Update June 21:
New post up shortly, with pix. Just have to give it a once over (besides supper is ready and I can't write about food on an empty stomach).
"This Weeks Harvest" page is updated...
Bob
Update June 4th:
Able to access the net again - go figure, it was unavailable to me last night. My digital box is heading back to the shop for another round of cleaning and reinstalling. If that doesn't work, I guess it will be time to give up on the world wide sieve and go back to bush telegraph, or smoke signals, or carrier pidgeon...
Food continues to be planted and or transplanted. A veritable parade of plants and seeds - more potatoes, more lettuce, more fennel and cress. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
Those of you who were with us last year may recall the ongoing wrestling match with the monster Zuchini plants. I have co-opted the same variety this year, and turned it to my advantage.
First off, some back ground. I tried a new variety last year - Dunja Zuchini. It was described by the seed house as a "compact plant with vigorous fruit set". Having been disappointed with the yield of the previous two varieties, I gave it a try. Wanting to ensure that I had enough fruits, I optimistically transplanted 8 plants into a bed in the field, figuring that Dunja being a compact plant, it would have plenty of space. This was not to be.
First off, by the time it was apparent that these compact plants were not, they were spreading out over the adjacent beds, covering the beets on the south side of the bed, and shading the lettuces on the north side. Second, the seed house failed to mention the sheer pricklyness of this variety, making work on the lettuce and beets somewhat painful, not to mention awkward. The Zuke plants were so big that they covered the path - work was impossible without stepping on their spreading leaves and stems. This made little difference to the plants, they just kept growing.
As for the vigorous fruit set, it was a daily task to pick the fruits before they were buried in the foliage and or became too big for anything other than Zuchini bread*. And the fruits kept coming. And coming. There was a box of fruits every harvest day for a couple of weeks, I was handing them out to each customer who wanted extra - fortunately, some of you were happy to oblige. We ate as much as we could. (Every sandwich and stew I made included a few slices. There was still some to return to return to the compost for "next years food".
I'm not sure if these Zukes were to blame, but they were the first squash I have ever grown that attracted squash beetles. We've had cucumber beetles before, these were a new insect for me. Pick and squash sweeps were successful, at least when the bugs were on the perimeter of the plants. More of these insects could be seen in the heart of the squash jungle, but these were almost arms length from what was left of the path. As well, the spiny stems put one at risk from lacerations when reaching into these thickets.
So the bugs multiplied and only seemed to encourage the Zukes to out-grow the damage, setting more fruit and spreading more leaves. A few discouraging words were heard on the range. (Squirrels love to eat squash flowers, I wanted to start throwing them into the plants in order to keep their little paws out of the nursery and reduce the number of fruits setting). One of my customers "helped out" by taking a bag full of flowers to cook.
Finally, enough was enough, and Randy and I took the machetes to the plants, slashing one of my irrigation hoses and scratching our arms and hands in the process. The plants were carefully carried out, buried in the compost, and forgotten until the squash beetles appeared in the pumpkins.
This spring, I found a few stunted adult squash beetles in the undergrowth, they appeared to be subsisting on whatever they could consume. Knowing that they would go to the first squash plants to be transplanted this season, I started my zukes using the leftover seeds from last year. I planted them as far away as possible from everything (site of an old compost bed where I intend to build another flower garden next year).
They will be out of the way, have plenty of space to grow, and hopefully attract these beetles to an isolated corner of the field (not far from last year's pumpkins). They might even compete successfully with the cows parsley/wild celery (a rash causing plant that also grows vigorously in that area). Being near the road fence, they will augment the electric and barb-wire defences of the farm. And they are close enough to the hedgerow to hopefully trap some squirrels.
I planted half as many this year, and used the last of that seed. Please enjoy our Zuchini this year...
*(We discovered that large Zuchini sliced in half, stuffed with minced lamb and and seasoning's makes for a great meal).
Later...
First harvest in two weeks!
Update June 2nd:
We are still having intermittent internet issues, so please contact me by phone (at the bottom of the page) if you need to contact me. I was able to access this thing late last week, but not at all on the weekend.
Still looking for 2 interns....
One last share left! If interested, order soon. Please contact us by phone - I am USUALLY home after 7 pm, though the fact is this has been a bit of a awkward and unexpected week - see below...
Another milestone reached at Whitsend. Our two little pigs have arrived, and seem to be settling in.
It's a long story (worthy of another post), but we had to advance this project quite unexpectedly. First, the piglets pictured in a previous post last fall were the sows that were supposed to breed my piglets (a bit of a misinterpretation on my part with Flycreek Farm).
My pigs were to be born about a month ago. However, I received a note from Brandy that the sows had miscarried.
I scrambled! Everything that I had done with the east field for the past year was with the plan to have pigs clearing it. In other words, I had been dumping dandelion roots and clumps of quack grass turf into this area. If pigs were not introduced to eat these quick rooting plants, I would have been facing a veritable tidal wave of grass and flowers. Not good.
As well, I had already purchased the feed, purchased and planted forage crop, and collected numerous items required.
I was able to find two male Berkshire piglets through Brandy. So now they are at the farm, doing what contented pigs do. Such as try to wallow in the water dishes, test the taste and thickness (with their teeth) of my boots, and grunt thanks when I bring their feed ration.
Late in the afternoon and early evening, they start playing (which seems to involve chasing each other like crazy around their enclosure).
Within two days, they were trained to the electric fence. It took several tries with handfuls of oat grass to coax them into a new area of the field. They did not want to pass the point where the electric line had previously been.
Photos of pigs and farm up soon...interesting creatures.
Hey Folks:
New post up shortly, with pix. Just have to give it a once over (besides supper is ready and I can't write about food on an empty stomach).
"This Weeks Harvest" page is updated...
Bob
Update June 4th:
Able to access the net again - go figure, it was unavailable to me last night. My digital box is heading back to the shop for another round of cleaning and reinstalling. If that doesn't work, I guess it will be time to give up on the world wide sieve and go back to bush telegraph, or smoke signals, or carrier pidgeon...
Food continues to be planted and or transplanted. A veritable parade of plants and seeds - more potatoes, more lettuce, more fennel and cress. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
Those of you who were with us last year may recall the ongoing wrestling match with the monster Zuchini plants. I have co-opted the same variety this year, and turned it to my advantage.
First off, some back ground. I tried a new variety last year - Dunja Zuchini. It was described by the seed house as a "compact plant with vigorous fruit set". Having been disappointed with the yield of the previous two varieties, I gave it a try. Wanting to ensure that I had enough fruits, I optimistically transplanted 8 plants into a bed in the field, figuring that Dunja being a compact plant, it would have plenty of space. This was not to be.
First off, by the time it was apparent that these compact plants were not, they were spreading out over the adjacent beds, covering the beets on the south side of the bed, and shading the lettuces on the north side. Second, the seed house failed to mention the sheer pricklyness of this variety, making work on the lettuce and beets somewhat painful, not to mention awkward. The Zuke plants were so big that they covered the path - work was impossible without stepping on their spreading leaves and stems. This made little difference to the plants, they just kept growing.
As for the vigorous fruit set, it was a daily task to pick the fruits before they were buried in the foliage and or became too big for anything other than Zuchini bread*. And the fruits kept coming. And coming. There was a box of fruits every harvest day for a couple of weeks, I was handing them out to each customer who wanted extra - fortunately, some of you were happy to oblige. We ate as much as we could. (Every sandwich and stew I made included a few slices. There was still some to return to return to the compost for "next years food".
I'm not sure if these Zukes were to blame, but they were the first squash I have ever grown that attracted squash beetles. We've had cucumber beetles before, these were a new insect for me. Pick and squash sweeps were successful, at least when the bugs were on the perimeter of the plants. More of these insects could be seen in the heart of the squash jungle, but these were almost arms length from what was left of the path. As well, the spiny stems put one at risk from lacerations when reaching into these thickets.
So the bugs multiplied and only seemed to encourage the Zukes to out-grow the damage, setting more fruit and spreading more leaves. A few discouraging words were heard on the range. (Squirrels love to eat squash flowers, I wanted to start throwing them into the plants in order to keep their little paws out of the nursery and reduce the number of fruits setting). One of my customers "helped out" by taking a bag full of flowers to cook.
Finally, enough was enough, and Randy and I took the machetes to the plants, slashing one of my irrigation hoses and scratching our arms and hands in the process. The plants were carefully carried out, buried in the compost, and forgotten until the squash beetles appeared in the pumpkins.
This spring, I found a few stunted adult squash beetles in the undergrowth, they appeared to be subsisting on whatever they could consume. Knowing that they would go to the first squash plants to be transplanted this season, I started my zukes using the leftover seeds from last year. I planted them as far away as possible from everything (site of an old compost bed where I intend to build another flower garden next year).
They will be out of the way, have plenty of space to grow, and hopefully attract these beetles to an isolated corner of the field (not far from last year's pumpkins). They might even compete successfully with the cows parsley/wild celery (a rash causing plant that also grows vigorously in that area). Being near the road fence, they will augment the electric and barb-wire defences of the farm. And they are close enough to the hedgerow to hopefully trap some squirrels.
I planted half as many this year, and used the last of that seed. Please enjoy our Zuchini this year...
*(We discovered that large Zuchini sliced in half, stuffed with minced lamb and and seasoning's makes for a great meal).
Later...
First harvest in two weeks!
Update June 2nd:
We are still having intermittent internet issues, so please contact me by phone (at the bottom of the page) if you need to contact me. I was able to access this thing late last week, but not at all on the weekend.
Still looking for 2 interns....
One last share left! If interested, order soon. Please contact us by phone - I am USUALLY home after 7 pm, though the fact is this has been a bit of a awkward and unexpected week - see below...
Another milestone reached at Whitsend. Our two little pigs have arrived, and seem to be settling in.
It's a long story (worthy of another post), but we had to advance this project quite unexpectedly. First, the piglets pictured in a previous post last fall were the sows that were supposed to breed my piglets (a bit of a misinterpretation on my part with Flycreek Farm).
My pigs were to be born about a month ago. However, I received a note from Brandy that the sows had miscarried.
I scrambled! Everything that I had done with the east field for the past year was with the plan to have pigs clearing it. In other words, I had been dumping dandelion roots and clumps of quack grass turf into this area. If pigs were not introduced to eat these quick rooting plants, I would have been facing a veritable tidal wave of grass and flowers. Not good.
As well, I had already purchased the feed, purchased and planted forage crop, and collected numerous items required.
I was able to find two male Berkshire piglets through Brandy. So now they are at the farm, doing what contented pigs do. Such as try to wallow in the water dishes, test the taste and thickness (with their teeth) of my boots, and grunt thanks when I bring their feed ration.
Late in the afternoon and early evening, they start playing (which seems to involve chasing each other like crazy around their enclosure).
Within two days, they were trained to the electric fence. It took several tries with handfuls of oat grass to coax them into a new area of the field. They did not want to pass the point where the electric line had previously been.
Photos of pigs and farm up soon...interesting creatures.
Hey Folks:
Just a
quick update on the state of the farm and your food.
Our
computer troubles persist, but I am finding a way around them. It’s awkward and
time consuming, and not at all convienient.
I need to get this cleared up very soon.
If any of you are tech savvy (and can translate computerese into plain
English), I would gladly take some advice.
As for the
food, most of the growth is going well.
Other than onions, Parsley, and some Pepper/Tomato transplants,
everything is growing according to plan, and exceeding expectaions in many
cases.
We lost a
good intern! Angela is doing great, but
Scott had to leave for reasons beyond both of our control. I need at least one or two more. If you know of anyone interested in this
opportunity, PLEASE direct them to Whitsend.
I’m almost in a panic on this point.
Our two
little helpers are scheduled to arrive later this week. If you come out, be sure to say hello to them. They’ll be eating from my
trough and changing the constitution of my land…
Now for the
food.
The early
peas were very slow, and will probably catch up to the second round of
peas. Hope for some cool weather so we
can actually have a decent harvest of them.
In the
event that the peas shut down due to the heat, the green beans may well catch
up in time to replace them. They
germinated in three days (5-8 days being the normal in previous years for
me. Your best case scenario is a week or
two of 20 – 22 degree days (meaning lots of peas and beans all at once). In other words, a lot of time consuming picking
on my part. I’m hoping for cooler
weather to spread out the bean/pea harvest.
This is farming…probably wishful thinking.
The leaf
crops are doing well. I’m anticipating
some small lettuces to start the season, but for the second and third week, there
should be two small heads per basket. We’ll be
seeing a lot of green leaf initially. I
have found a red leaf that looks promising, an heirloom called “Les Orielles du
Diables”. The green and rose leaf
lettuce we had last year should be due in about the third or fourth week of
harvests.
The Spinach,
Mustard greens (Arugula, Tokyo Bekana, and Mibuna) and Pak Choi are off to a
good start as well. These should be
ready for the first harvest. We have
planted a lot of Spinach. Again, hope
for some cooler temperatures so I can get two harvests from each bed. The Coriander has also germinated well and
should be ready for its first harvest in early July, with a second, larger
harvest to follow shortly thereafter.
The Kale is
doing particularly well, and the Chard is not looking too bad either. We should see these fairly early in the
season (late June and early July respectively).
The New
Zealand Spinach is straining at the leash to get out to the field, all I need to do is
get the trellis up. It’s a new crop for
us. I have been told not to be too expectant on
the anmount of yield. With that in mind, I have already started the other
heat loving crops – Gold Purslane (high
in omega 3’s) and some red Amaranth for those of you who like veg Jamaican
patties.
Speaking of
Amaranth that reminds me of the flowers that have been transplanted into the
new rock garden. We have Oppopeos, jasmine
scented Nicotania, and Leopard Flowers coming up. The Zinnias and Safflowers are trying to grow their way out of the nursery, a little more bed cleaning is required to get their space
ready. The evening Primrose will be a
two year project, it is unlikely that they will flower this season.
Our Thyme
did exceptionally well in the nursery, we transplanted almost a dozen seedlings
two weeks ago. We aslo got the Oregano out
this year. The Rosemary is coming
along. The planter for it still needs to
be cleaned out, thankfully, Rosemary is a very slow grower. We started the season with one Lemon Balm,
which died when the nursery froze in late February (What happened to my my
first round of Bulb Onions and Tomatoes!)
We have since manged to get a second plant started. As it is a mint family crop, that shoud be
more than enough to fill the field in a year or two, as the catnip we started
two years ago has taken a very similar path.
One plant in the old rock garden has propogated so well that it is now
found in the furthest reaches of the field.
Speaking of extraordinary growth, almost every garlic clove I planted last fall has emerged.
I tried
every trick I know of to get the first round of carrots to germinate sooner,
but they appear to have waited again. Infra-red plastic mulch, extra water, full sun for the afternoons. They are up and are growing
according to an early to mid July harvest schedule. Now that the second round of carrots are
starting to appear, the quantity for the late July carrots should be substantial.
As well, the beds were prepped and amended with compost late last season, so
they are very weed free and thus will be easy to thin out for some good sized roots.
It may have been too hot too soon for the Parsnips,
I have only seen a couple of sprouts so far.
This crop is tricky as it requires cool soil to germinate, and the
germination period is almost three weeks under ordinary circumstances. Not ideal for typical Eastern Ontario spring weather. If they appear to fail, then the bed will be cleaned and the Parsnips replaced with more fall carrots.
Still in
the carrot family, the coriander is growing well (though i made the mistake of
planting it for whole plant harvesting as opposed to the cut and come again method).
I started a second round a bit early to make up for this.
Speaking of
late, I was so afraid of loosing my Basil seeds due to nursery issues that I
held off on starting it two weeks ago (it’s another slow grower, and very
sensitive to temperature fluctuations).
It’s now about two weeks from transplant, another 6 to 8 weeks from
harvest.
By the way, I have figured out something on Basil that has given me difficulties the past few years. Those of you who were with us last season may recall the “messy” leaves. The challenge is that cleaning the leaves after harvest with cold well water often ruins the leaves (cold turns the harvested Basil leaves black). So I ceased cleaning them (leaving them covered in soil, certainly an inconvience for the customers). This year, I will be gently spraying the plants down before harvest this year. I think this will make a big improvement.
By the way, I have figured out something on Basil that has given me difficulties the past few years. Those of you who were with us last season may recall the “messy” leaves. The challenge is that cleaning the leaves after harvest with cold well water often ruins the leaves (cold turns the harvested Basil leaves black). So I ceased cleaning them (leaving them covered in soil, certainly an inconvience for the customers). This year, I will be gently spraying the plants down before harvest this year. I think this will make a big improvement.
The seed potatoes have started going into the ground, with more to be planted over the next couple of weeks. The seed potatoes for those of you
interested in planting some in your own containers are ready. I’ll deliver these with the first harvest.
The Eggplants
are doing as well as I can tell in the nursery.
We lost these at transplant last year, probably due to transplant
shock.
I am taking some better care of them this time around, with some good advice from a couple of growers. First, don’t wait to get them out before they become root bound. Second, provide row covers for shade first couple of days. Thirdly, water them in with warm water to prevent shocking the roots with cold well water. (I’ll do this by setting the full watering cans in the rock garden for an hour or so before transplanting the Eggplants). The rock garen ambient temperature can reach 30 degrees or more on sunny days.
Also, I was warned by Henry at Ellenberger (Seed Potato) Farm that to be vigilant for Potato Beetles on these plants, as they will leave the Potatoes alone in favour of this crop. Eegplants are so demanding, I wonder if it has done a good job of domesticating me!
I am taking some better care of them this time around, with some good advice from a couple of growers. First, don’t wait to get them out before they become root bound. Second, provide row covers for shade first couple of days. Thirdly, water them in with warm water to prevent shocking the roots with cold well water. (I’ll do this by setting the full watering cans in the rock garden for an hour or so before transplanting the Eggplants). The rock garen ambient temperature can reach 30 degrees or more on sunny days.
Also, I was warned by Henry at Ellenberger (Seed Potato) Farm that to be vigilant for Potato Beetles on these plants, as they will leave the Potatoes alone in favour of this crop. Eegplants are so demanding, I wonder if it has done a good job of domesticating me!
Corn is a
crop that (I believe author Michael Pollan referred to) as the crop that
domesticated the human race. It is such
a botanically unusual plant that it may have gone extinct if humans had not started
to grow and propogate it. We are now it’s
dependants in many ways. As for our
corn, I have sown half of it last week, the second half to be sown next
week. This will ensure that the harvest
window is extended, ensuring that all customer s should receive several meals
worth of it over a period of weeks instead
of all at once.
Last years
survey revealed an almost even split between those of you in favour of heirloom
corn and hybrid sweet corn. As it turned
out, organic corn seed was in very short supply for the 2014 seasn, and the
hybrid Sweet Luscious was unavailable.
Fishers Earliest is the variety
for this season. Dependable, relativley
tender, and true corn flavour.
Ouch…it’s getting late! I’ll tell you about the Brussels sprout success (and farm non-food events) sooner or later.
Later,
Bob