Same boat here too! Don't pick frozen, most things will just turn to mush. I would also wait in roots too. If the sun peaks out for a few hours you should be able to pick by 2:00. I was desperate one time and I fired up the propane heater and put it in the tunnel for an 30 plus minutes and that warmed it up enough to pick, just an idea. We had a beautiful sunny day today and I intended to pick all afternoon and put it in the walk in cooler, but due to several other must do's that didn't happen. I got about 45 minutes of picking done at 4:45, but that was enough time to get 25 pounds of spinach, arugula, and winter hardy mix harvested and in the cooler. I am hoping tomorrow will be sunny too so I can get the tatsoi, lettuce, chard, dill, kales, collards, and green onions. I picked 216 pounds of carrots last week when it was 45-50 degrees.

Anyone get any harvesting done today? I was able to it warmed up to 33-34 degrees, but there wasn't much sun so the solar gain in the high tunnels was very limited. I was able to harvest all my kale, chard, collards and was able to wash everything, despite the 30-32 degree temps outside by the time I was done. I would wash a tub of stuff and take it back to the cooler, grab another tub and do it all again. I still need to pick tatsoi, lettuce, dill, green onions, bok choy and maybe cilantro

We were able to harvest. about 28 outside - nothing was frozen in the tunnels. Just don't like harvesting 3 days before a market, but figure it is still way fresher than anything from the grocery store. We'll see how the winter progresses. Winds already battered one of our houses so bad that we had to roll up the sides and tie up the ends just so it wouldn't blow away. We put a low tunnel over the crops in that house - so will see how they do. So far so good. Other house is great. Thanks for all the input guys! Seems like we are all in the same boat. :)

I have had it both ways. For one market, the forecast was for 7-15 degrees for highs and lows near 0 or below for the Tuesday- the following Monday. I had to pick everything on Sunday-Tuesday. It was better to pick and guarantee having it, than not having it at all. With the winter growing, you have to really watch the weather and pick when you can. Another market I had was just the opposite, the week prior was super freezing cold, but Thursday night into Friday, it was suppose to warm up significantly, in the 40's, even over night. I had to pick everything on Friday after school. I had to pull an all-nighter to get everything ready. Not fun either.

Good luck!

Yesterday it snowed and inch or two in the morning and all day never got past 28 degrees- no sun, but some brightness. In the afternoon I went out and it was 46 in the tunnel so I picked all the kale I would need. I bagged it in the barn, (very cold on the hands) packed it in ice packs, and put it in my van in the garage. This is the earliest I have ever picked for a Saturday market but this is winter and like jrslick it's better to pick early than not have anything at all. In the summer I take pride in picking nearly everything the day before market. I wish I had more greens but I cleaned out all the matured spinach for the December markets. I hope the spinach will show new growth in February. I have tons of carrots in the tunnel but have not used any yet as I had been able to dig outside up until last Monday when we got 6 inches of sleet and snow. Tonight is expected to reach 10 degrees with tomorrows high of 20. Winter marketing is a bit harsh but it still makes me happy to do it since my customers appreciate it so much.

jrslick- What varieties of lettuce are you able to keep going in winter? Mine had all started getting brown on the outside leaves.

I've had the same problem. It just gets cold at the wrong time right before market and then is nice and warm after. It leads to lost sales but I guess winter growing is all a gamble anyway.

I cut 5 small cabbages I had covered up in low tunnels today for market tomorrow, really couldn't believe it because the weather man had been saying wind chills of -8 last week but I guess the coverings eliminated the wind chill factor and they made it looking ok through actual temps of 10-15 degrees last week. Cant wait to get my high tunnel up and running, I think that will be a lot easier. Some of my little janky hoops bent and collapsed in some snow and those plants were toast!

Lucked out the past two days with sunshine and temps in the upper 30's which melted all the snow off the high tunnel. This enabled me to pick quite a bit of kale and a little spinach. I have 2 markets tomorrow one of which my son will do. We'll have kale, spinach, carrots, beets, 20 bean soup bean mix, potatoes, garlic, parsley, and cilantro. Sold out of onions at my last market two weeks ago. Still have tons of carrots, but it is really difficult washing them inside in containers and dumping the water outside. Just before the warm up it was extremely cold with -2 lows to 10F highs. It's supposed to get even colder starting tomorrow. It got up to 62F in the high tunnel the past couple of days. After tomorrow I will only have markets every two weeks until May when the summer markets begin.

Sandy- You'll love having a high tunnel!