The start of a New Year is always filled with optimism as people and businesses create new plans, new goals, and set out to do better than the previous year. While continuous improvement is a key to continued and long-term success, there is also value in looking back at the wins and accomplishments of the previous year. Looking back helps put in perspective the many blessings you received, and that in itself can get you motivated for the next year.
At Foxdale Farms we are always planning for the future, evaluating how our crops are doing in real time, what people are buying, and looking for new and exciting additions to the farm. 2024 is sure to be an exciting year with some of our expansion plans and improvements from the previous year, but that will be shared in future posts.
Here are a few of the things we feel we were blessed with during 2023:
This marked our first year pushing our CSA after a soft launch the year prior. We hit our subscription goal, had a great group of customers, and really enjoyed providing fresh vegetables and fruits. No question it is a lot of work, but well worth the effort and we appreciated the interaction with our customers.
This year we added hanging mum baskets for fall sales, and they were well received. Phil also added a few muti-color pots, and they were fun to watch unfold. The heat was tolerable this summer helping with steady growth and a prolonged flowering period.
Sweet corn has been a staple at Foxdale Farms for nearly 50 years. This past summer we had several different plantings that extended our sweet corn harvest to nearly two months. In the past we have had bumper crops but had to share them with the deer and racoons. A combination of deterrents allowed us to eat, freeze, and sell more of it this year. There is a great deal of satisfaction pulling some bags out of the freezer in the middle of winter and enjoying them for the holidays or Sunday dinner!
We tried new products last year in and out of the greenhouse. After trying a small batch of Christmas Cactuses in the previous year, we loaded up on several colors and varieties this summer and learned a lot on their growing needs and habits. The learning process is enjoyable, and a lot of our success is reading about other growers’ lessons, and we love to share our lessons as well. 
Daylilies have been a favorite flower around the farm for decades – there are probably over 100 different types of all sorts of colors, sizes, and blooming periods. Adding a summer flower to our offerings, we started over 20 different varieties. They did quite well, and many ended up at our customers’ houses and we will start more this spring. Expanding our canned products, we added some new jellies, jams, and pepper products. The banana and bell peppers did extremely well and we sold, froze, gave away, and canned as many as we could.
Those are just a few of the many blessings we had in 2023 that will help propel us into a prosperous 2024. We look forward to sharing more successes with our customers, neighbors, and friends as Foxdale Farms enters its 52nd year of existence.