If you have recieved a flyer or read an advertisment, here is a quick pitch:
For our new post as of April 26, scroll down...
-Purchase a share of the produce in advance.
-10-12 harvests between mid June and late November
-Customers in Ottawa have doorstep delivery
-Customers in Lanark/McDonalds COrners area pick up at the farm gate store. A few complimetary items shall be available throughout the season to make your drive worth while.
-Broad range of produce available according to season: Beans and peas, lettuces and greens, potatoes and onions, tomatoes and peppers, carrots, rutabaga, celery, garlic...
-Honey (and pork if we have piglets this year) available as additional purchase
-All farm products are grown using organic methods
-Excellent quality - I have over twelve years experience from our farm in Stittsville
-Shares cost $350.00 for the season, payable in two installments
-Half shares available for half price, 5-6 deliveries per season
-If crops are a little abundant, quantities are topped up at no extra charge
-If we have a particularly good gowth of one or more crops, you may puchase extra amounts for putting food by (such as canning for tomatoes, storing carrots, etc.)
Our share sales have crossed the 80 per cent mark. If you are interested in a share of the farm produce, please call us soon.
We will also have a farm gate store at our location on Iron Mine Road this year for those of you who wish to puchase from the farm without a year long subscription. This is where we sell excess poduce. Please note that share customers purchases take priority if one or more crops during a given week perfom less well than expected.
All the information you need to know about our farm is on this website. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me by email or phone. We look forward to hearing from you.
Here is one rake I won't be using for several weeks.
This storage place at the back of the prep station is usually a high traffic area. I wasn't there for a couple of days and that was all it took for this robin to decide it was the perfect place.
I can live without the rake but the rest of the tools have to stay out of the rain.
Our compromise is that I don't use the hooks nearest the nest.
Two big milestones for the opening of the farm season today: the hoses are sterilised and laid out.
I pour a cup of Hydrogen Peroxide 5 per cent into the hose and walk it the full length and back again. After two repeats, the peroxide is flushed out.
Peroxide is a disinfectant that is permitted by the organic standards as it leaves no chlorine residue like bleach does.
The other milestone is cleaning out the winter bedding in the chicken hutch. We only have five birds so the task shouldn't be too onerous.
Unfortunately, A-frame structures don't leave much room for ones head or elbows.
We use a mix of our own straw and pine shavings for bedding.
The used bedding goes to the compost area and layered with grass clippings, a bit of soil to inoculate the compost with molds and bacteria, and some moisture to get the microbial activity started.
By the end of the year, the new pile at the back will look like the pile in the middle, and by next spring, will look like the remains of the pile in the foreground left.
We leave a lot of our property unmowed to preserve space for predatory wasps and other beneficial wildlife, but some grassy areas are considered crops. I don't mow, I harvest nitrogen.
Another task I completed today was transplanting the first round of onions. I gave them some row cover to reduce the sunlight a bit while they adjust to their new home for the season. There will be a few chilly nights this week as well. Once the weather is settled, the row cover comes off and replaced by insect netting which is lighter and prevents the onions from overheating as they would under the heavier row cover.
They don't look impressive now, but in about 90-100 days these should be full grown yellow onions. I have two varieties in this bed: Blush and Cortland.
Cortland is a standard yellow onion. Blush has a light rose tint in the interior and a slightly sweeter flavour. Blush types are highly prized in middle eastern cuisne.
Later in the week I'll be planting out the red onions and the cippolinis.
Our snow peas are germinating. Look very closely and see the two rows of green sprouts in each bed.
The cool spring we are having is ideal for peas.
There are also a few shell peas at the back, though there was not enough seed for the CSA. These will be sold at the farm gate store.
I'll need all the help I can get - traditionally spinach is a disapointment more often than not for me. This is our first year growing it here, so I am curious to see how it will respond to the different soil.
