It's kind of hard to tie vegetables in with Christmas. I've been thinking about this all week and was hoping I could come up with some kind of humorous connection between Baby Jesus and fresh vegetables.

But I can't.

Instead, maybe I should reflect back on the great year we've had here at North Star Farms. Our crops were planted late because I was on National Guard active duty, then, we had extreme heat in late July and a drought the second half of the summer. If that wasn't enough, we received our first frost on Sept. 12.

Despite that, it was a fantastic year. Our garlic crop was better than expected and we even had enough pumpkins so the kids could have jack-o-lanterns at Halloween. 

It's also been a good year in another way. Ilene was elected as secretary-treasurer of the North Dakota Farmers Market and Growers Association in March and I was elected to the board of directors.

When she and I got married nearly five years ago, she said she would never marry a farmer, but here she is planting and harvesting vegetables and operting the financial end of a statewide farm organization.

We'll take a few days off now during Christmas and will begin ordering seeds for the 2008 crop just before the end of the year.

But for now, it's Christmas: Time for family and friends, visits, gift exchanges and remembering that Christ was born in Bethlehem, which is really why we celebrate this holiday.

Merry Christmas to all our customers this past season who helped in making this a successful year for North Star Farms. We honor your patronage and hope to see you all next year as we once again will strive to provide the best certified organic produce to the residents of western North Dakota.

Merry Christmas!