside.