Winter Farming with a T-Rex

Winter farming can be challenging in New England with the reduced daylight hours, cold temperatures and variable weather. That's why I asked Farmer Rex to give me a tour of his high tunnel that is growing hardy crops over the winter.

He seeded everything with this handy rolling seeder. It's an older model Planet Junior. He told me it is a tool that is easy to use, hard to break, and excellent for planting on the scale of a few acres as is the case in these high tunnel.

Rex was very proud of his spinach. "Spinach is tricky to grow in the fall in New England. It loves cool weather and the winter is perfect for growing an excellent and hardy crop of beautiful spinach."

"I know I am supposed to be a carnivore," mused Farmer Rex, "But I just love this stuff!"

"Hardy scallions are an good high tunnel crop."

 "Yup, these pass the taste test."

"The carrots are still getting bigger," says Rex.

 Even though this one is clearly massive in comparison to me. I like to grow big vegetables," he confided to me while holding one of his carrots, "But if they were simply big and not tasty, that's no good. That won't cut it for me. They've got to be SO tasty that I want to stop everything and gobble them up. They have to be THAT good."

"Like this large green gourd pumpkin! That's what I am talking about. Look how big it is!"

Farmer Rex stopped momentarily on our tour to stand over the tiny farmers trying to move compost next to the high tunnels. "They try," he said, shaking his head, "but they would do so much better if they were BIG, like me, and had some more pointy teeth and a massive tail!" All I could think to do at this point was nod solemnly and try not to smile.

Nice high tunnels!