Winter Whispers: Crop Planning for a Bountiful 2026 Season

The Season of Stillness If you drive past our Gilbertsville farm right now, it might look like everything is at a standstill. The fields are tucked under a blanket of snow, and the tractors are silent. But underneath that quiet exterior, the 2026 season is already taking root in our notebooks, spreadsheets, and community meetings.

Collaborative Growing At The Best Route, we don't grow in a vacuum. We believe that a strong food system is built on collaboration, not competition. That’s why we spent this week huddled with our partners at Trellis for Tomorrow and our network of local producers to finalize our 2026 Crop Plan.

Crop planning is a giant puzzle. We are currently asking:

• What did our shoppers love most last year? (Looking at you, cucumbers!)

• How can we time our harvests so the mobile market is always bursting with variety?

• Which crops are best suited for our licensed kitchen to turn into value-added preserves or Chef’s Totes?

Waiting for the Thaw While we wait for the snow to melt and the ground to become workable, we are busy prepping our seed orders and refining our succession planting schedules. This "waiting" period is vital—it’s the time when we ensure that we are growing with intention, focusing on sustainable practices that nourish the soil as much as they nourish our neighbors.

By working closely with other "Route" partners, we ensure that if we aren’t growing it ourselves, one of our neighbor farms is. This collective approach reduces waste, supports the local agricultural economy, and ensures that when the first market truck rolls out in 2026, it is carrying the very best of what our region has to offer.

The First Shoots We know the winter feels long, but the first seeds will be hitting the trays sooner than you think. For now, we are enjoying the planning phase and the chance to dream big about the greens, roots, and fruits that will define our next season.

Stay tuned as we move from spreadsheets to seedlings! What are you most looking forward to seeing at the market this year?