Whitsend Market Garden

 Hello Everyone:

Update as of September 19th:

The folks at Aruma Farmer and Artisan Market in Lanark have decided to cancel their event tomorrow.  As we have A LOT of food, we are opening our farm gate store for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

We are located at 694 Iron Mine Road - between Sheridans Rapids Road and Ashby Road.

We are selling garlic, tomatoes, chard, colored carrots, and green onions.

Open at 10:30 AM

See you there!

 

Our surplus garlic is ready for sale!

 

Prices

 

Small Bulbs $2.00 / bulb 

Medium Bulbs $3.00 / bulb   

Large Bulbs $4.00 / bulb

 10 for the price of $25.00

If you contacted us in the spring and were interested in purchasing some of our surplus food, now is your chance.

 

Contact me at whitscust @ gmail and we'll discuss how to arrange your order, payment and delivery.

 

 

 

If you wish to purchase a large quantity, please contact us by phone or email.  We will probably provide a mix of all sizes - medium is what we have the most of, so the price will average out to $3.00 per bulb.

 

Please let us know soon so that we can set aside your order.

 

I realize appearances count for a lot when selling food.  However, garlic lasts longer if more of the garlic skin is left on the bulb.  It may not be as clean looking, but the flavour is more likely to be there when you want it in the dead of winter - when the store bought alternative has gone from worse to un-eatable.

 

There is a lot of variability in how long a bulb of garlic lasts.  Each type has a general shelf life Porcelains more, Rocamboles less, etc.)  I have listed the industry standard below, which usually fits with our own observation.

Small bulbs will dry out sooner.  Bulbs that are handled roughly or exposed to direct sunlight may have a shorter shelf life.

Garlic freezes very easily - peel off the skin from the cloves, double bag in a freezer bag, and toss it into the freezer.  I highly recommend double bagging it, otherwise it could flavour your ice cream.

Important!  We had some virus in our garlic this season, so we do NOT recommend you plant these in the fall for your own growing next year.  We are cleaning out all of our old seed stock, some of which is descended from bulbs saved three years ago.

  Virus' in garlic are not of a concern to human health.  Typically, the result of an infected plant is smaller bulbs.  Garlic bulbs are all clones of their parent plant, so virus' tend to be endemic.

 

Porcelain Types

I find porcelain garlic is best when used in slow cooked dishes where the flavour can work into the rest of the dish.

 

Fish Lake:  Developed in Picton County by the late Ted Maczka.  Fairly hot porcelain type.  Typically yields 2-3 large cloves.  Keeps 6-8 months.

Yugoslavian:  A very hot porcelain type. Best slow cooked.  Typically yields 4-5 cloves. Keeps 6-8 months.

Purple Stripe Types

Persian Star:  Also known as Samarkand or Duganski.  A purple stripe type that is somewhat oily, very rich flavour.  Cloves are typically quite small, about eight per bulb.  Keeps 5-6 months.  One of my most dependable varieties to grow.  Does well in a salad, a little goes a long way.  A very pretty garlic - break open a bulb and use the cloves in a table display.

 

Rocambole Types

French Rocambole:  Considered by many chefs to be among the best of garlics, very flavourful with a lingering heat.  Cloves are small with 8-12 cloves per bulb.  Keeps 4-5 months.  I like this one a lot but it is a variety that cannot be counted on in our eastern Ontario climate.

 

Puslinch:  A variety developed in central Ontario.  Flavourful, oily and somewhat hot.  Probably keeps 4-5 months.   A new variety for us.  

We look forward to hearing from you!

 

We are at Lanark's Aruma Farmers and Artisan's Market Sunday, September 20th from 9 Am to 2 PM.

If by chance you miss out on our delivery day, you can find us selling garlic and possibly tomatoes there.

Come check out this quaint little town in Lanark Highlands Township, just an hour outside of Ottawa.

 

If the market is not enough of a draw, Lanark has a gourmet chocolate shop, though apparently you have to call ahead to make a purchase due to the usual disruption.  As well, the scenic routes around here are nice.

 

Post Late August/early September:

Finally a little time to sit and write.  Farming is like a juggling act with a lot of objects (some sharp, some on fire, and everything bounces).  This year more so than previous season's with house, farm field, farm infrastructure, and machinery repairs to include into the usual mix of fall season tasks.  This is what I am good at, though I can't say it is the funnest of endeavours.  Information always seems to trickle in and plans are never complete, only evolving.

  

 

 

The hardest aspect is the feeling of unresolved tasks and sometimes the chaos that ensues (moving a lot of stored items out of the way so a contractor can do some repair work two weeks from now).  Much of our work is foundational (leveling a piece of land this year to build a shed upon next year), sowing cover crop seeds in a future vegetable plot that has yet to take shape.  As a result, much gets done but little is finished.  And the clock is ticking - I can count on about ten weeks before the ground freezes.

 

Until then, the ground still gives forth it's many surprises.  Here is an enormous puffball.  I'm told they are "not supposed to get this big".  Well, our friends had one in their back yard a couple of years ago, and Julia and I found a colony of them north of Big Salmon Lake in Frontenac Park last time we went camping there.

 

 

We are fortunate that covid has not had too much impact on us.  I had hoped to take a course this year on small engine repair and maintenance, but I have been informed that no hands-on courses are available this year at Algonquin.  Very disappointing as small engines are CURSED here.  Not one - from the weed wacker to the chainsaw to both walk behind tractors all require everything from constant maintenance to almost complete re-builds.   

 

 

One way around this is to reject the machinery.  Here I am using a scythe to cut down the buckwheat cover crop - see previous post.  It's slow going owing to my inexperience and still to be leveled ground.  Neuroscientists say it takes ten years or ten thousand hours to master any endeavour (chess, a sport or language, farming, using a scythe) so I might as well get started.  

 

 

The next cover crop to go into the growing field is the Jackhammer radish.  This is a type of daikon once used for breaking badly compacted soils.  Ideally, this will grow into the compaction over the course of the autumn, frost kill, decay over the winter (thus feeding the soil) and leave a more friable surface to begin working into beds over the course of next year.  My goal here is to have space in this field suitable for sowing garlic in fall of 2021, and other crops spring of 2022.

 

 

Back in Stittsville, the kidney beans (pictured just before harvest) are now all bundled up and drying in the barn.  Beds that have had crops harvested are getting their annual cover crops and amendments (buckwheat for phosphorus and weed suppression, field peas for nitrogen, and ash from our wood stove in Lanark for potassium).  Some beds that were harvested too late for cover crops I am using a different technique.  I am cutting off the weed tops and turning their roots back into the soil.  A couple of "failed crops" such as beets and fennel are also getting turned in.  

As well, I am mulching crop residues with the mower and turning them in.  I usually send these to the compost but with time such a priority I am taking a more practical approach.  

I am spurred on by the thought that this will be the last season I need to prepare fall beds here in Stittsville, which to me feels like progress.