We are down to 9 shares remaining for our capacity.  If you are interested in having your certified organic produce delivered to your door this summer, contact me soon...


Hello Everyone:


We are back from another farm and dog sitting assignment.  We may be reached at our usual phone number, (613) 831-8218; or by email.


Beau just refuses to give up - I suppose after fifteen years, it's difficult to change change careers but I suspect Beau prefers being a Labrador Retriever more than anything else.






As for Whitsend, there has been a lot of activity the past week.

The growing field is 90 per cent clear of snow, though still a lot of draining to take place.

The ground is still much to wet to walk onto, without tearing up the permanent paths.

A few of last years beds still require cleaning up (late season crops such as the remnants of the brussels sprouts in the foreground).







One of our new customers requested Kohlrabi.  This is our third request for this crop, so I have finally opted to give it a trial this season.

This is a curious looking crop, another member of the cabbage (Brassica) family.  With so many Brassica's in the field already, finding space for another is difficult.

This season, I have planned to concentrate on small turnips.  Harvesting them young means they are less fibrous, have a milder flavour, and do not require peeling.



By harvesting turnips smaller, I can seed them a little more thickly - they'll take up less space, which leaves room for planting a few Kohlrabi plants.

There will be a limited amount of Kohlrabi this season for those of you who are interested.  If the crop works out well, we'll try more for next season.

It is an heirloom variety of Kohlrabi called 'Azure Star'.  Kohlrabi is unusal in appearance, I liken it to something off a B-movie set about carnivorous vegetables.   The heirloom variety goes one step further visually from what you have probably encountered...

In other "new crop" news, I am currently corresponding with some other producers on how best to grow miniature pak choi, so as to honor another request from last season.  I have the seed, but I want to ensure I can get the choi at the right size while still tender and crisp.

There is no end of things to learn!



In the nursery, a few more light banks are switching on as the crops there increase in number.

The first planting of celeriac didn't germinate too well, but it was started early enough to allow for a supplemental planting - these are now just starting to sprout.

The bulb onions, parsley, eggplant are coming along well.


Eggplant is one of the most challenging crops I have ever tried.  The difficulty starts right from when the seeds germinate.

Eggplant requires about twelve weeks of growing before it can withstand transplanting.

Unlike the onions or celery, it has no tolerance for cool temperatures.  This makes working in the nursery in March a challenge, getting seedling trays out for work and the doors closed back up as quick as possible to prevent the eggplant from getting a draft.







The first two rounds of celery are up, and the second round of green onions is emerging as well.

Tis is a tray with celery, celeriac, and parsely.  At thsi stage of growth, they all look the same, so every cell pack is tagged.

Even at tranplant time in another , it is impossible (for me) to tell the difference.







Most of the action has been outside, on the gravel pad next to the barn.  The photograph at the very bottom of the page, you can see how the front of the barn appeared in my first season.  Since then, I have laid down a ten inch layer of stones (removed from the growing field as it wasprepared) around the front of the barn, bordered it with some old barn logs, and covered it over with gravel.  This has made a useful workspace.

Since the first season, I have added a tool shed (left) and the outdoor nursery (not visible).

The new structure I have been working on is a three sided shed constructed to shade our newly constructed ice fridge.



This project has gone a lot slower than I had hoped - after all, I'm a farmer, not a carpenter.

Most of my work has to be done piecemeal inside the barn during the winter and then dragged out when the snow  cleared off the pad.

I designed the ice fridge after consulting old handbooks on how to build ice houses.  It is a cedar wood structure for storing produce on harvest day.

This is the ice compartment, capacity three feet by three feet by five feet tall.  The walls are four inches thick, and filled with pounded sawdust.

Sawdust is the traditional insulator for ice houses.  Unlike most materilas, sawdust insulates well even when wet.

As the first layers of ice are applied, several insualted panels are inserted into the "doorway" to close the compartment.  When it is full, anotehr four inches of sawdust are poured on top.



The final task then is to place screen over the sawdust, to prevent rodents from getting in to cool off.

Ideally, the ice compartment should be on top of the fridge, but this would make the structure much too top heavy.  Instead, I place an uninsulated wall between the ice compartment and the produce compartment, and then insulate the produce compartment.


The produce compartment.  I'm not too good at building doors, and the four inch thick doors posed considerable challenge.

At one point I was so irritated by door building that I altered the design and put in a pair of sliding shelves.

It's very rustic looking, but shoudl do the job.






By the way, I should thank Jack and his brother down the road for coming over to help - the outdoor nursery weighs well over 200 pounds and it was in the spot where the fridge was to go.  Thanks for the lift!


Talk to you soon....

New post to follow soon...I have a few notes on some new additions to our farm, a new crop request (Kohlrabi) and updates on the onions, celery, peppers, celeraic, eggplants, and more...


The growing field is starting to emerge from it's winter break.  The remnants of last years brussels sprouts are visible just beyond the stalks of oppopeo.  

Beyond them, the windrows of straw covering the garlic bulbs is now visible as well.  

In addition to the anticipation, the receding snow reveals some clues as to what has been happening out here when I am not around.  





A length of electric fence wire has been dragged out into the lane way at some point during the winter, evidently tripped over by an animal.  A quick examination shows the wire was snapped in the process.  

One more task to add to my spring clean-up list.






Inside the nursery, the onions continue to grow. 

The next procedure for these sprouts is to gently tease them out of the soil in the seed tray and into the cell packs (called "promoting" in market garden jargon).  

After they recover from the transplant, I trim the leaves down to about six inches or so.  This allows the stalks to grow thicker, and enables the primary leaves to stay upright and off the damp soil.





The transfer of sprouts from seed tray to cell packs is time consuming.  The benefit is that it saves on use of space.  The promoted plants will be bunched in groups of five to each cell.  In another 8 to 10 weeks, these clumps will be transplanted into the ground together.

This is a tray of cell packs with the promoted onion seedlings.

Onions depend on cues from day-length to know when to start setting their bulbs.  PLant them too early or too late, and the bulb will not form to it's potential size.  

For these onions, at our latitude, the transplant time is early May to very early June.  They are slow groers, and require about 8-12 weeks in the nursery before being ready for transplant. 

At the time these 'extra' onions were sown, I found there were just enough onions to cover our needs fo rthe season.  Kowing that I will loose a few between promoting and transplanting, I have sown a few extra to make sure.  











Now that the seed trays are empty of onions, the next sowing starts.  

These are celery seeds.  Amazing that such small seeds yield such a large plant.

Celery, celeriac, parsley, and eggplant are sown today, as well as a third and final round of onions just to make sure that I have enough.  

All of these crops require about 10-12 weeks of growing in the nursery before they are ready to transplant.  





If I do not plant enough at this time, there won't be enough time to start more plants, so I plant about fifteen per cent more than is needed.  I usually wind up with more than I need, which allows me to choose the healthiest looking plants for transplanting.  The rest go to the compost heap to become "next year's food".

10 days later - A picture of the cell packs that the celery is seeded directly into.  Can you spot the first celery plant to sprout?

Promoting Parsley - this sprout has been teased out of a seed tray and inserted into a cell pack.  

The frst time I did this as an intern, I was certain none of my transplants woud survive.  How could these delicate sprouts tolerate such handling?  

Plants are very optimistic creatures, and young plants are quite resilient.  

The trick is to hold the sprouts by the leaves, not the stem.  







We are down to 9 shares remaining for our capacity.  If you are interested in having your certified organic produce delivered to your door this summer, contact me soon...

Hello Everyone:

I've been lucky so far this year, the weather has been quite mild and so I have been able to do a lot more work in the barn.

As well, the nursery has required much less heat to stay warm.  It's first real test this year was last night, with a measured "inside the barn" temperature of -14 degrees.

The temperature in the nursery was a balmy plus eleven.





Here is the first sign of spring at Whitsend...the first seeds to sprout.

These are the first round of green onions, a cold tolerant variety called Evergreen Hardy.

They are typically planted in late summer for the cold late fall weather.  However, I also choose them for my first planting of the year as they are planted out into the field around late April, when the weather can be still relatively cold at night.

I plant some crops as early as possible to alleviate crowding in the nursery.

The only other crop in the nursery right now are the bulb onions.  Onions grow very slowly for the first few weeks, and require 10 to 12 weeks of nursery growth before they are ready to plant out.

Next in line for seeding are celery, celeriac, and eggplant...their turn is in the coming week.





In the meantime, I continue to forge ahead on the ice fridge.  Time is running out - will it be done when there is still ice to place in it?

It's been a bit of a slow build so far.  I have designed it so that it may be quickly dismantled and moved and reassembled as I don't intend to leave it here in the middle of the barn all year.

Our first load of sawsut insulatiion has arrived.  I'll be filling the first wall sections this week and then I will know just how good I am at math.







Then, the work on the sliding shelves and swing doors.  Unless I run into some unforseen difficulty, there whould be a lot more substance to this photo in about seven days.

Important update as of February 17 2017:

Beau had a very relaxing couple of weeks.

We are back from dog and farm sitting.  We may be reached at our usual phone number

(613) 831-8218

Best time to reach me is after 6 PM.  





If you have received one of our flyers after the first or second payment deadlines, please note that I can adjust the three payment schedule.  We are still looking for about 15 customers for the season, and will be issuing more flyers in the coming weeks. 

Why I use Flyers to find customers:

To keep our doorstep delivery cost efficient, I restrict my customer base to particular neighbourhoods.  This renders print and electronic advertising somewhat ineffective. 

My only on line advert can be found on the website for the Canadian Organic Growers (Ottawa Chapter). 

I use very simple flyers (printed at home on standard print paper) to keep costs down.  I realise most flyers will wind up being recycled, so I do not create extra expense with glossy, professionally cut flyers.

I do not leave flyers if I see a “no flyers please” sign on your mailbox.  If I did not notice your request to this effect, please accept my apologies.

By far, most of our customers have come to us by word of mouth. 

Talk to you soon...

Plenty of work to be done these days.  With warm temperatures on the way, snow removal is the priority right now.  Otherwise, the barn will become a lake.

As well, I need the gravel pad around the barn - my work space - to be clear of snow as early as possible in the spring.

The outdoor nursery (pictured) will have to move over to make room for the ice fridge will take it's place.

The ice fridge is taking shape.

Ideally, the ice would be placed in the top of the fridge (like the household ice boxes our great grand parents used).  This would make the structure a little too top heavy for my liking.

So, I am placing the ice on the most shaded side, and placing a non insulated wall between the ice and the food compartment.









The walls are framed and clad on the face with cedar board.  Each section of will be filled with sawdust for insulation, and then enclosed by fine mesh screen (cheaper than using more wood).

The ice compartment will need to be topped up each winter, so one wall needs to be removable.  I've done this in sections to make that task a little easier.










As these are opened only once a year, I've opted to forgo hinges (which are expensive) and used some dowl rod instead to fasten the wall sections.

A little more bracing, an additional post, and then work on the fridge doors starts.

The next delivery of lumber is not coming for another couple of days.

So it's time to get started on opening up the indoor nursery and getting the heat on...the first round of seeding starts in a week.


Indoor nursery pictures to follow soon...

Sunday February 19 - time to open the nursery for another season.  First task is to take out the shelves and dust them off, and get the "office" in order.

While the shelves are out, all the electronics are checked - grow lights, propagation mats, heater, and fan.  Even he batteries on the 24 hour thermometers get tested.

The only problem is that the fan is slow to start.  A drop of WD 40 the next time I'm here will fix that.






Nothing surprising found, other than a torpid spider.  There'll be food in here soon enough for it.  I'll take all the help I can get.














Now that the nursery is up and running, time to get the first seed trays topped up, hydrated and up to growing temperature.  This will take a day or two.

Then the seeding starts.

In the meantime, back to building the doors on the ice fridge...








Update as of February 22:


The nursery is fully operational.  All of the little details are take care of.

Our indoor nursery.  A cabinet in form, a nursery in function.

The doors and walls are 4 inches thick, to contain sufficient insulation.

I've constructed the doors so that only one or two need be open at any given time, to keep as much heat in as possible while working at a particular shelf.






The lights are set to timers that keep them on at night and off during the day.  Plants need rest time, and I need to reduce peak time power use.

As well, the lights provide a small amount of heat, which in turn means the heater doesn't have to run constantly when the temperature is warm.

To distribute the light evenly, I have added a  layer of reflective bubble wrap insulation.  This keeps the plants from stretching up to the lights and becoming 'leggy', to use a gardeners turn of phrase.







The first round of seeding only requires one shelf with it's independent set of lights (all lights are on in this photo as I was testing them).

Time will be at a premium soon, so I have pre-filled my seed trays and stored them in the nursery to ensure the soil is warm when it is needed.

Soil is a great thermal mass, so if the power should go out, the full trays will moderate the temperature change until the power is restored.






Tomorrow, I'll be filling my first trays with this years crop of onions....