It’s root season and that means Winter Moon Roots’ operation is in full swing. Based out of Hadley, MA, Winter Moon Roots specializes in just that—winter roots. These hearty and often sweet vegetables store well throughout the cold winter months and provide a much-needed pop of color (and source of vitamins) when the days are short and dreary. We were able to talk with the Winter Moon Roots team to learn more about this longstanding and environmentally focused farm.
Can you share some of the history of Winter Moon Roots and how it started? And what inspired you to start farming?
Michael Docter started Winter Moon Roots almost 15 years ago with the goal of providing premium quality local Organic roots while minimizing their carbon footprint. We built a storage facility designed to use winter nighttime temperatures to cool the crop instead of energy-intensive refrigeration. Michael and his buddy Merve Brussard have consistently delivered over 20,000 lbs of roots every year by bicycle (sorry they don't bike to VT!)
Rosendo Santizo began working for Winter Moon Roots in 2009, harvesting, washing, and packing roots, and slowly taking over production responsibilities. Originally from Guatemala, Rosendo had worked on many farms throughout his life and was happy to put down roots (no pun intended!) at Winter Moon. Within the next year, the ownership of Winter Moon will transfer to Rosendo and his wife Genevieve, who are excited to continue providing roots to Winter Moon customers.
What makes your produce unique?
Winter Moon root vegetables are super sweet and super fresh. We harvest all of our roots as late as possible in the season, in November, right up until the ground freezes. These cold temperatures allow for sugars to accumulate in the roots, giving them amazing flavor. We choose our varieties carefully for flavor, and also take great pride in caring for our amazing Hadley loam soil, which supports our Certified-Organic production. Our roots are stored dirty and washed up to order, which keeps them fresh all winter long. Roots are our specialty - we don't grow any other crops - so we are able to give our roots the time and attention needed to produce high-quality harvests.
Environmental sustainability is also a driving mission of Winter Moon Roots. Our storage facility uses cold winter air to keep our roots cool, and solar panels on our storage barn offset any electricity we do use. Michael also delivers to our local customers by bike, pulling up to 1000 lbs of roots on a bike trailer throughout Hadley—see photo!
What is one of your favorite vegetables you grow?
It's hard to choose just one! Our carrots are really special—they are nothing like a grocery store carrot from California. They are sweet from the cold fall temperatures, thin-skinned so you don't have to peel them, and even the largest carrots remain tender. You may find some unique shapes in our bags of carrots—intertwined or branched roots. We focus on flavor and our customers have grown to love a few unique shapes in combination with the premium flavor of our carrots.
One of our other favorites is our purple starburst radish. This is the radish for people who don't like radishes. It has beautiful purple skin and a striking flash of purple inside. It's super mild, very juicy, and crunchy, with a little sweetness. They're a staple in the fridges of many of our customers— they're great sliced up and drizzled with lime juice and salt for an appetizer or snack, they make great toppings for tacos or other savory dishes, and of course, they're perfect for salads or dipping.
Do you have any recipes you recommend for your produce?
Often, we find that complicated recipes aren't necessary to produce tasty dishes with our roots. Some of our favorite ways to prepare our roots are:
Parsnips sliced thin and sauteed on medium heat in butter + a little oil until tender and golden. This is great with our fall parsnips but even better with our spring-dug parsnips, which remain in the ground all winter and are unbelievably sweet when we harvest them in March. No joke, they taste like fried plantains when fried in butter!
Starburst salad (see photo!): Chop into 1-cm-square pieces: starburst radish, tomato, avocado. Mix, and add finely chopped onion and cilantro, fresh lime juice, and salt to taste. The colors and fresh flavor in the midst of a gray winter are invigorating!
Root vegetable tacos: The key to a great setup of tacos is to get all of your ingredients prepped, heated, and ready to go. Then heat corn tortillas on a hot skillet - top with any combination of cheese, beans, roasted root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, turnip - anything is great!), grated fresh carrot or radish, salsa, cilantro, sour cream.
Why is buying and selling locally and the local food movement is important to you?
Food is a central part of everyone's lives and it brings folks together. COVID opened many people's eyes to weak points in our national and global food distribution system, and we are really proud to be part of the local food system that works to provide the Northeast with fresh, Organic produce all winter long. Buying local means supporting individuals - farm owners and farm workers—in your community, and that support makes real, substantial differences in the lives of small farm owners. And, if you taste one of our carrots compared to one shipped from California...you'll never go back!
How does working with Food Connects help your business/what are you excited about in this partnership?
We've been so happy to work with Food Connects over the last year. We share a common goal - to increase access to local, healthy, delicious food throughout the Northeast. Food Connects has helped us efficiently reach customers that we can't deliver directly to, and we're excited to expand those markets and get more local, Organic produce to more people through our relationship with Food Connects.
Any events coming up or fun facts about your business/products?
The big next step for Winter Moon within the next year is the transition of ownership from Michael Docter, who started the farm, to Rosendo Santizo, who has worked at Winter Moon since 2009. Rosendo and his wife Genevieve are excited to carry Winter Moon into its next chapter and to continue growing and distributing roots to all of of you!
Anything else you would like me to feature? Anything that you are doing to respond to the COVID-19 crisis?
We had a great harvest in fall 2020, and we were proud to be able to donate around 20,000 lbs of roots to the Greater Boston Food Banks as well as several non-profit, food access organizations throughout MA. The 2021 growing season was more difficult with the persistent rains, but we were still able to make sizable donations to the Food Banks and other non-profits and we are proud to continue working with them in future years as well.
