Growing Winter Crops in Southern Illinois

Hello to everyone from Hollow Pumpkin Farm/C.S.A. We have finally unveiled our Winter/Spring section of the C.S.A. You may go to the Details and News page and view the information.

If you have ever noticed when you walk into the Neighborhood Co-op in Carbondale, Illinios during the winter months you do not see many local vegetables being sold. The reason for that is it is difficult to grow a consistent and large enough crop here in the winter time. Many if not most farmers down here have not attempted to grow winter vegetables, for the most part, because of the challenges it brings. With the high tunnel grants that have recently been awarded, many farmers here in Southern Illinois have begun to extend their seasons. Hollow Pumpkin Farm is one of many farms that was awarded this grant and so we will have extra covered space to experiment with. It is still an experiment with many challenges ahead. Growing winter vegetables here in Southern Illinois, even with greenhouses, is tricky business and requires a bit more work than during our primary growing season. Timing, frosts, covers, heat, intensive mulch and bringing water to the green houses are but a few of the issues.

We have built our Winter/Spring section of our C.S.A. around these issues. Instead of a weekly distribution we will be distributing every other week but giving you a share that will have enough vegetables to cover the week in between the distribution week. Vegetables grow a bit slower in the winter, even in the greenhouse, so we left a weeks gap in between distributions to let the plants have more growth time. Many of the seasonal winter crops will be those that can be stored in your refrigerator for a period of time as well as cabbage which also stays well. (See Details and News page.) The bottom line will be that this first year will be an experiment and we will make any necessary adjustments for the following years to come.

What it means for Southern Illinois is that we will finally be seeing local seasonal produce in the winter. We wish all the farms and farmers, down here, lots of success in their winter production and season extension, and happy eating to all during the winter months!