What’s New and Wonderful

Yes, we have some wonderful items for our delivery / pickup service on Saturday, February 6. Please take a careful look at the order form for this week.

Each week, we make lots of changes depending upon what we have available. This week we have Beeswax Lipbalm from Baues’ Bees, as well as a few additional produce items. And Hattie is making organic Split Pea Soup (with or without ham) and mushrooms from Davidson’s are going strong! Every vendor has something good to offer and we hope you will partake.

Plant CSA

Help us get ready for the growing season by signing up for Plant Credits at a 10% discount. Simply go to the Plant CSA Order Form no later than March 1 and purchase any quantity of credits in $10, $25, $50 or $100 increments. You may also use the total value of the credit to purchase anything at Hattie’s Garden and we will keep a notebook with us with a record of your Plant CSA credits and purchases. These credits do not expire, but we hope you do use them for plants.

Bi-Weekly Service

As we mentioned last week, because the bulk of the food we provide are produce items, once they become less available around this time of the year (and that all depends upon the weather), we find it prudent to skip weeks now and then to allow the produce to catch up to the demand. Below is the schedule for the next four Saturdays:

• Saturday, February 6 – Delivery/pickup service
• Saturday, February 13 – No service
• Saturday, February 20 – Delivery/pickup service
• Saturday, February 27 – No service

Day-Length, Plant Growth, Solstices and Equinoxes

We are moving into February and the days are beginning to lengthen quickly.

Did you know, with the start of February, we are gaining 2 minutes of daylight per day? And by the end of February, we will gain 2.5 minutes a day.

We hold steady at that rate throughout most of March, until we reach the vernal equinox on the 20th of March at 4:30 a.m. Daylight hours continue to grow after the equinox, but, the rate of that growth gradually slows. The gradual slowing reaches zero on the summer solstice, June 20 at 10:34 p.m., and then reverses as days begin to grow shorter again. Our day-length at this latitude will max out at just under 15 hours.

I find this all very fascinating. In fact, did you know that in Boston, their longest day will be about 25 minutes longer than ours and their shortest day at the Winter Solstice will be about 25 minutes shorter than ours! Why do we care?

Many plants are daylight sensitive and most vegetables won’t make much growth once daylight falls below 10 hours. This is not the only factor for plant growth, but it is an important one. That means, that in addition to sunlight, ambient temperature, soil temperature, moisture, nutrients, etc. growth also depends on various day-lengths.

Have you heard of short-day onions and long-day onions? Short day onions are suitable for growing in the south where maximum day-length is shorter than in the north. Delaware falls somewhere in the middle and we do best with an onion designed to grow in middle latitudes between 30 and 40 degrees, also known as intermediate-day onions. But we can also easily grow onions labeled as day-neutral! They don’t care what length the day is and will grow well at all latitudes.

As a reminder please place your order as soon as possible. Many of the few produce items available do sell out quickly this time of year.

Thanks for getting us through the winter months,

Yours in the growing light,