Whitsend Market Garden

Hello Everyone:

We hope you are all staying safe and coping as best as possible.  So far, the past few years have been trying but we have kept the farm going in spite of everything.

We intend to keep it that way.

Until such time as the pandemic is truly under control, we will continue to follow the guidelines for keeping your food supply safe:

No touring visits to the farm.  I believe that our customers should have the opportunity to see how their food is produced, but at this time we are not allowing visitors to the farm areas.

For the time being, farmgate store sales are by pre-order only.   Contact us by email at whitscust@gmail.com.  Garlic will be available in the next two to three weeks, details to follow.

Some of our CSA customers are immune compromised, so we have take these precautions seriously.  Thank you for your patience and respect.

Most of our crops are doing well after a slow start to the season.  

The garlic is out of the ground except for two slow to grow varieties.  About 2/3rds of our scapes are harvested and out the door, the remaining third remained on the plant too long and were too woody to deliver.  When I harvested the first round of scapes, several varieties only had one curl on the scape and so I estimated two weeks.  It turned out I was a week off.  A big disappointment!  Our garlic is now curing in the barn and should be ready for distribution in about two to three weeks.

The green onions have been exceptional; our first round went out the door for delivery last week.  Unfortunately this season, we probably only have enough for our CSA customers.

The kidney beans are flush with full sets of pods.  Our first picking of the romano beans has been very good.  Our green beans have struggled with the heat and have gone dormant at least twice.  They are now in full flower and I am anticipating a decent set of beans in the next 10-14 days.

The chard has struggled somewhat over the past couple of weeks with too much water, but fortunately, I had enough plants planted for a good harvest this past week.  Lots of leaves had to be culled as they were too pale or cracked from water stress, but these were greatly appreciated by the pigs and chickens.

Fennel was planted last week for fall harvesting.  Our celery started late as the first round dried out in the nursery.  

The tomatoes are in flower and the first fruits are ripening.  The peppers are just starting to flower.  The butternut squashes at Stittsville are also just setting their first flowers but the plants look quite healthy.  We have lost one round of squash flowers at the Lanark site where we are growing a limited amount of delicata squash.  The rodents have been after these and so I am using organic castor bean oil and hot pepper powder to try and keep these nasty little pests at bay.

Our first round of fingerlings are just about ready for harvest.  We are trying two new varieties this season:  "Red Thumb" and another heirloom variety from eastern Europe.

The carrots are coming along, as always slower than I would prefer.  The parsnips did not germinate very well so what quantities we have are very limited.  

Beets were planted last week in preparation for our fall harvesting.  I may be doing a round of radish later in the season - it is probably too hot for them right now.

In spite of everything, there have been the usual setbacks, mishaps, and breakdowns.  

I have to thank my Dad for this one.  I've had a few leaks over the years in the header pipes ofmy irrigation system and the silicone water proofing doesn't set properly in the heat of high summer.

He suggested silicone super tape and it has worked great.  

Crops coming in the fall:

I am starting a round of kale for late season harvest, and we will likely have some arugula in October as well.

If the plants do well, we should have a surplus of potatoes this season, including german butterball for October and red chieftain for late fall.

Our shiitake mushrooms continue to frustrate and annoy us this season.  My attempts tp keep the logs wet have been a challenge.

We are now up to five bee hives.  Two are doing very well; at least one will likely not have enough for harvest, and the other two are still a matter of wait and see.  

Interestingly, the hive that arrived last year infected with chalk brood (a fungal infection that destroys larvae) is one of the two doing very well.  In the spring, the bees in this hive were observed carrying out infected larvae and subsequent inspections show that the number of infected cells is reducing.

We hope to start honey harvest in about a week or two.

The pigs are also doing very well, growing quickly and having fun exploring the new paddocks that I lead them to every few days.  Of the four pairs that we have raised over the years, these seem to be the most docile and best behaved pigs we have had - a credit to Maple Lane Farm where they were orn and weaned.

I'll be taking pork orders in mid November.  Pork is harvested on December 15th and ready for distribution within a week.

This has been a very good season for wildlife at the farm.  We are seeing more and much greater variety of insects and birds.   

Julia successfully identified hover flies and leaf cutter bees as among the new comers.  

We credit the population of our pollinators to the hard work of the previous owners promoting the insects here and us growing a wide variety of local flowers and plants.  

As well, we only mow walking and working areas of the yard, leaving the places where wildflowers seem to flourish untouched.  

Our new vegetable field has had a successful first cover crop of the season.  The oats and jackhammer radish did very well and were thick enough to make up for a poor performance from the peas.  

The cover has been cut down in the past week.  Once a part arrives for my tiller, I'll rake off the cuttings, compost them, and till the surface in preparation for the second cover.   

As the second cover grows and suppresses weed growth, I'll cut down small sections and start building the first beds for future vegetable growing.

More photos to follow - blogger is giving me grief this morning!

Talk to you soon, 

Bob, Julia and Cayley