For those of you taking the Winter growing season off, this is the perfect time to amend your gardens, building your soil’s vitality. This does not need to be a complicated scientific process. Simply burying your vegetable scraps from the kitchen in different holes in your garden on a weekly basis can add a tremendous amount of nutrients to the soil. These fruit and vegetable scraps, free of any fats or meat particles, paired with your coffee grounds and clean eggshells, can also build the humus in your soil. Humus is an organic, non-living matter that exists in the top layers of the soil. It is the byproduct of the decomposition of all this organic matter that you have been adding to your soil in the form of potato peels, tomato cores, coffee grounds, and clean eggshells, in addition to any animal manures that you may have added. Humus creates a nice loose texture in the soil that allows air and water to penetrate easier allowing oxygen to reach the plant’s root system faster, creating a robust root system for your plants in the next growing season.
At Moonstruck Farms, we are continuing to adapt to the changes brought on by 2020, and with the cancellation of all our large events, we have dived headfirst into completing our online store so that our customers from afar can still reach us and order our small batch jams, artisan mustards, and fruit-infused vinegars. In addition, we added a “From the Fields and Greenhouses of Moonstruck Farms” division to make our seeds, bulbs, and gift packages available online. Visit our site at www.moonstruckfarms.com to see what has been keeping us so busy this month.
The Phelan Certified Farmers Market (CFM) is inside the Phelan Community Center, with about 10 percent of the vendors inside and the remaining 90% in the adjacent parking lot. The Phelan CFM is now on Winter hours and only open from 2pm to 5pm, though most vendors are ready to sell by 1:30pm if you need to get in and out a little earlier. The moment the daylight is sufficient, and the weather warms a little, we will return to the beautiful Phelan Community Park. We are closed on December 28, 2020, to allow our vendors and farms a little bit more family time for the holidays. The Wrightwood Certified Farmers Market has changed their hours to 3:00pm to 5:30pm and will close December 18 and 25, 2020, to honor the holidays. Happy Holidays everyone!!
