Whitsend Market Garden

Update as of Oct 31:

Thanks to those of you who have made the early commitment for next year's harvest, and have taken advantage of the 15% discount.  This will allow me to pre-order much of the seed at a discount. 

The 2013 production plan is slowly coming into focus, a lot of tweaking will continue for the next month or three.

I have a rough draft of what the season menue will look like, and a peak at the basket contents for full and half shares.

Most of our customer base appears to be concentrating in two areas of the city - Glebe/Old Ottawa South; and Kanata/Stittsville.

I'm looking forward to next year's planting, harvesting, and eating.  In the meantime, I remain focused on getting as much field preparation finished for next year.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on the next full harvest day, November 9th!

Bob

Update as of Oct 13th - The Garlic is in the ground for next year!!!  We planted several varieties.  Last year, the Prussian White and Fish Lake did well, so we reserved some for seed.  I was surprised by the performance of the Korean Purple and French Rocambole (Eastern Ontario is better suited to Porcelain varieties than Rocamboles), so we reserved some of those as well, and supplemented them with additional seed cloves from our Garlic seed source.

New varieties are being tried this year as well.  These include Gourmet Red, German Red, and Ukrainian.  Persian Star is another new one for this year, looks stunning and has a mild, oily flavour! 


Hey Folks:

How quickly things change. Two weeks ago, the beds were full of produce, the flowers were in full bloom, the paths were mowed...now the fruit plants are dying back, beds are emptying out, and hoses are being drained, coiled, and hauled in for storage.

Two frosts later, there is still plenty of activity out in the field, in the barn, and out in the community.

New flyers are going out as I prospect new customers for next year. If you are interested, do not delay! I will offer a 15% discount for the first two customers to sign (or re-sign) for next year. Full payment required by Nov 1st. This allows me to pre-order next year’s seed at a discount – a saving that I am passing on to you.

Extra produce still available through our farm gate store. New prices and items available. An opportunity to sample what we have to offer for next year.  I will consider some bulk purchases on a case by case basis, if you are interested in larger quantities than advertised in our store.  We have a variety of Potato and a variety of Carrot that are good for long term storage.

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful tools a small business can have for getting the word out, so please go forth and communicate.

The field is rapidly expanding. The wet weather of the past couple of weeks has softened the ground considerably, and new beds are being built. This entails aerating the soil, removing many rocks, and raking dead grass and pulled up roots from the surface.

In the meantime, old residues are pulled out and sent to build new compost windrows.

A few crops still coming in, such as the last of the Kidney beans and potatoes.

Most exciting are the late fall, cold tolerant crops.

During my internship at Elmtree Farm, I noticed that most of the farms that we visited had some area of specialization, in addition to the standard market garden fare. As I sketched out various brainstorms in my cabin at Elmtree, I wondered what my farm’s area of specialization might be. If there were Oak trees and a pond, I might grow Shitake mushrooms. If there was a poorly drained, wet area, I might try Raspberries. If the farm came with a green house, I might try micro greens…I concluded at the time that it was impossible to know. The farm site would play the major role in determining the farm’s area of specialization.

As I started building the Whitsend site last year, I returned to this question. The field was a flat square of uniform sandy loam soil. A blank slate. No obvious suggestions.

I had located and retained the farm late in the season, and did not start my first deliveries until July. This limited my growing season, and so I began to develop some plans for season extension to get me through the first season. As the season progressed into fall, I realized that my farm had indeed chosen my area of specialization – season extension.

I did some additional research over the past winter, and learned about season extension techniques past and present that allowed farmers and gardeners to produce food well into the winter (even in our Ottawa climate).

I tried a bit of very early growing this year (early peas and greens in mid May), and learned several valuable lessons for next year.

As this summer progressed, crops for late fall were planted and the dates recorded. Timing is so important and very site specific! Too early, and the crops would be harvest ready before late fall; too late, and they would not be mature before being covered in snow or frozen into the ground.

One of the variables I had to take into account included the “solar climate”. At a certain point in the year (early September seems to be the cut-off point at Whitsend’s line of latitude), the leaf growth starts to slow down due to the shorter days. With that in mind, I now know that leaf plants such as Lettuce have to be nearing full size by early September. After they have reached this stage, it is simply a matter of moderating their microclimate until their scheduled weekly harvest.

Many crops are still in the ground, protected by row covers, poly tunnels, and straw. Still plenty to eat over the next 5 weeks…Spinach, Lettuce, Potatoes, Chard, Kale, Green Onions, Carrots, Leeks, Parsley, Brussels Sprouts, Beets…

See you Friday

Bob

P.S. – please pass on the word about the farm gate store! Still plenty of food to eat for those who have not yet arrived at Whitsend…