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.
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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