Brrr… it’s been a tad chillier than normal these past weeks and unfortunately, this has negatively impacted our harvesting. Therefore, we send regrets to our loyal customers that we will be unable to provide an option for purchasing fresh produce outside of the CSA from Hattie’s Garden on Thursday afternoons until further notice.

CSA Members

We are thankfully able to fulfill the CSA shares and those of you who are signed up for that service, a separate email will be sent out on Monday or Tuesday containing the CSA information for this Saturday, December 7.

About the Weather

(and of course about growing …)

The protracted unseasonably cold weather has halted the growth of most everything and although slow growth is expected at this time of year, the early onset of the cold and its persistence has stopped growth earlier than usual. Most of my cool and cold weather crops are alive as they are under row cover, but this last string of below freezing nights has lowered the soil temperature significantly and cool soil means the cessation of biological activity in the soil. Without biological activity, things won’t grow.

During the day the sun can do a good job heating the soil, especially through the row cover, but the sun is compromised in doing its job by cloudy weather, low angle of the sun as we near the solstice and length of the day. Plants respond to a combination of warmth and light with some variation due to different plant requirements.

If these details fascinate you, please take a look at this great explanation from a 2011 Washington Post article.

We are now essentially at the mercy of the weather and especially of the jet stream and how it moves. Interesting information and forecasts are available on NOAA. We have had extremely variable temperatures in November, with a couple fairly warm days, but over the course of the month, 19 nights and 18 days were below average in temperature. The last week has been significantly colder than average.

The thumbnail pictures below represent my arugula – first picture is from the hoop house and the second one that was not shows damage to the crop.

Click on the pictures to see a larger view.

For more pictures, visit our Fall/Winter Gardening album on our Facebook page.


Although the end of next weeks calls for colder temperatures again, the overall the prediction for December, January and February is actually normal. We shall see.