Whitsend Market Garden

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It may not look like it, but lots of hard work is being accomplished here.

Apparently, the back of the property needs regular watching.  For what, Cayley won't say directly, but there has been a stray cat seen around the shed and brush along the north and west perimeters.  

At last, I feel so official now with our new farm signage.

The first weekend we installed it, farm store sales more than tripled, compared to our "yard sale" type signs we have used until now.

Having a permanent farm store is so much more efficient than setting up a tent and table as we have done in the past.  

Now only if we can get some power here - it is still a chore keeping the coolers stocked with enough ice packs to maintain a good storage temperature for the produce.

All we need now are some solar powered lights for later in the year, and perhaps a coat of paint on the cladding.

The farm is starting to move out into the community.  We are meeting new nieghbours, local homesteaders and farm colleagues.  

Here we are at the McDonalds Corners agricultural market.

Kale, lettuce, peas, arugula, tokyo bekana, and mini fennel.

We've also done some selling at the MERA makers market, also in McDonalds Corners.

It's the midde of the season, and time for my state of the field inspection.

Unlike last year, almost all of my effort has gone into the crops and field maitainaince - there has been almost no time for continuing to build infrastructure, suppress poison ivy, or other non-crop tasks such as that.  

Onions rely upon an inch of water per week when they start to set their bulbs after the solstice.  

Fortunately for us, the drought broke just in time, and now the onions are starting to swell their bulbs.  

These are the long lasting Rosa de Milano, available in either late September or late October.

The cippolinis are in a similiar stae, they should be ready for one of our two August deliveries.

Lots of very late fruit:  finally, the tomatoes are producing.  These are even later than last years crop.  I typically expect the first few fruits to ripen up in late June or very early July, and be in full flush for the July harvests.

I am getting a similiar result from the peppers (see photo below).  Excessive heat may have been one of a few factors impacting these crops.  The tomatoes grew very slowly, and the pepper plants kept dropping their flowers, often a sign of heat stress. 

There are fruits starting to develop now, though a lot are much smaller than I would otherwise expect.  I see this with the tomatoes as well.

I suspect that there are other factors involved as well...

Celery left exposed to the sun will produce dark green stalks, so we cover them with straw to blanche the stalks.  

When exposed to sunlight, the celery becomes unpleasantly strong tasting.  

This celery should be ready by mid August, with another to follow in late September.

The fennel is healthy looking, though the bulbs do not appear to be growing to the degree I would have expected for this variety.  

Lack of rain during the first 2/3rds of their growth cyle, growing in a somewhat shady area, and a macronutrient imbalance in the soil could all be contributing factors. 

Lack of soil macro nutrient balance is obvious in other parts of the field.  

These are the rutabaga, planted in the first week of June.

A couple of roots are developing slowly, but many of the plants are not.  A few plants appear quite stunted.

Kale and rutabaga are in the brassica family of crops.  The kale is showing steady growth of broad, dark green leaves.

This suggests to me that there is plenty of nitrogen in the soil, though perhaps lacking in potassium (for roots) and or phosphorus (for fruits and overall plant health).  

I'll have to find a source of phosphorus such as calphos (a rock mineral) t apply to the beds by autumn.  One company in the area sells it by the ton (impossible for me to transport to the farm) so the search continues.

Another root crop that is struggling are the celeriac.  These roots should be about twice as large as this.  It's a slow grower, so there is still time for the root to fill out.  

In the meantime, I am sowing another round of turnips for the fall to make up for the poor rutabaga, as these smaller plants seem to have done ok earlier this year.

So many varieties of lettuce this season - Sylvestra boston and freckles romaine are only two.

I have tried a number  types but the big difficulty has been getting a consistent germination rate in the sumer heat - some lettuce varieties have a lower tolerance than others.  

Freezing, scarifying, and using chilled water in the seed trays have all been tried, and I have yet to find a consistent solution.

The next round of potatoes are in flower.  These are the red fingerlings.  

Havest is about 2 weeks away - just in time for our late August delivery.

At some point in the not too distant future, we will probably have to start saving these seeds to start new stock for seed potatoes.  

There is only one certiied organic seed potato producer in Ontario, and with the relaxing of GMO rules for seed packaging in Canada, we will have to start producing our own GMO free crops.

Thanks to the CFIA's servility to big agro, "red tape" is reduced for some, and extra work and expense is increased for others.  

We grow a limited amount of amaranth as a leaf vegetable.

I also grow some for it's flowers.  This is the variety "velvet curtains"

Aside from being eye catching additions to the delivery baskets (I like the idea of adding some cut flowers to use in table arrangements), the seeds are much liked by the finches.

These are the perrenials Julia planted last yer, they are doing great.

We see all kinds of pollinating and otherwise beneficial insects on these in addition to our bees:  Leaf cutter bees, bumblebees, hover flies, numerous wasps we are unfamiliar with, dragonflies, and tachinid flies are just a few.

Not all of our perrenial gardens have done this well, but the bee balm is a definite success.

Enough for now...