Every year we have a handful of visitors from “up north” that come to our Sunday Farmer’s Market in December and January and are amazed at what they find. Although it makes sense conceptually, visitors (and some locals) still find it hard to grasp a farm-fresh salad on their dinner table in December. Just like wearing shorts and flip flops, or driving with the windows down, the notion of beautiful greens freshly plucked from the fields just feels mischievous a week before Christmas. But of course, it is simply one of the fringe benefits of living in the Sunshine State – our growing season is opposite that of up north. As farms in Iowa or Maryland hunker down for the winter, ours are gearing up for high growing season.
At Sweetwater we are still harvesting warmer weather crops such as peppers and eggplant due to the mild weather we are experiencing. Towards the end of this month we will begin starting our spring tomato seedlings. We will be growing two varieties, Sungold and Black Cherry, and these should be ready for spring harvest towards the end of the season. We are also planning our potato crop, which we will plant the second week of January and harvest in April or May. Some of the varieties we’ll be growing include All Blue, Yukon Gold, Prairie Blush and King Harry. This week we’ll have tatsoi and white stemmed pac choy in the share — these Asian greens are great in stir-frys, soups, or sauteed with your other share vegetables.
Enjoy the Florida winter, and your locally-grown food!