A few more updates from May 5th:

Yes, those little green shoots are the first leaves of garlic to emerge.

The bulbs were sown last November, and covered over with spelt straw to keep them from freezing through the winter.

Many gardeners leave the straw on until harvest, and allow the garlic to grow through it.  For a couple of reasons, I take much of it off and re-use it elsewhere.

More to follow...



Back in the indoor nursery, the delicata (winter)  squashes are also germinating.

The Butterscotch squash is due to be sown in about three weeks.  I have staggered the planting between the two in hopes of getting the delicata to flower and produce fruit first, so that the seed is not cross pollinated with our other variety, Butterscotch.









I have cleared some spare (unlit) shelves in the indoor nursery to make way for some plants from outside.

With a couple of cool nights on the way, I will have to bring in some plants such as tomato seedlings fro the unheated outdoor nursery.

At this time of year, there is very little nursery space.








The outdoor nursery is doing just fine, even with a predicted plus 6 tonight.

The temperature should remain about 10 degrees in there, not the best growing temperature but well within the plants tolerance level.

A few crops such as celery are intolerant to temperatures below 15 degrees, so even though they are more mature than the tomatoes and peppers, they remain within the indoor nursery.

Hello everyone:

Before getting onto the post, I have a couple of announcements:

I will be closing sales soon.  If you are interested in purchasing a share of the harvest, please contact me very soon.

If you have been in contact with me but are waiting to determine what your plans are for the summer, I can hold your place until a later date.

I will be sending out our first e-blast of the season within the next 48 hours.  If you do not see it, check your spam box.  If it is there, adjust your email settings accordingly.

If you do not have it at all, please contact me and I will check to see if I have you on this year's list.

!!!  VERY IMPORTANT  !!!

When communicating with me by email either for requests, notification of absences, sending in recipes, etc, PLEASE use a separate email with a specific heading (eg "absent for next delivery").

If you add your email to a chain of emails, it is possible I may not see it.  I want to spend my farm time doing farm work as much as possible - growing and tending your food and improving the farm and my farm skills as much as possible.





And now for the post for April 28:

It's been a very, very busy week here at Whitsend.  Monday to Kingston for a chainsaw safety certification course, Tuesday fieldwork until 4 pm and then off to Ferguson Falls for a National Farmers Union meeting, Wednesday out in the field all day and then raking the lawn after supper (A silly task, but while living off farm, I have to maintain the 'suburban standard' method of yard treatment), lot's of shopping and computer chores for Thursday, in the field all day Friday except a quick jaunt over to Farm Credit Canada Corp. to drop off an application package, and then off to Julia's birthday party Friday night.



And sowing more seeds...

And doing some engine maintenance on the tiller...

And repairing a leak in the outdoor nursery...

And electric fence maintenance...still unresolved, can't figure out where the short is occurring...

And sowing more seeds and promoting the ones I sowed last week...

And closing a sale...

This is what you pay me for.


Field work will continue Monday, the beds are getting cleaned up and prepared for the first direct sowing of peas and spinach and carrots...

Jen from Sysabee and I have trading documents all week, trying to figure out why her version was not functioning on my computer.  Now that that is fixed, I have started tweaking the request page.

Time is running short, so I will be distributing this very soon.  (one last test to run to make sure the glitch we had doesn't translate onto other customers computers).

Customers will receive a page detailing the season's crops they can expect in their baskets, and some options they have for choosing crops.

Please fill this out as much as you want to (there are three questions that must be entered - name, basket size, and a box to tick indicating you have read the document.  Even if you are ok with whatever you receive - many of you are - please send it to me anyway, I will be using the printed out version to track what you are receiving throughout the year.

After we have this system up and running, attention will turn to developing an online tool to accomplish this request system.  I expect this will take the better part of the year.  The goal is to try this out a couple of times during the season, and then have it up and running for next year.

This is new territory for me, so I have no idea how long it may take.




The past week I have been putting some of the hardier plants (onions, leeks, parsley) in the outdoor nursery for the day and then bringing them in for the night.  They get better light here than under the grow lights, and besides, the space under the lights is limited, and with so many other plants coming along, there just isn't enough room.

A couple nights back, I forgot to bring the onions in at the end of the day, and was greeted the next morning with some very sad onions - they were all limp and laying down.  The min/max thermometer indicated that the low reached plus one inside the outdoor nursery.



As onions have such a long lead time and must be planted within a certain window of time in order to bulb, I set about my scheduled tasks for the day wondering if that was it for the onions and leeks.  Green onions and parsley could be re-planted, but that would put a lot of pressure on the nursery with the squashes set to be planted soon.  I kept telling myself of the resilience of young plants and all of the fail safes I had in place for moderating the temperature change...







...three days later and almost all of the onions have stood back up and continued their leaf growing.  I lost a few (less than 2 per cent) and assume these ones were probably weaker in some way than the others, and may not have performed as well during the season anyway. Not everyone makes the team, as I sometimes say.




I mentioned in our last or second last post that the hotwax peppers (sometimes referred to as the "somewhat hot" peppers) had failed to sprout a week after the green  peppers.  I checked the package and found that the seeds were three years old.  I double checked my notes from previous years and found that three year old pepper seeds usually had a slightly lower germination rate, but certainly not zero per cent.  I recalled one of my mentors (Dick, I think) suggesting that field seed sometimes germinated slowly if it was old.  So I continued to tend the seedling tray and finally I have been rewarded.



Almost all of them emerged throughout the week, and I now have a decent compliment of mildly hot peppers to compliment our green peppers and super hot peppers.

Had I been less experienced, or not blessed with good mentors, or impatient, I might have given up!





The beds are finally dry enough to do a lot of work on.


Having permanent beds with grassed paths provide an advantage that they are ready for planting sooner than a bare field.  The grass turf can be trod upon much earlier than a soil path, which would get gouged up with deep footprints were I to be walking on it the day after a heavy rainfall.







For comparison, here is part of the new field.  The grass seed was sown late last fall and has yet to sprout.  The established beds pictured above are about the same elevation as the beds pictured to the right - you can see how saturated the soil is where the water is pooling along the fence.












Having permanent beds has many benefits; one of which is that they are ready to go as soon as they are thawed out.

(I have a couple of posts from the years 2012 to 2014 that go into this in more detail.)




Old weeds that survived the winter and some quack grass rhizomes that were missed last fall teased out of the soil.

Aerating beds to stimulate aerobic bacteria, which in turn work on turning simple nutrients into complex molecules that the plants can  use.

Cultivating beds to disturb any fresh weeds that may be trying to sprout, and breaks up clods of soil so there is more surface area exposed to the air.




Saw our first toad of the season while doing this work.


The list of tasks is seemingly endless.  It is exhilarating work, with a little foreboding on the horizon - what if I can't get it all done in time?  As I prepare the beds, I try not to think of the plants back in the nursery.  Once I sow seeds there, the clock is ticking.  Five weeks after sowing lettuce, the bed in the field has to be ready to receive them; four weeks for kale and pak choi.  And the sowing date for the squashes is soon upon me...





I made a mistake in the nursery last week while sowing the tomatoes.  I had been counting pepper sprouts to see if I had enough plus a few for my projected needs.

I then started sowing tomatoes, but I suppose my mind was still thinking peppers (12 plants per row, two rows per bed).

I was happily sowing tomato seeds at a rate of 12 plants per bed (only one row for toms) and didn't think much of it while marking off the number of seeds used in my production binder.


I realize many of you city folk may not know the difference between a pepper plant and a tomato plant, but there is a significant difference in size.

I planted twice as many tomatoes as needed.

So, I will have lots of plants to choose from (I'll take the healthiest and most vigorous growers); and then sell off as many of the sprouts as I can.  Customers can have a couple if they want to try their hand at growing these too.

I'm sure my mentors might be appalled at this waste of seed, but this is the sort of mistake I don't mind...far better too many than too little.  If this is all I have to fret over, then I must be in fairly good shape.




Bob

April 15 2018

Hello Everyone:

Not much that can be done at the farm today.  Eastern Ontario is getting the freezing rain for the next twenty four hours and we are no different in that respect.

Pepper seedlings from a week ago

That isn’t to say that I have been away from the farm.  The green and very hot peppers are sprouting, the onions have surpassed my minimum needs for the season, and the rest of the plants are growing well (The moderately hot peppers appear to have lost their seed viability - the seed was somewhat old but I had presumed they had one season left in them.  I over seeded as one does in these situations, and have received just one sprout...more on this the next post).

I was out earlier to the nursery to ensure that the plants don’t dry out as I expect the roads will be treacherous at least for the early part of tomorrow.  With the heat on, the seedling trays require a water top-up once every 36 hours.  I can’t over water in advance (that would cause other problems) and so I have to make the forty minute round trip on days which one ought not to be driving. 

Ice storms are by far my biggest worry for weather at this time of year.  The nursery can probably take about 24 hours without power, and a typical power outage is usually no longer than a couple of hours. 

However, if a lot of lines go down across the city, our farm neighbourhood will likely be a low priority. 

Knowing that slowing down the rate of temperature change is the key to helping the seedlings through a period of time without heat, I place a few thermal masses in the nursery.  Water is an excellent thermal mass, and there are always several gallons stored in jugs.  Today, I placed several bags of soil that I thawed out in the outdoor nursery the past few days.  This soil is quite damp and will release it’s heat into the nursery should the temperature start to drop.

With all this down time from the farm, I can catch up on reading:

Free ranging poults at Elmtree Farm

Gene Lodsdon’s , “All Flesh is Grass” (Swallow Press, 2004) is one of the two current books I’m going through.  Gene works a cattle farm in Ohio and has successfully experimented (and continues to experiment) with small herds that are sustained by pasture farming, as opposed to strip grazing or other conventional methods.  Aside from his thoughtful observations on agriculture generally, I look at some of the techniques he uses to pasture cattle without resorting to planting amounts of corn or grain, silaging it for the winter, and spending money on feed and tractor fuel.

These are techniques that I can translate into pork and bird production when/if our farm moves to a permanent location.

I highly recommend this book to anyone considering free ranging livestock on any scale; it was one of the first I picked up when taking the first timid steps to buying a pair of pigs.

Another author I have returned to recently is Joel Salatin.  His books “Folks, This Ain’t Normal” and “You Can Farm Too” were inspirational when I started my farm journey.  Something had pricked my memory a while back when I was thinking about heating a pig hutch during the winter months, and I recalled some notes in one of his books how he buried silage corn under layers of straw in his barn.  Silage gives off heat due to the fermentation process, which moderates the temperature enough to keep the pigs warm.

Now I hope at least some of you are wondering about that buried corn with happy warm pigs nearby.  Joe states that all pigs have a sign on their foreheads that reads “Will Root for Corn” and they are quite happy doing this.  In fact, looking into the window of that barn on a minus twenty day in the Shenandoah valley and the pigs appear to be in a porcine heaven – sprawled asleep on the warm straw or alternately rooting up the tasty cobs.

Side note about accompanying photo:

To keep my 2016 pigs pigs happy and curious (and to dismantle an old hay bale I wanted to incorporate into the soil), I would stuff apples into the edge of the bale after breakfast time.  They would finish their mash and then gallop over to find and tear the fruit out.  This had the added benefit of keeping them preoccupied so I could do a perimeter walk to inspect the electric fence or clean their water trough.

I have a few questions about this method (how is the corn replenished – I imagine bringing several hundred pounds of corn into a pig barn would cause a riot of excitement and a trampled farmer, and what state the pigs’ livers are in come springtime, not to mention what this might do for breeding sows. 

So I have to go through all of Salatin’s books to find the chapter that deals with this topic, and I get a refresher on his pasturing techniques and a lot of the other interesting innovations that I could adapt for my own uses whether for vegetables or animals.

I’ll recommend Joel’s books, but beware...I might compare him with the phrase “the Noam Chomsky of agriculture” – a relentlessly scathing whit and intelligent critique of the current food chain and it’s scientists, apologists, myth sustainers and snake oil peddlers.  I get a lot of my own ideas when reading about how he has DIY’d his way through a problem (be it reducing workload, expenses, or other farm challenges).  But like Noam Chomsky, a little too relentless for me to read in one sitting.

Farming: equal parts being, doing, and observing

My mentor Tom once referred to an old saying:  “It takes ten years to grow a farmer.”  He quickly added that after his tenth year, the only thing that changed were the nature of his questions, and he still wondered at the amount of knowledge he had yet to learn.

Well, we are just a couple of hours into this winter/spring freezing rain storm, so I might as well go back to the books for a little while – who knows, maybe Kanata will lose power and there won’t be light enough to read by later...

Progress report on the Whitsend customer request project...Jen from Sysabee and I are meeting this Tuesday to take a look at a potential draft.  Jen hosted a focus group of some of our customers last week and they had a strong preference for one of three possible formats that Jen was proposing.

I'm looking forward to see how this project is developing.

I wanted to be there for the focus group but wisely didn't ask to be included...best to get the unfiltered opinions from the folks who are going to use this.

Early April:  Latest events at the farm:

I can hear the distant chatter of groundhogs in the hedgerows, and have no desire to have one set up lodgings within the growing field - easier to exclude rodents than to remove them.

Now that most of the snow is off the ground, time for the first field task of the season - switching on the electric fence.  This is always a milestone; a cue that the ground will be ready for working very soon.

Looks like fox tracks

Before flicking the switch, I walk the perimeter, looking for breaks in the line, twigs or other material laying across the wire, and other possible causes of electrical shorts.

While at it, I also watch out for animal signs such as prints, burrows, or unfinished meals.  One of the more unusual discoveries over the years were eggs (from someone else's farm!) buried by a fox.

After the charger is turned on, I do a second walk, listening for the tell-tale snap of any shorts my visual inspection may have missed.

Inside the nursery, the next event is the sowing of the peppers.  I start these a bit early in the season as I use a cold treatment technique that improves yield later in life.  Peppers germinate around 24 degrees.  I grow the seedlings in the warmest part of the nursery until they have about three true leaves.  After that, I move the seedlings to the coolest part of the nursery, ideally about 16 degrees.  At this time, the plants start spending days in the outdoor nursery, as they require full sun at this time, which is more light than the grow lights are able to provide.






Less than a week after sowing, the peppers are sprouting.  (pictured above).

The celery, celeriac, parsley, and onions are all coming along nicely as well.











In addition to improving yield later in the pepper plants life,, this technique allows me to transplant the seedlings about two weeks earlier than I otherwise could.  In turn, this increases the number of weeks that the plants produce.




Which means it is time to prepare the outdoor nursery.

First task is to clean it out - a sweep to get spilled soil, washing shelf surfaces to eliminate plant pathogens and all of the diseases that rodents spread about


After that, switching on the high frequency pest chaser and loading up a few mouse traps just to make sure.






After that, I start watching the temperature readings and comparing them to the outdoor highs and lows.  This usually takes a couple of days until the leaks are found and patched with old tattered row covers.

Two important concepts to keep in mind when growing seedlings in cool weather.

- Young plants are more cold tolerant than mature plants.  Plants are always in a race to beat their neighbors to the optimal amount of sunlight in the spring.  Two common strategies they use are to grow quickly, or grow early.  Growing early will expose the plants to cooler temperatures, so they have evolved some cold tolerance at this stage in their lives.

-Rate of temperature change has a bigger effect than the low temperature itself.  A plus four reading can be less damaging if the reduction in temperature is more gradual than a sudden plus 6 temperature.   I use a few ceramic tiles and bricks to act as thermal masses to release their warmth overnight.

Once the temperature is stable, cold tolerant plants such as parsley, onions, and the peppers go into the outdoor nursery, making space inside for the chard and second round of green onions.


With some time yet to go before the plants go into the outdoor nursery, I have time to make improvements.

Last year, I lost the third round of celery and a few other plants due to either too much heat or not enough air circulation.  Leaving the nursery door open is too risky, one of the local fluffy tailed rodents (or the brown and white striped rodents) might get in and dig/knock trays over/trample seedlings/do their business etc while burying seeds from the neighbors bird feeder.

Due to the limits of my carpentry skills, I had few choices.  Despite being a little awkward, I have built a screen that I can insert into the open door.

Another problem solved!

(photograph to follow)




More to post in a couple of days...

Update March 22nd:

Our pre-season request form should be ready shortly after the first of April.  I am looking forward to seeing what Jen at Sysabee has developed so far.  Once we are satisfied with the data collection form, I will distribute this to the customers for this season so that I can accurately sow the seeds for the start of the season.

Once the forms are distributed by email, work will turn to developing an electronic method of collecting the requests.  I anticipate trying this out a few times this season to ensure that it works (if there are problems with our first trials, I will still have the pre-season email form to fall back on).

Meanwhile, the nursery is starting to fill.  I now have enough seedlings for the celeriac, green onions, the first two rounds of celery; way more parsley than required, and a little over half of our bulb onions.  A second round of bulb onions is just starting to germinate.

Here is the parsley at two weeks of age.  Like many of the umbellifer (carrot family crops) a very slow grower.  For reference, check out the photo of the germinating parsley from March 9th, below.

At this time of year, I need to visit the nursery once every 36 hours, to ensure that the heat isn't drying out the soil.

As the temperature warms up over the next couple of weeks, the onions and parsley will move to the outdoor nursery, making room for the lettuces, chard, and kale.





Update March 19:



Farm sales have crossed the one third mark.  If you are considering a share of this seasons harvest, contact me soon.



Back at the old farm, the first round of sprouts are steadily growing into seedlings.

After promoting the first round of bulb and green onions, the a second round of bulb onions was seeded last week.  I have about half of what is needed, so a smaller third round will likely be required for insurance.

Pictured here are some of the parsley sprouts.  I had two partial packets of three and four year old seed which I assumed was reaching the limit of its viability.




I ordered a new packet and sowed all of the old seed to see what I could get out of it.  Much to my surprise, it gave about an eighty per cent germination rate, resulting in about twice as many plants as required, so there may be some parsley starts to sell at the farm gate in early spring.


Searching for the "New Farm" continues...

Another piece of farmland to explore.  Thankfully, this one is not as big as the previous property and easier terrain to hike across.

Not quite Canadian shield and not quite Ottawa valley - a boundary eco-system where different wildlife habitats overlap.

In theory, this means more pollinators, bug eaters, and rodent predators.

Half an hour drive away from here, we spotted a bald eagle.







An interesting aspect of this property are a few 'grand parent' aged trees.  Large swaths of this part of eastern Ontario were burned over in the forties and fifties.

A clue - those juniper plants suggest that the soil here may be quite shallow in places.

The south facing slope is a bonus as well, taking the solar climate of this property a hundred kilometers south.









One strike against this property is the driveway. 

It's steep slope will make for some difficult winter mornings in the car.

The busy road may make for some traffic noise, but also provides good access to farm gate customers.

Finding out the soil depth is one of the two pieces of information that will determine if this place goes to the short list.

Despite what gardening books might say, 12-18 inch depth is plenty for vegetable production - about the same as the current farm.

In some places, Elmtree had a maximum 12 inch soil depth upon which grew some astounding tomatoes.

Update March 9th:

Here are the first parsley plants to emerge.  Starting tomorrow, I'll be gently teasing these out of the soil and moving them to individual cell packs, where they will live for the next 10 weeks or so until it is time to transplant.  This process is called promoting.  The earliest onions will be ready for promoting as well.

I have sold 1/3 of our shares for the season.  I am especially encouraged by the number of new customers we have gained thus far.








Update March 1st:  Compare this seed tray from a photo (below) of five days ago.  The onions have started sprouting.

The seed starting occurs in a very light soil mix that retains moisture.  Light penetrates it fairly easily as well, and along with warmth provided by the nursery, these are the three ingredients needed by the seeds to germinate.

In about a week, these onion sprouts will be promoted to cell packs, where they will continue to grow in a richer soil for about ten or eleven weeks.








Update Feb 23:

The field is starting to appear.

The nursery has been switched on for the past few days, and has warmed up to spring temperatures. 

No sign of mice since the shelves were cleaned and sterilized, still plenty of fox tracks in the snow around the barn.

The first succession of onion seeds are now sown.  600 seeds, approximately half of what our projected needs are.

This may seem like a lot, but I anticipate about 75 per cent germination and survival rate between now and transplant, and some losses after transplant.

Seedlings lost after transplant are replaced by the second succession of onions.





Update February 21:

Whitsend Market Garden has engaged Sysabee Ottawa to assist us with developing a request system that farm customers can use to build their weekly and season harvest basket contents.

We anticipate this project to take a year to fully implement, but there will be opportunities throughout the season to experience the fruits of our collaboration.

The excitement of the new year continues, and it's still February...





Hello Everyone:


Work is starting to pick up here.  Despite the snow on the ground, this is a very busy time of year at Whitsend.

Very low snow pack this winter, but some long-term forecasts are suggesting another wet start to the season.

I'll look back at the notes from last spring to see how best to respond.







The seedling trays are cleaned:

This helps reduce the inevitable build-up of pathogens.  As chlorine based cleaners are prohibited by the organic standard, I use a 3% H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide).  It is permitted as it does not persist in the soil.





The nursery is cleaned out, lights, fans, temperature control tested:

Aside from a little soil, most of what is vacuumed out is the calling card that mice leave behind (aside from what they gnaw upon, which appears to be everything).  According to my traps, we had quite a few of them in here last fall.  A few days should let me know how many (if any) are left to clear out.

I've noticed more fox tracks than previous winters, and observed a cat prowling around the barn, which is always good news.



Most of our 2018 seeds are purchased:

As usual, organic green bean seeds were the toughest to find, but I was able to source most of what I wanted andd all of what I needed.  There'll be fewer "Jade" green beans, so I purchased extra "Maxibel" to cover the remainder.  Not quite as prolific, so I will have to sow little extra.

I added three new crops added for the season.  I have included chicory, parsley root, and a different color of zinnia in our order.  A couple more lettuces were added to the mix as well.

One lettuce many of our past customers will be pleased about is a Bibb lettuce variety called "Sylvestra".

I have planted chicory in the past - some folks call this frisee.  Closely related to lettuce, used as a salad leaf.  Some folks like this one a lot (or so my sister says).  So I will add it as a limited option in exchange for some lettuce head or arugula.  This crops does best in the cooler weather of early and late season.

I recall chicory has a stronger flavor than lettuce*.  Some folks may prefer this to arugula - another leaf with a "bitter" flavor.

*Technically that flavor is called 'bitter', but marketers have found the word bitter scares consumers away - hence, baby kale is marketed as 'sweet baby kale' (it is milder than mature kale but certainly not sweet) and salsify root is marketed as 'Sweet Salsify'.  (Salsify generally has no distinct flavor, it takes it's flavor from whatever it is cooked with).

Parsely Root will be a new crop for me.  I'll trial a small quantity this season and use it as an exchange for carrots.  It's maturity date is close to that of our colored carrots, so I will plant a few of these at the end of the bed.

A little bit of variety to spice up soups , stews and casseroles.  I am interested to find out how it differs from parsnip and celeriac, which it is closely related to.



Yellow zinnia seeds are not available from organic seed suppliers this season, and I only have about 20 seeds left that are about two years old.  I have found a new color zinnia to use, but I'll leave it as a surprise.

While closing with a new customer, I inquired if there were any requests they had, and they mentioned peonies.  I spent some time looking for peony seeds, but could not find any from organic stock.  What I did learn was that deer are repelled by this crop, and so some farms use it along boundary fences.  Deer are not much of a problem here, but this is something to look for in the future while we continue our search for  permanent land.





On another note, while setting up my next seed order, I found that white tomato seeds are unavailable this season.  "Great White" is our signature crop, at least to my mind.  Compared to our other tomatoes, it is a relatively low yielding crop, and it's irregular shape renders it a little less popular.

A few of us appreciate it's low acidity.

Rotating the trays so all seedlings get optimal time near the fan 

After scouring my usual seed houses (I typically work with four of them for most of our main season crops), I turned to Sunshine Farm in Kelowna, who have often provided rare or difficult to find seed.

They have a couple of options for a white tomato that I am interested in.  As of this writing, I am considering a gold tomato that has the low acidity content.  It's shape is a little more uniform and it is reputed to be quite flavorful. 






Next, continue to sign on new customers, get my annual farm registration mailed, and start seeding parsley and onions...