Remember a couple of weeks ago when the temperature did not go above freezing for a handful of days–and we were all miserable? Well, our greens were miserable, too. We had two hoop houses full of beautiful arugula, lettuce, bok choi, and kale. Our hoop houses should offer just enough protection to keep greens alive. But apparently not when the overnight low is -10 degrees. All of those beautiful greens turned to slimy mush. Boo.

Beautiful Red Lettuce Before the Cold

Slimy Red Lettuce After the Cold

Mushy Bok Choi

We also had a few thousand pounds of winter squash stored away. We tried to use heaters to keep the squash from freezing, but it was in a shed and the heaters just couldn’t keep up with the sub-zero temperatures and the squash all froze solid.

We had root vegetables like carrots and turnips stored in coolers inside our walk-in refrigerator. We put heaters inside the refrigerator and that paid off. Hooray! At least we were able to save the roots.

This is a reminder to us of why we don’t try to produce a lot of vegetables for the winter months. It can be done, but it isn’t easy.