May On The Farm

Farmer Andrea has been busy this Spring getting ready for the 2017 CSA + Market Season! Spreadsheets, Seed Catalogues, Sterilizing Seedling Trays, SEEDS, Planting, all part of the Farm Lyfe.

Photo credit: Andrea Nickerson + rashel t

Seedlings Indoors …

Photo credit: Andrea Nickerson + rashel t

Seedlings Outdoors …

Photo credit: Andrea Nickerson

Over-wintered and self-seeded Spring surprises …

Scallions, Gorgeous Lettuces that popped up in beds, outside of beds, gorgeous Lettuce everywhere! Photo credit: rashel t.

Every year we let a couple of broody Hens hatch out a clutch of eggs. We don’t purposely breed them so they become Tremblay Farm Mixies. Farm child Oddy wanted to make sure we had some new chicks this season and Farmer Mike (Pepe) helped get them all set up before his major heart surgery this Spring.

These Mamas are very protective of their babies. Here they are showing their newly hatched offspring how to scratch and forage for grains and seeds. After eating very little while incubating their eggs these Mamas are ravenous! Photo credit rashel t.

 

Interesting things found around the farm in May …

Wallflower, ancient Pear Tree covered in blossoms, Wild Ginger, Fungus, Lilac, Chives with Busy Bees, Kildeer eggs, Scat, Insect Eggs. Photo credit: rashel t.

While Farmer Rashel is taking a break from Market Gardening they are turning their focus towards creating and maintaining a new Wild Space in an awkward part of the farm. This will serve as an Insectary (habitat) for beneficial insects + pollinators, as well as a space for Medicinal Plants. The focus is primarily on Indigenous Perennials and self-seeding annuals with the goal of having the space be self-sufficient and diverse, as well as a place to learn from and harvest medicines.

Plantain infusing in oil, Chamomile, Nettles. Photo credit: rashel t.

This blog will have a different focus in 2017. Instead of being a weekly round-up of farm happenings and seasonal veggies it will be a monthly update of interesting things found around the farm, musings on gardening with children, current experimentations in permaculture and sustainable ecological food growing.

Our “little” garden this year – only 15 4×18 ft beds – and our new little helper. Toddler S is a natural forager! Photo credit: rashel t.

More fun around the farm in May …

The big farm children take the toddler on adventures, pea shoot snacks, plants in flower / seed saving, rainbow, potatoes planted by Rashel + Toddler S in an experimental hay bale bed, carrots, flooding. Photo credit: Mike Tremblay, rashel t.

Unsurprisingly Rashel’s favourite bed is the most diverse one. Lettuce self-seeded, Parsley over-wintered, Sunflowers showed up, and Rashel didn’t want to remove anything so they planted seedlings in the available spaces. Trying out Celeriac + storage Kohlrabi for the first time. Also planted Collards, Brussel Sprouts, and Radnips.

Photo credit: rashel t

A new experiment this year is Trench Composting. This bed was in need of remediation so it was the perfect first experiment. A trench was dug out of the middle of the bed and in it’s place we placed unfinished compost and seaweed. Various squashes have been planted in to the middle where the compost is. If this is successful we will do a variation on this in years to come. Each year one third of a bed will be dug out and composting materials thrown in as the season progresses. The following year we will plant on top of the trench, rotating which area gets the compost from year to year.

Photo credit: rashel t

We are also experimenting with more Companion Planting, with plants in closer quarters in our 4 by 18 foot raised beds. Some friends include: Peas + Carrots with Lettuce; Cucumbers + Squash with Radishes + Beans; Alyssum all over but especially near Lettuces; Garlic + Tomatoes with Basil; Marigolds + Pole Beans.

Looking forward to sharing more Cute Creatures, Garden Stories, and Farm Lyfe with everyone 🙂

Newly hatched Praying Mantis in a pot of Succulents. Photo credit: Andrea Nickerson.

 

 

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Week 3, Tasty and Lovely

As we’re going into Week 3 we’re amazed at the variety of veggies we have so early in the season! Considering that every year we’ve been in operation we didn’t start until mid-June it’s so lovely to see the fruits of our labours from last year paying off.

Week 3 – Rainbow Chard, Parsley, Garlic Scapes, baby Garlic, Broccoli, Radnips, Cilantro, Wild Rainbow Salad Mix, Rainbow Kale, fresh Mint, Chives, Rainbow Radishes.

The Vegetable of the Week is ……Salad Mix!

Otherwise known as Wild Rainbow Salad Mix, each bag is unique and pops with flavour! We love a salad with flavour and colour and so unique you can’t find it anywhere but our farm. We use a combination of salad greens such as Gourmet Salad Mix, Red Planet, Sulu, Vulcan, Lovelock, a large variety of Romaines (to come later), Salanova, and some other secret varieties 😉 We also include baby spinach, fennel, dill, purlsane, wild spinach, arugula, mustard greens, spicy Asian greens, vivid choi, parsley, baby bok choy, edible flowers (arugula, chives, nasturtiums, calendula, clover, and more), and other seasonal surprises. In our opinion our salads are best enjoyed with a light vinaigrette dressing and on sandwiches, wraps, and burgers (veggie or meat). Farm child Faenin’s favourite dressing is olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, garlic powder (made with garlic scapes), and nutritional yeast. We also enjoy eating the salads straight out of the bag. Salads can be made more delicious using more fresh parsley, fresh cilantro, fresh dill, rainbow radishes, radnips (the tops are also a salad green), broccoli, kale, chard, garlic, scallions, or grilled mushrooms.

Couldn’t decide which picture I liked best!

Make sure you wash the salad mix again – we try our best to get out the grass, woody bits, bad parts, and dirt, but we mainly wash the greens “to take off the heat of the field” so that the greens stay fresh. If your salad greens seem too wet in their bag you can try spinning them again or removing the moisture with a towel and then returning them to their bag so that they stay fresh for as long as possible. Our salad mixes will stay fresh for up to 2 weeks as they’re picked within 24 hours of market + pickup and we do our best to chill them as quickly as possible. Salad is available almost every week of the CSA (it’s sometimes too hot during Summer to get the seeds to germinate or to grow).

We have been tossing around the idea of creating Green Smoothie mixes again – is there any interest in this? Please let us know if this is something we should offer again. This would be a mix of wild, foraged greens and flowers to be used in green smoothies.

Broccoli, Calendula, baby Garlic, Cilantro, fresh Nettles, Horseradish, Leeks.

Courtesy of the farm children …. Jokes for the week!

Q: Why did the Kale blush?

A: Because it saw the Salad dressing.

Knock, Knock
Who’s there? Lettuce
Lettuce who?
Lettuce in and you’ll find out.

and the classic …

This week marks the return of bunched Rainbow Kale and Rainbow Chard. Garlic Scapes and Broccoli are just starting to come on. It will be the last of the Rainbow Radishes and Radnips for a week or two. This is the last week for “gallions” / “scarlic” / baby garlic. Fresh herbs available this week: sage, oregano, dill, chives, mint, parsley, arugula, cilantro, and thyme. We’ll have portabello mushrooms available this week for those that enjoyed them on special last week.

A reminder that fresh flowers can be used with member credits when picking up at the farm.

Join us at the farm Saturday June 18th for a Foraging Walk and Plant sale with Wheatley Woods. Details at Market Events and on Facebook.

We had some lovely rains this past week and with the rain came some “aliens” ….

Cedar Rust

After an unfortunate start and troubles with a supplier we finally managed to get our Tomato + Watermelon seedlings to size and planted! The farm children were falling over themselves at the chance to plant their favourites, Watermelons! Better late than never.

Thanks to ShopEco for these lovely pictures of our market day ….

And thank you to Andrea for these lovely farm pics to end things off for this week …

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Opening Day and Update for May

By the time many of you read this we’ll have officially opened for the season! Our first market is Saturday May 28th and it also marks the beginning of the Community Supported Agriculture – CSA – weekly member basket program!

Our veggie of the week is CARROTS!

Carrots originally and naturally came in colours such as purple, red, and white. Some are red on the outside and purple on the inside, or purple on the outside and white on the inside. So many Carrots to choose from! These Carrots have been happily living and growing all Winter long and in our experience the best keeping carrots are the purple ones, the orange ones didn’t fare so well.

These Carrots are best suited for cooking so here is a collection of recipe ideas to spice up the humble Carrot ~ http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/20-carrot-recipes/16/ – these recipes also use other seasonal veggies such as kale, parsley, and garlic, and includes easy pickled carrots ; http://damndelicious.net/2015/01/17/garlic-roasted-carrots/ – also uses thyme and parsley ; http://www.therawtarian.com/raw-carrot-refrigerator-cake-recipe  ; http://www.theroastedroot.net/raw-carrot-pasta-ginger-lime-peanut-sauce/ ; http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/recipes.html Carrots have their own museum website!

Jokes of the week (a new weekly item that the farm children wanted to start) :

Q: What did one carrot say to the other carrot?

A: Is it orange in here, or is it just me?

Q: What did the other carrot say back?

A: Hang on a minute while I root around for the answer!

 

 

What’s orange and sounds like a parrot?

A carrot!

 

How do you make gold soup?

Put 24 carrots in it!

 

What’s a vegetables favourite martial art?

Carrottee!

Carrots make for the funniest pictures

 

Since we’re being joined by the Cheese Bar for our opening day a cheese joke:

What cheese is made backwards?

Edam!

One last joke for one more seasonal item we have this week:

What is small, red, and whispers?

A hoarse radish!

(We have horseradish root available!)

Other seasonal veggies we have available for Week 1 (items vary depending upon location: Scallions (green onions), Baby Garlic (we’re debating calling it Scarlick or Gallions as it’s a mix of Garlic and Scallions – a truly unique product! an experiment that we tried that turned out perfectly!), Parsley, Salad Mix, Baby Kale, Arugula, Chives, Fennel Fronds, Leeks, Portabello Mushrooms, Potted Basil, Dried Herbs and Herbal Teas, Seedlings (including Sweet Peppers, Ghost + Scorpion Peppers, Kale, Chard, Scallions), Potted Coneflower, Flower Bouquets, and Maple Trees.

Walking Onions, Salad Mix, Baby Garlic, Spinning Lettuce, Fennel

 

Local honey products and pickled products

The farm children are inviting you to come this way ….

Updates on what we’ve been up to ….

We’re trying a new pest control method this year – Nematodes. They are soil dwelling creatures that prey on other creatures while not harming beneficial insects such as earthworms. If this shows success we’ll switch to this method of insect control completely.

Scanmask organic pest control ~ http://www.biologicco.com/products/scanmask/lawn-and-garden-scanmask

We had a busy weekend planting most of our heat-loving crops. First we have to lay down the plastic mulch…..

Then we can use the water wheel planter…..

Squash Seedling, Cooperation, Baby Watching us work

This year we’re going to focus on harvesting more medicinal and beneficial herbs to share with our members and out community. We’ll be drying them for teas and making tinctures and salves.

Nettles + Motherwort hang as though in an art gallery

 

Mint + Lemon Balm hanging to dry

Even our Plantain is a magickal purple colour ….

Plantain will make it’s way into healing salves

We’re adding new herbs to our gardens as well …

Lavender, Sweet Grass, Yarrow, Bee Balm, and more

On Mother’s Day we found the time to hold ceremony with some very special local Knowledge Keepers (Elders), and to plant Trees. We planted over 100 different native species.

 

We held our first Seedling Sale at ShopEco on Mother’s Day weekend and it was so successful that we’ll be holding it again next year! And this time we’ll be ready for the hordes of folks interested in organically-grown seedlings for their home gardens.

Photo courtesy of ShopEco

New this year, we’re trying to grow Celery, if we’re successful it will be for members only. So far they look great!

Every blog has to have an amazing photograph of the simple beauty of the farm as captured by our amazing farm friend Andrea.

Bumblebee and Magnolia Tree

And last but not least a cool panaromic view of our HUGE Garlic patch….

 

 

 

 

 

 

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April Update + News

Happy April everyone!

Let’s get to some news before we get to farm updates 🙂

Happy Honey Bees; Overwintered Purple Sprouting Broccoli

We are now CLOSED to new members who want ShopEco as their pickup location, we are FULL! Exceptions will be made for returning members only but they must let us know by May 18th.

We are still accepting members at our farm location, May 18th is the deadline to sign up.

Our season will start on Saturday May 28th at our on-farm market. Special guests for opening day, The Cheese Bar, a local company with plenty of cheeses to sample.

For members who are already signed up – we will be sending out welcome emails with details of where and when the season will begin, and important membership information. We’ll be asking you to let us know which share style you prefer (if you haven’t already told us), and which early bird special you want (if applicable).

Paid members can also take advantage of our Referral Program. If you refer someone who becomes a paid member your name will be entered into a draw to win $100 worth of produce. Please share our Membership Information if you have friends or family who live near our farm!

We are holding a monthly contest on our Facebook page and winners get a gift certificate for $15 worth of our on-farm produce.

If you’re looking for organically-grown seedlings for your home garden join us at our farm on Sunday May 15th from 10 am to 1 pm where we will be joined by Wheatley Woods (you can also find them on Facebook) for Food, Fruit, and Forage: Plant + Seedling sale. All the details will be posted on our Facebook Event Page. We’re also planning a special Foraging Walk in conjunction with Wheatley Woods in late June.

Seedlings growing well in the greenhouse.

We have so many exciting events planned for every Saturday at the farm and we are still in the planning stages for more events to come! Check back in often to our Events page  and on our Facebook page for full details on events and opportunities such as: a traditional, ceremonial 3 Sisters Mound building event; a foraging walk at River Bell in Dresden in mid-May that will also include a foraged meal at a local restaurant; chef demonstrations; hands-on workshops; details on a “Kid’s Gardening Club” (we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback for this!); weekly freshly-pressed seasonal juices by subscription at the farm on Saturdays (let us know if you’re interested or want more information); options for ordering through our new ONFC buying club; and drop-in yoga several mornings a week.

Through all of our busy planning we’ve also been busy planting! Onions, scallions, red cabbage, broccoli, cilantro, and peas have all made their way into our luscious soil and are enjoying the delicious soft rain. If you want to know more about what varieties we are growing check out our Veggies! page, some of our varieties have lovely stories about their heritage (links included with variety listings).

Whoever says children don’t value hard work, getting dirty, and where their food comes from has perhaps never given a child the chance to spend the day on a working farm. Our neighbour friend, who usually comes over to play video games, couldn’t wait to come and work on the farm. He was excited at every job he was given, enjoyed being able to eat Kale straight off the plant and being able to harvest his own Carrot salad. He can’t wait to come back each week!

Spring also signals the return of nourishing greens …. These are surprises we found that had over-wintered and survived our “Winter” ….

Wild Arugula; Spinach

Looking forward to the next Farm update and in finalizing all of our plans for the season!

 

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Closing Time

This coming week is a bittersweet time at the farm and in our farming lives. This week marks the end of a hard, busy, and rewarding season. It also marks the beginning of much needed time for rest and repose. In the final weeks of the farming season we are simultaneously burned out, weary from a job we love, filled with a sense of accomplishment, with hearts and thoughts full of planning for the next season, and a deep gratitude for the new friends and community we have created in our world full of sunshine and dirty hands.

We have many people to thank for the successes of the 2015 season – our wonderful intern and friend Andrea N, our 3 awesome farm children, Marie W, Siobhan P, Amanda P, Jen R and her 2 children, Farmhand Andy, Jean T, Cara and her 3 children, Tavis L, Renee + Norm and their 2 children, Paul T, Nat T, Joce T, Steve + Jude, Union Herbs, our 2 retail partners – ShopEco and Take Back The Farm, Chef Ben, The Beacon Alehouse, the managers and vendors at the Belle River Farmers’ Market,  and last but not least all of our wonderful customers. Thank you everyone!

Some of the highlights and #workperks of our farm life….

As Angie From Fertile Ground Farm said best, on Facebook, “Garlic planting – the first non-retractable act of commitment to the 2016 season.”

And because this wasn’t enough we laid down more plastic to plant even more garlic, approximately 2,340 cloves that will each turn into 1 head garlic have been planted!

It’s a cooperative family effort.

While Andrea found a new calling and her next vehicle purchase ….

Some of our beautiful rainbow-coloured produce from last week….

Some veggies to look forward to this week include (some items are in limited quantities and may not be available at all locations) : baby kale + bunched kale + parsley that have all been sweetened up by the frosts; salad mix; sweet peppers; tomatoes; tomatillos; beets; hakurei turnips; radishes; leeks; brussel sprouts; cauliflower; broccoli; salsify + scorzonera; fresh mint, dill, fennel, and chives; dried herbs like oregano, sage, thyme, and rosemary; vivid choi, rutabagas.

We’re highlighting 2 items this week – chard and watermelon radishes. Facebook friend Jess Mc shared a link for many ideas to use up chard including her own spicy pickled chard recipe (“Very simple recipe. Garlic and pickling spices in jar – then chard. Boil apple cider and white vinegar with a bit of maple syrup & hot sauce and s&p. Pour over the chard and voila!!!!”) and 19 Chard Recipes For Fall that includes recipes like Soup, Rolls, Pesto, Salads, Smoothies, Curry, and Pasta dishes. And some more ideas for veggies that can be pickled We Can Pickle That! Watermelon radishes are a pickled treat and National Geographic shared this Quick Pickled Watermelon Radish recipe. And Phickle shares some radish pickling recipes as well.

Don’t forget we are also carrying these limited edition 2016 calendars from local Nature Enthusiast Allen W of Nature Nuggets!

We will still have a limited supply of some veggies like lettuce and kale/chard and whatever else manages to survive until a hard frost hits. We will send out an email to our local farm-pickup folks but if you are local and don’t want to be on the list let us know. Or if you are from Windsor and *do* want to be on the list let us know. We can pick you some veggies and leave them in our on-farm self-serve fridge while supplies last. Members can also send us an email if they’re missing and craving their local produce.

Thank you to everyone who supported our small-scale ecologically-grown local food business this year! Looking forward to next season and keep your eye out for details on our program for 2016 – we are busy planning new changes, including a longer season for receiving your fresh produce! Let us know if you are ready to sign up for next season 🙂

Proud member and active participants with the EFAO!

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On the twelfth week of the season…..

….we have planted the last of the seeds for the season – carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, winter radishes, lettuce, and kohlrabi. Sadly, despite all of our efforts, the brassicas and bok choy seedlings were devoured so there won’t be late season cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower.

It’s also the end of field cucumbers for the season though they didn’t perform very well this year, and the end of tomatoes is sadly coming closer then we’d like it to.

I had a bit too much fun photographing these gorgeous heirloom ‘Copia’ tomatoes.

There is only a little bit of fennel left but there is more coming later. If you haven’t tried it yet then you have time to try this recipe that a member shared with us.

Fennel Fronds Pesto

by Wendy Rose

Ingredients:

2 cups fennel fronds, stemmed removed and packed

1/2 cup almond flour or slivered almonds

2 tbsp hemp hearts

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 – 1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients into a high powered blender and blend until smooth.

There will be small amounts of rainbow kale and rainbow chard again, perfect time to try this recipe from chef Dan at the Beacon Alehouse –

Caprese salad on a bed of kale and chard, with heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, bocconcini cheese, and a balsamic reduction.

Also available this week: delicious salad mixes, broccoli, parsley, beans, salad turnips, sweet snacking peppers, eggplant, slicing and sauce tomatoes, very limited amounts of cherry tomatoes (for the rest of the season), limited amount of onions as our stock has almost run out (this was a trial year for growing onions so we didn’t grow very many but they performed very well so they will get more space in the gardens next season!), limited amounts of scallions, a variety of squash (if I find the time this week I will post a full list of what varieties you might find throughout the rest of the season), herbs such as rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, and basil – this is a great time to order extra basil for making large batches of pesto that you can freeze for the winter just send us an email and we’ll make sure to bring you extra. No picture but we found big and beautiful purple top turnips as well this week! And of course we’ll have garlic. In case you’re not convinced of the power of locally-grown garlic here’s an article we shared on facebook this week about garlic grown in China….http://www.realfarmacy.com/bleached-chemical-garlic-china-how-to-spot/

And as a follow up from last week’s talk of the health benefits of colourful vegetables – Surprising Health Benefits of Purple Carrots.

Last week’s market displays.

Coming soon….

Can we make Halloween cool in September? We’ll see….we will see….

As an experiment we are going to try cooking up some rainbow chard root – if you’ll remember it’s the same plant as beet but with an “ugly” root – stay tuned for those results because if it’s yummy….you’ll be seeing this new root soon enough!

As a final note, some folks are getting concerned that they may not be able to use up their credits before the end of the season. Please feel free to ask me or whomever is at the market tables what you can buy in larger quantities and easily preserve for the winter. There are always pickles and honey, too. But also, please let us know if there is something you want to see us bring in larger quantities that you can buy in bulk or just some veggies you’d like to see more of. Some examples are potatoes, sweet potatoes, storage onions, portabello’s. We will see what we can source locally that is ecologically-grown and what other growers may have in abundance. Let us know what you’d like to see and we will do our best to bring it in!

Dried herbs ready to be jarred and used for winter cooking.

ps. I had the twelve days of Christmas song in my head as a title but nothing clever to go with it, sorry folks!

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Oh What A Week!

This has been a week of illness, injury and serious raining that has kept us from being able to be at some of our pickup locations and seriously hampered our ability to get into the fields and do more planting. A very big thank you to Marie, Deb, Andrea, Amanda, and Mike for stepping up and stepping in when they were needed. Big, big appreciation for these folks. Note: We are open this holiday Wednesday for CSA pickups and for our on-farm market at our regular time of 4 – 7 pm. We’ve had to look at our plans and to abandon some crops as it’s just too late to be able to plant them at this point. So sad to not have a Watermelon crop this year though we managed to sneak a few in for a small crop because otherwise the farm children would never have stopped pestering us to plant them. There is still a chance we’ll get more Cucumbers and Squash in but that possibility is slim at this point. There are many crops still waiting to be planted and we’re not sure what the veggie offerings are going to look like in several weeks from now with such a large gap in our planting schedule, only time will tell. Life around the farm this week as told in picture collages….

From top L – Beets are germinated and waiting for the Rain to cease to be planted; Squash blossoms; Itty bitty Tomatoes fruiting in their tray!; Beans inter-planted with Chard have blossoms and small fruit!

From top L – Fungi popping up everywhere; Unidentified Caterpillar; Zebra Caterpillar (a crop damaging insect); Brussel Sprouts looking good under floating row cover. This week we’ve also seen a Grasshopper emerging from it’s old “skin” and Tortoise Beetles being “born” and feasting on Thistles (yay!) as well as several Snakes who are helping our Farm Cat take care of the Mole/Vole/Mouse problem.

From top L – Cool view of our greenhouse; more Beehives have arrived!; beautiful Rainbow Chard; Pumpkin Patch (with BIG thanks to Daniel, Tammy, and fam for helping to lay down the rotted hay between the rows).

From our Facebook page this week….

It was a thrill to get some of our produce into the hands of the chef at the Iron Kettle in Comber!

An awesome foraging walk around the farm for Wild Strawberries, Mulberries, and Service Berries – we had a feast! A young friend picked himself a “tree” as a “treat to-go”. Most of the Mulberries will have been knocked down from all the wind now….sadly for us humans.

Swallowtail Caterpillar eating Dill: There’s enough for everyone; CSA pickup outside ShopEco.

How to properly store our Rainbow Salad Mix: Spin dry or pat dry the leaves and then store in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge, add a towel for extra moisture absorption. We got an industrial salad spinner this week that will dry off the leafy greens more efficiently so that your Salad Mix lasts longer. It is possible to change your pickup location if you need to make a change. Just let me know 1 day in advance that you want to pick up at a different location so that I can plan to bring enough produce. This week’s crop list (as far as I can tell without having been out harvesting due to the torrential rain and winds): Sugar Snap Peas – they have plumped up and sweetened up, a really delicious seasonal treat! There will be some Purple Peas mixed in there, too, a new crop we’re trialing this year. Wild Rainbow Salad Mix, Rainbow Kale, Rainbow Chard, Dill, Arugula, a limited number of Scallions (green onions), mini-cucumbers, mushrooms, portabellos, and eggplant. I hope to find something new as a surprise….you never know what you might find out there! One last note – if you’re ever willing able to help out at the farm we won’t turn down an offer of help! We’d love for every member to see the farm at least once so that you know how and where your food is grown so please let us know if you’d like to come out and see us!

Garlic is coming soon!
Thanks to Andrea Nickerson for most of the photo credits in this post!

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Planting time!

We’ve been busy planting thousands of seedlings and now we wait for the rain to water them!

Our farm is always a family affair and our waterwheel planter allows even the youngest family member to help out with planting. From the top, left to right: Getting the black plastic laid down; Being silly; 2 folks can plant at once and our 15 year old follows behind to make sure every seedling is properly planted; Black plastic makes a great mulch and keeps seedlings warm even in a frost; Our wonderful intern for this year; Planting; Our 10 year old is planting Tomatoes; Our 8 year old is planting Peppers.

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April Showers Bring May Flowers

Spring has sprung and that means our farming season is well underway!

Creating new easy-to-install and easy-to-remove covers for our raised beds. These are protecting our Bok Choi from possible frost from cold nights and from the Flea Beetles that munch on them. We’re installing these new covers on all of our raised beds.

Filling up more beds. We are truly a family farm as everyone helps – from the youngest to the eldest. 4 generations work together to make it all happen. A large tarp is smothering weeds and will be the space used for our seedlings to harden off.

Our cute little greenhouse! We planted out these Bok Choi, Salad, Parsley, and Scallions seedlings. We also planted Cilantro and Peas – trialing a new purple variety this year!

2 new specialty roots we are trialing this year – Salsify and Scorzonera – we hear they are delicious to humans and pollinators alike. We’ve never seen such interesting seeds!

Our friends over at Our One Acre Farm recently put up a post that sums up the Permaculture principles we apply on our farm when planning and planting, they can be adapted to any size garden ~ http://ouroneacrefarm.com/permaculture-principles-for-practical-gardeners-and-farmers/

Now it’s time to get back outside and enjoy the glorious Sun, happy May days everyone!

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