Update April 10:  We have moved house to a location closer to the farm.  Our new phone number is now located at the bottom of this page.  

We still have room for 6 more customers this season.  

Income generated from the next three sales will purchase our solar panel for heating and lighting the nursery next season.  

In other news, the nursery is very crowded.  The Primrose, Celery, Celeriac, Peppers, and Tomatoes look especially promising.  We have had our first successful germination of New Zealand Spinach.  Much more news to come very soon...  

We still have room for one or two more interns.  If you are interested, please check out the "Volunteer and Interns" Page.


Hey Folks:

Thanks to those of you who are visiting this site for the first time. We hope you enjoy our farm website as much as the real thing. Unfortunately, the electronic farm experience is not quite as tasty, though I hope it will whet your appetite for fresh, certified organic produce.

If you have any questions about the farm, feel free to contact me at the email address or phone number below.

Your advance payment will ensure a share of this year’s harvest. Harvest deliveries start in mid June and run through to the end of October. There are a couple of deliveries anticipated for November (cold hardy leaves and storage produce such as carrots and kidney beans). It is possible that there may be an early delivery of peas and carrots in the spring.

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. 

An on-line advert can be found on the website for the Canadian Organic Growers (Ottawa Chapter). Whitsend is a COG member as of 2013.

I use very simple flyers (printed at home on standard print paper) to keep costs down. I realize 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.

Post March 11 2014 - Hey All:

I have said on several occasions that farming is about 10% vegetable growing and 90% everything else.  These days, I am spending about 110% more time than I originally planned on being a carpenter. 

The “new” nursery is not holding it’s heat, and it is not designed to allow for the addition of more insulation.  To put insulation on the outside would expose the material to the gnawings of rodents, and putting the insulation on the inside would take space away from the seedlings.

I spent several hours “insulating” as best as I could, adjusting the position of the heat source, and blocking off the parts of the nursery that are not required for a couple more weeks.  I used whatever sheet plastic, cardboard, and scrap wood I could find.  Despite this, the heater continues to run near to capacity - costing me more hydro than I care to calculate.

I next took stock of the lumber I still had (for the sheds), and went back to the drawing board.  I finally came to the conclusion that the best solution to the challenge at hand was to build a “newer” nursery. 

Despite all of this, the onions haves started to sprout (albeit somewhat slower and with lower germination rate).  There is still time to plant a make-up round, but I have to move quickly. 

We started half of the Tomatoes, Eggplant, herbs and flowers today, and then I went back to hammering and sawing away.

Bob

Ps:  I have room for eight more customers this season.

If you are considering purchasing a share of this year’s produce, please contact me soon.

Update Feb 23:

The nursery has been built.  After a few final details, the heat was turned on and the lights programmed.

We start planting tomorrow.  The 2014 season has started.

Bob

PS - I have added more to the "Introducing our Crops" Page...

Feb 10

Big milestone in the nursery today...the doors are mounted!  Big thanks to Randy (one of our interns from last year), who braved the chill weather and provided the essential third hand.

One more day of work should do it for the new nursery.  Wiring for the light and heat, mounting the shelves (brackets already in place), and mounting the lights.  After that, time for the trays to move in, thaw out, and receive their first planting...onions and herbs...with tomatoes, peppers, new zealand spinach, and some flowers to follow...spring is a week away at Whitsend!

One other note for this week:

 It has come to my attention that one of our customers have had a family bereavement.  This individual (who lived in the family household) always took time to come down to the kitchen when the delivery arrived.  She often had very nice comments about the produce, remarking on the appearance, or expressing appreciation for an item from the previous week.  Your presence will be missed.

I like the winter but…:

I am already looking forward to some lettuce and potatoes with real flavour, purple radishes, a wide variety of mustard greens, and fresh fennel.

And oily garlic – not “garlic powder in a clove” that is all too common at the store.

Which reminds me, I am hoping that 2013 will mark an improvement in our bell peppers.  As well this year, we hope to have some success with our new strategy for the European Leek Moths.  

Hey All:

I was out in the field yesterday to check on the snow pack and see what the critters have been up to.  The only recent animal tracks were a lone Turkey lost from it’s rafter (A group of turkeys is referred to as a “Rafter of Turkeys”.  The mice, rabbits, red squirrels and cats seem to be favouring the area around the barn. 

There is between 18 to 24 inches of snow in the field, which is good for the garlic planted last fall.  The bulbs will be well insulated from the extreme cold.

The workload is increasing quickly here at Whitsend.

I am getting the annual flood of emails – inquiries from new prospects and potential interns, last year’s customers signing up again, and replies from some of my own seed inquiries.  If you are waiting for my reply, I am getting to it shortly.

There is still some planning occurring as I get a few more of last year’s surveys, researching pigs and forage crops, and double checking what my equipment and supply needs are for the season.

And in the barn, the building continues.  The nursery reached a big milestone yesterday, with the completion of the roof.  This was a moral victory, as the structure (like a greenhouse in function but a cabinet in form) now looks like something other than a skeleton. 

I’d take a picture of the nursery, but the barn is probably too dark to take a decent photo without a flash.  The insulation I chose is highly reflective, and wouldn't be appropriate with a flash, either.

By the way, my wood working has created a considerable amount of cedar wood shavings.  We usually use these as fire starters on camping trips, but there is more than we can use for quite some time.  If any of our customers are the camping type, let me know and I will get some to you when convenient.

Talk to you soon,

Bob