BGF NEWS - December 2022 - VOL. XLIX, NO. 2

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past month: Rain: 1.75"
Snow: 2.00"

Happy holidays from all of us at BGF! What a year it has been and how very thankful we are for our amazing family, crew, members, customers and friends! We wish you a season filled with joy, good food and those you love. 

Wow, the first official day of winter brought some serious changes to the farm this year! BRRRRR! We saw lows of -14° for a couple of days. Weather like that is rough for everyone, farmers included, requiring lots of extra chores, frozen waterlines and many layers of clothing! Luckily our power stayed on and everyone seems to have gotten through the worst of it. And yes not only the farm cats but the farm dog got to spend a couple of days in the house weathering the storm. It's still too cold to open up the high tunnels to check, but we most certainly lost some of the crops even with the row covers on. We'll get in there as soon as it warms up a bit more and see how things look.

In the meantime, this is the season of seed and supply inventories, which we completed earlier this week. 

The stack of seed catalogs has been perused and the seed order lists begun. That task should be mostly completed before the end of the month. Then we move into conference and farmer meeting season and before we know it, seed starting season will begin (in about 6 weeks).

VegEmail deliveries continue on the winter schedule of every other Tuesday in Des Moines at Peace Tree-Des Moines Branch and in Knoxville at the Grand Theater. We will continue to do these sales every two weeks until the first of May.

Our next delivery is Tuesday, 1/3 and the order form will go out on 12/28 at 5pm. If you aren't receiving the VegEmail order form and you would like to, just fill out the form here: VegEmail Sign Up

CSA 2023: 
Signup season has begun!  Current CSA members from the 2022 season should have received an email (or two) earlier this month with the '23 sign up information (if you didn't get yours, be sure to let us know).  Those members have until the end of January to register for the upcoming season. Any remaining spots will be offered to our waiting list in early February. If you aren't a CSA member but are interested, shoot us an email and we'll get you on the list!

Is a monthly newsletter not enough for you? Do you want to read more about our life on the farm and see more pictures? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm or on Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. CSA members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That's about it for now. If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.

Best from the farm,
Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)