After an unusually warm October, most of Vermont鈥檚 gardeners are finally seeing killer frosts, and even some snow in some parts of the state.
But in the Upper Valley, the harvest goes on.
At the in Norwich, shoppers are still filling their bags with fresh berries, tomatoes, even green beans. The deep freeze is coming late to the Upper Valley this year, and that鈥檚 added a few weeks to a growing season that got a soggy start.
At the farm a few miles away, on a mild morning after one of the first frosts of the fall, Leo Moreno is happily picking kale. He just got down to work here after a stint in the Air National Guard.
鈥淏asically I came back to working in the fields and it鈥檚 been great, and the weather鈥檚 been pretty good, and especially for kale, with this kind of cold weather, hopefully it鈥檚 going to make it taste better than how it usually is,鈥� Moreno said.
Moreno鈥檚 boss, farm owner Jake Guest, says he鈥檚 been able to supply customers not just with frost-hardy kale, but with sweet corn and fragile greens long after those vegetables are usually frozen. That鈥檚 been important to his bottom line because the wet spring was not kind to all of his crops.
鈥淵ou know if the fall were cool early I would say we did not have a particularly good year. But given this weather it鈥檚 kept sales up pretty good and we have had a pretty good year,鈥� Guest said.
Guest says he hopes to keep the farm stand open until Thanksgiving, with plenty of fresh produce. That鈥檚 not how he used to operate 30 years ago.
鈥淣ow that鈥檚 changed, when I first started farming here we would make sure we had all our winter squash, for instance, harvested by the middle of September because we used to get frosts regularly in late September,鈥� he recalled.
And Guest says he鈥檚 also planting much earlier in the spring than he used to.
That鈥檚 not surprising. Jay Shafer, a meteorology professor from Lyndon State College, says over the past ten years, Vermont鈥檚 growing season has added about ten days.
鈥淭he growing season is expanding slightly and that鈥檚 more due to the earlier arrival of springtime than arrival in the fall time of the first frost,鈥� Shafer said.
But, Shafer notes, both of those arrivals are highly variable, . Smack in the middle of storm tracks, with varied topography, Shafer says this small state is unusually diverse when it comes to micro-climates.
Which is why when some Vermonters are hitting the slopes, others could still be cutting kale.
