NOV 9, 2021- TRANSITIONS

The last 2 months have been a carefully calculated march towards winter at the farm as we transition much of our production into our unheated greenhouses.  We have been filling the houses with cool weather-loving crops to take us through the coming months and shorter days.  Each week we filled one or two houses with these veggies.  This process involves either making new beds in houses that had been in cover crops for a couple months or transitioning a house of summer crops into cool season crops. We fit this work in between harvests from the fields, which are full of maturing crops from our August and September plantings, and planting up wintered-over fields of strawberries, garlic and spring flowers - as well as lots of cover crops to improve the soils for next summer's crops. 

With the planting of the garlic last week, it finally feels like we have reached the more manageable pace we all look forward to in the cooler months when we will hopefully rejuvenate a little and reflect on the past year on the farm.  Of course, this is the time I look forward to implementing some of the improvements I have thought about all season so there remains a list of projects on the horizon.

This year we will also be seeing some of our employees transition on during this period.  This month Cory, our CSA manager for the last 4 years, will be moving back to South Carolina.  Cory and I met while I was on my "3-year sabbatical" from Woodland Gardens after the birth of my daughter, Claire.  I had started a small farm in Columbia, SC where we had moved to be closer to my husband's family and Cory joined me there. 

When I told Cory I was moving back to run Woodland Gardens and offered him a job, I was so glad he was willing to come with me.  He heroically helped dismantle and move my entire micro-farm's contents as we brought it all over to Athens.  He has worked tirelessly over the last 4 years to make Woodland Gardens a smoother running farm.  You all know him through the CSA communications, but he also helped run our Saturday farmers market in Atlanta, helped keep all our tractors, equipment and infrastructure operating, spear-headed putting up several hoophouses, planted and then mowed many fields of cover crops and helped keep harvest days going.  He wore many hats here at the farm and we are going to miss him tremendously.  We wish him well in his future pursuits back in South Carolina.

We look forward to introducing you soon to our new CSA manager – big shoes to fill, but we are very excited about the future and the path we continue along.  Only one more 4-week session in the main season- thanks as always for your continued support.