After a dubious spring interval in the heart of winter, cold weather has come in like a lion! These past few days, we find ourselves wrapped in coats all day, rubbing our hands together, and jumping to warm our toes... Even when the sun peeks out, it's hard for us to thaw. Any warmth is temporary, lasting only two to three hours till the cold swoops back in. The vegetables in the field also feel this chill. They behave as if they were put in a refrigerator. (Indeed, this week’s temperatures are refrigerator-like. When we open the door to the large Chubeza refrigerator, it’s beginning to feel like we just stepped outside…). So, what does lettuce do in the cold? Just like bears, it huddles, expends as little energy as possible, and goes to sleep... The vegetables grow slowly. Although carrots and beets store their sugars in root tubers for us to enjoy their winter sweetness, they also take their time to thicken and become ready for harvest. Everything happens in slow motion, as if someone is slowing down the projection speed.

Unlike a regular winter, this year we've had relatively warm days, so the slowdown in vegetable growth is not very noticeable. Throughout most of the winter, they grew quickly and vigorously, enjoying pleasant but not scorching and drying sun, lapping up measured irrigation through drip pipes. Thus, the recent severe cold days do not worry us about vegetable growth.