Winter Production. The Costs. The Labor. The Reality

I have been prompted, more than once, to give a summary of what it REALLY takes to grow (regenerative and pure) food in the winter here in Colorado, at 7,000ft, in one of the roughest and most terrible locations in the country - all while doing so with no supplemental heating, tractors or chemicals.

IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?  It sure is!  Here is what our greenhouses (unheated) look like in the winter:

 Not only is it possible to grow food in the winter in these conditions, but here are some of the results from 2018:

Beautiful, right?  Yes.  Piece of cake, right?  Not so much.

In the winter, it takes a lot more than you would think to do this and there are MANY obstacles to growing in the winter.  Things like:  Row cover maintenance (and cost), varieties, regeneration time, diseases, frozen pipes, irrigation, processing, greenhouse temperatures, ventilation and more.

ROW COVER - What is it and how is it managed?

Row cover is essentially a breathable blanket that goes over the crops.  We use it as a double cover and it is installed over hoops that are set about 5 ft apart.  There are many different kinds of row-covers available, but we use Agribon with a weight of AG-70.  This is the heaviest weight available and it costs us about $1,000.00 to cover 6 greenhouses (not to mention the $3.00 per home-made hoops, the $1.00 clamps and the incredible amount of labor to set it all up).  The total installation cost of these row-covers for a single 80ft x 20ft greenhouse = $538.00 per greenhouse multiplied by 6 greenhouses for a total of $3,228.00 of costs that are not also in the summer.  It's definitely not cheap, and it should last a minimum of 5 years (that is if children don't tear it - ah-hem - yes, that's the sound of my throat clearing!).   The row-cover essentially holds in the soil heat and the results are amazing!

In this split image below, you can see what the greenhouse looks like on the bottom, and on the top you can see the temperatures.  The 6 degree temperature is the temperature that is on the INSIDE of the greenhouse.  Yes, even in the greenhouses it gets that cold (and colder!). The temperature on the left is the temperature underneath those white covers (the row cover).  We don't have a picture of it, but the lowest temps we have seen under the row-cover is 22 degrees and -12 inside the greenhouse (a 34 degree difference!)!

Every single day it takes one person to remove the row-cover in the morning and then in the afternoon it takes two people to put it back on. This is an added labor cost of about 1.5hours per day (about 180 hours per winter season) just for the row cover management.  At a hypothetical cost of $15.00/hour that is an added cost of $2,700.00 (add in the installation cost of about 32 hours and we are at $3,180.00)!  So far, just for the row cover we are at a total of $6,408.00, or $5,608.00 if the row-cover lasts 5 years (Ya Right!!!), and of course we are NOT including the cost of the hoophouses themselves, OR their maintenance.

Varieties

One caveat about growing in this manner is that you must have very hardy varieties that can handle very low temperatures.  Varieties like spinach, kale, turnips, carrots, beets and more.  The upside to these varieties is obvious - they can be grown in the winter.  However there are at least two downsides to this:  They are all low-value crops (with the exception of beets and carrots), they like a lot of water and they are not the most popular (so they sell less) - with, again, the exception of carrots.

Regeneration Time

In the summer we can expect regrowth on many of these crops to be every 7 to 10 days (things like kale, lettuce, spinach etc.).  In the winter - good luck!  You may get regrowth every 3 months!  What does this mean?  It means that the value of the (already low) crop is cut to much less than half.  Here is an example:  We can get 3 cuts of kale in the summer (one per week).  At a 21 day regrowth time, this is a total of 3 cuts in 6 weeks.  We then replant and within 21 days can have another crop for 3 more weeks.  We can do this 3 times for the season (18 weeks).  At a hypothetical value of $480.00 per cut, that's a total of $4,320.00 in the summer for a single bed of lettuce.  In the winter (not including the very, very, VERY real possibility of a complete crop loss) we can only get 2 total cuts (MAYBE!) for a total of $960.00.  That's a reduction of 78%!  

Diseases and Crop Loss

In the summer there are crop losses.  In the winter, there can be a lot more.  If it is a very cold winter, well then the losses on some of the more fragile crops like lettuce, cabbage, pak choy etc. are lost for obvious reasons.  But what if it is a mild winter?  Well, in a mild winter, disease creeps in because of two reasons:  The soil and plants dry out, and as mentioned above, due to the varieties, they need a lot of water.  What happens when plants are watered, then they are put to bed under the row cover at night when it is really cold?  They get diseased and you lose the crop.  It's a catch 22 - don't irrigate and lose the crop, or irrigate and risk disease.  The problem gets amplified when you realize that replanting is not much of an option because plants don't grow in the winter due to the lack of light.  So, go ahead, tear out that diseased crop in January and replant.  The next time you will be able to harvest?  It will be at least the end of March (that's only for the absolute fastest growing crops)!  So, the very real possibility is that the $960.00 crop that you were banking on, but was already 78% less than the summer crop, gets completely wiped out and that is a huge loss!  This year we lost about 6 crops in a similar fashion.  

Then there is the rest...

Frozen hoses and pipes, irrigation drainage and breakage, processing in freezing conditions, heating the processing area costs, repairs to fencing and other infrastructure that gets blown down in these terrible winds and so, so, so much more!  We estimate that all of these issues add about 6 hours of labor (for two employees @ 3hrs each) time per day.  At 100 days per season, that's 600 hours.  At the hypothetical cost of $15.00 per hour, that's a total of $9,000.00 of added costs that are also not found in the summer.  

Summary

So why do it?  Is it worth it?  It is...sorta.  Why?  By having a winter CSA, we are able to keep our employees throughout the winter and not lay them off.  Here is the break down:  The winter CSA this year made our farm $24,500.00 for 75 members.  Subtract the costs of $5,608.00 per year for the basic overhead and the estimate (from 2018) of $4,500.00 of added costs (heating the processing room, repairs etc.) and we end up with a total of $14,442.00.  7 months of labor (November through May) at the hypothetical $15.00 per hour $16,800.00 per employee.  This year we had only 1 employee over the winter.  That's an overall loss of -$2,358.00 over the course of the season - and this does not include paying ourselves, the owners!  So essentially we lose out over the course of the season, right?  Well, yes and no.  We start selling our summer CSA's in November.  If it wasn't for this, we wouldn't be able to support winter growing at all, but we utilize a lot of that money and allocate it to the winter/spring payroll.  This helps out a lot.  

So what IS the benefit?  The most important benefit is that we get to employee people for the entire year.  No more temporary employees and a solid team that can benefit the business and the community.  In addition there is also our mission of feeding people - kind of a big deal!

See, the winter is when the biggest impact is made for your health and local food. The winter vegetables in the stores are the majority hydroponic or from Mexico and China (yes, even the organic ones).  None of these are good options to provide healthy, sustainable or even tasty food.  Going local in the winter - even if the cost goes up - is worth every penny - particularly when you purchase from us:  Grown in soil, grown using no chemicals, grown without using fossil fuels and grown locally.  

Now, if we lost like this all year-round then we wouldn't be a-round for very long.   That's why we manage the farm in a way that allows us to make up for our losses in winter time with our summer season profits and in diversifying our crops and our market streams.  However, without the CSA, we wouldn't exist.

This year's CSA was a tremendous success!  There were no missed weeks, the members got the value for their food.  The members were able to get 19 varieties of freshly harvested produce - right in the middle of the winter and the feedback we received was amazing!  Of course, it could have been better.  Next year, it will be.  Every year we continue to get better and refine.  What we have learned this year is incredible.  The amount of data we were able to collect and are now able to implement is priceless and we are ridiculously excited to implement it next winter too!

So, next winter, when you sign up for your CSA, remember what you are paying for.  Remember why the costs are increased and realize the benefit that you are bringing to not only your health, but to our farm, the local community and regenerative food.  We couldn't do it without you!

Questions?  Comment below - we want to hear from you!