CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY
It was back in October when it all started. Heading into the winter months, when all thoughts on the farm were shifting towards vegetation, a time of calm, internalizing for both plants and farmers. The fruiting highs of the summer and early fall had come to a close and it was time to let the land rest, but in the greenhouse we were already planning for the next spring. There is something incredible about this greenhouse's ability to control the environment just enough to allow us to observe plants that might otherwise be locked up by the winter cold. In the Stone Barns greenhouse, we have no interest in drastically creating micro climates that encourage massive inputs of energy. Fossil fuels are minimally used only to keep temperatures above freezing, which generally only happens in the coldest winter nights. During the day, the sun's rays are enough to keep the house in the 50's, sometimes even higher. We weren't trying to force fruiting summer plants to produce in the winter, rather transplanting strawberries allowed me to observe the incremental metamorphosis a strawberry plant experiences on its way to fruit production. First the growth of the...
