Reflections at the Winter Threshold

Planning, preparation, and quiet winter work for the seasons ahead.

Written By: Laura DeFeo

The beginning of the New Year is often thought of as a time of change, when we put resolutions into practice with the turning of the calendar page. The same is true on the farm. While the ground is largely frozen, our winter salad crops, indoor seedlings and microgreens, and stored harvests are continuing to thrive and serve. Most importantly, winter is the season of planning for what could be during the next peak growing season.

While Farmer Chris is hard at work reviewing crop-planning spreadsheets, meeting seed-ordering deadlines, confirming partnerships, laying plans for the new heated greenhouse, and reaching out about the 2026 CSA Veggie Share, I’m reminded that for much of agricultural history, January wasn’t idle. While fields largely rested, farmers didn’t. This was the season when tools were mended, seed stores were inventoried, and careful choices were made about what could be grown with the land, labor, and weather to come.

To honor the symbolic return to farm work after the Christmas season, communities in English agricultural regions celebrated Plough (or Plow) Monday, a tradition observed on the first Monday after the Christian celebration of Epiphany in mid-January. Plough Monday involved rituals such as parading a plow through town and sharing community feasts - bringing everyone together in appreciation of the future harvests that would come from labor, planning, and cooperation. 

Although Plough Monday was unique to England, the idea it represented - a seasonal threshold between rest and preparation - was familiar to many cultures shaped by winter, even when expressed through different calendars and traditions. Similar “return to work” or winter threshold observances were found across other temperate regions of Europe, shaped by local climates, crops, and customs. The work of feeding the community was resuming, even if it wasn’t yet time for the fields to be heavily worked.

During this current mid-January on our farm, the fields are resting, but the work continues on paper, in conversation, and in careful preparation for the months to come.  We’re grateful to carry this season of planning forward alongside all of you and are looking forward to the peak season ahead!