Welcome to those of you who are checking out this site and our farm for the first time.

There is a lot of information about the farm on these pages.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, the number and email addresses are at the bottom of the page.

We are accepting renewals and new customers this season, our as our field, farm, and experience continues to expand.  Space is finite, so contact me soon.

I’ve been asking the following question of a few of my customers, as I thought I was short some space.  After working out some details (the calculator gets a lot of work at this time of year), I have found enough room for a decent amount of all of these crops. 

All the same, if you are taking part in this year’s eating season, let me know how you grade these crops in comparison.  I was a bit surprised by the answers I received so far; in particular, cucumber has proven to be more popular than I expected.  As a result, I will be planting more of this fruit next year, and increasing the quantity of onions.  

To accommodate the extra cucumbers, I'll be planting fewer squashes.  That's fine, as I underestimated the yield of the winter squash last year, and we had a considerable surplus. 

Tomatoes

Potatoes

Zucchini

Cucumbers

Onions

Eggplant

Sweet Peppers

Lebanese zucchini (also known as Kusa),

Mid winter is a busy time of year here at Whitsend.  Out at the barn, work continues on the all-weather nursery.  The framework and roof components are complete.  I am currently working on the door frames; two of four of these are finished.

Fox tracks

Outside, the field is revealing all of the nighttime activity that goes on behind my back…mouse, cat, and fox tracks in the snow, for the most part.  Our household Kale is standing up well to the arrival of the cold.

Other than a bit snow blown in through a few cracks, the shed is keeping the field equipment dry.

Most of the farm work is taking place at the house.

There have been a few changes to the Canadian organic standard; I’ve been going through the documents to see how these changes impact Whitsend’s operating procedures.  Little to not at all, so far.

I’ve looked over my options for reusable canvas bags for produce delivery.  Next step is to start asking for quotes.  I expect more details soon…

Then there is the annual updating of all the promotional material.  Clarifying a couple of poorly drafted paragraphs, changing dates, etc.

Pulling together the receipts and related papers for the accountant, and adding up (or subtracting) how much money I made last year.

All this is starting to feel routine, so I must be ready to take on something new…

The hardest task is always checking and adjusting the production plan for next season.  So many known unknowns.  Was the record yield of potatoes two years in a row a fluke, or a new normal?  Clues may be gleaned from looking at yields for other crops that grow in a similar part of the rotation pattern, comparing weather records, and scanning  journal entries - even comparing where in the field these crops were from one year to the next is revealing. 

One challenge that I have been experimenting with over the past few years is how to accommodate customer requests.  This sounds easy enough, when I first started farming; I thought it was a no brainer, why don’t other farms make their production more flexible for customer choice?

One problem is managing all of the information.  This was easy when I started out with ten customers.  As we grow, keeping a binder full of individual requests at the prep station and checking it while harvesting and packaging interrupts workflow a lot.

The paper records tend not to last very long; it is inevitably smudged with soil or get wet.

Even more challenging is trying to fit requests into the production plan.  As discussed in previous posts, the production plan is based upon the crop rotation pattern, which is designed to develop soil fertility and maintain crop health.  I’ve also set up my plan to improve workflow in the field.

An easy example:  A customer requests no tomatoes, but wants extra turnips.  Both crops are very dissimilar, and require a different place in the rotation pattern.  So planting one less tomato plant and planting the extra turnips in the same space will not work. 

If I were to plant the extra turnips elsewhere, then I have to consider several criteria.

Turnips are a short to mid season crop, they require about fifty days to mature, plus two to three weeks prior to planting for bed preparation.  So they can only fit in a bed that will have another short or mid season crop before or after. 

Turnips are a root crop, so will have to go into beds that are in their “root” year in the rotation pattern.  If I place them in a leaf bed, they will have small roots and lots of foliage; if I place them in a legume bed, they will be following last year’s root crops and will not have sufficient nutrients.  As well, the following leaf crops will not have enough nitrogen fixed by the legumes that the turnips replaced.

So the extra turnips are going into a root bed.  This means they will have to displace carrots, celeriac, parsnips, rutabaga, daikons, radishes or beets. 

Celeriac, parsnips, and rutabaga are long season crops; if I were to plant the turnips in one of these beds, I would have to manage an extra few feet of bed differently for much of the season, if the turnips were planted in mid summer for a fall harvest, the seedlings would be shaded by their older neighbors. 

Planting turnip with radish, a short season crop, creates the opposite problem. 

Beets growing time is similar to turnip (fifty to sixty days), so there is an option there.  I just have to ensure that when the same bed was producing leaves, the leaf crop was not a close relative of turnip, such as arugula or kale.

So I have been thinking along these lines and looking at how to tweak my production plan to allow for some pre-season requests.  I even had a chance last season to do a bit of experimenting.  Here is what I have come up with so far:

Parsnip OR extra carrots; Celeriac OR extra carrots

Not perfect matches.  The extra carrots in the celeriac and parsnip beds will be out much earlier than the other crops.  It’s possible that some extra radish could go there, but the radish must follow the carrots (cabbage family crops such as radish have a detrimental effect upon most crops that follow them, including carrots).  So someone requesting extra carrots would have to get their extra carrots earlier in the season, probably on top of another carrot delivery. 

Rutabaga or Daikon Radish

The Rutabaga/Daikon option has similar issues.  Moreover, our variety of daikons grow better in the fall (at least that’s what the seed house claims), so the daikons would have to be planted under some large rutabaga pants.  The daikons would then be growing in soil that has been hosting flea beatles all season, which are attracted to cabbage family crops.  The mature rutabaga simply outgrows the flea beatle damage, but a fresh daikon sprout would be quickly eaten.  If I can grow daikons in the spring, when the rutabaga is planted, then I can place the two together, but the daikon will leave behind some empty bed for the next sixty days, when the rutabaga is harvested.  Inter planting might be a possibility, though this may interrupt the rutabaga's root system.

Turnip OR Watermelon Radish OR Osterguss Radish

I tried this twice last year; the last time around I also added the Osterguss radish.  So I am happy to accommodate anyone who wants less turnip in return for another cabbage root crop.  All crops have almost the same dates, same nutrient requirements, and are closely related.  Why can’t everything else work out this elegantly?  (So much for the seed house who suggested that Watermelon radish is a fall crop…)

Brussels Sprout OR extra broccoli shoots

Exchanging brussels sprouts (long season cabbage) with broccoli shoots (short season cabbage) creates similar problems.  However, the broccoli shoots like the early spring weather, so could be inter planted with the brussels sprouts and harvested as the brussels sprouts started to grow large enough to shade out the broccoli shoots.  This means someone requesting broccoli instead of b-sprouts will have a smaller delivery later in the season and a little more in their delivery earlier.

Fennel OR extra celery

Fennel and celery are interchangeable in my field, so this one works out; my only difficulty is getting my head around someone else’s distaste for fennel…

Lettuce OR celtuce

With lettuce or celtuce, the dates work out ok, nutrients mostly similar, but celtuce requires five times the space to grow a serving.  So I can’t do a one for one exchange.

Arugula and mustard greens OR pac choi, tatsoi, and vitamin green

Very easy to manage, both types of crops have similar growing dates; they are closely related and require the same nutrients.   The choi’s requires a little more space than the arugula, so I either have to squeeze them together (this makes them ‘leggy’ as they all try to grow tall while competing with each other for sunlight), or accept a few less plants.

There are some encouraging ideas here, worth considering after some good nights rest.

Talk to you soon,

Bob

PS: I once overheard the scornful remark that farming is a career with no brainwork.  That memory makes me laugh as I re-read this post.

Update December 31st:

I  ordered my seed potatoes last night.  As always, we have ordered from Ellenberger Farm in Coe Hill.

Conversation with Henry adds new insight into growing potatoes successfully.  After describing my results with the russet potatoes this past season, he suggested that the new beds low fertility was a probable factor in the tuber size.

Based on some of his suggestions, I have purchased a small quantity of fingerling potatoes. The variety is called 'Linser Delicatesse.  With a name like that, they must be good.

Happy new year, everyone!

Bob

Hey Everyone:

Our 2015 review and survey is now sent out to our customers.  Results will be posted on the “2015 survey” page as they come in.

I intend to open the new season on January 1^st.  See “How to purchase a Share” page for details, including prices, payment options, and payment schedule.

New produce for 2016:

Gold beets (request from last year), kusa (Something I’ve been looking for since starting the farm), single serving size butternut squash for soup, pie, and stew,  broccoli sprouts (successfully trialed last season).

Other changes for 2016:

Earlier harvest start.  The first harvest is the week of Tuesday May 31st and Friday June 3rd.

Space to plant more tomato plants, so harvest quantity will probably increase;

I anticipate providing pork this season, I am sourcing my piglets now.

It’s been a while since I had an opportunity to write.  Fall and spring are the busiest times of the year here at Whitsend, so there is usually a period of radio silence while the ground work is laid for the next season.

I missed my opportunity to take some pictures of the field in it's preparation state.  Now that the snow is falling, the field will not reveal the state of the beds until next April or so.

I have been able to accomplish quite a lot the past few weeks, thanks in large part to the very cooperative weather.

Back in November, construction of the new shed started.  It took much longer than intended.

Now that it is up and functioning, it is making a big difference.   

For the first time in five years, I have a place to keep the gardening tools and most of the field equipment organised in a place that has ample room to move about.  No more wasted time moving ten objects to reach one.

The next project is the all weather nursery.  Many of our crops are started from seed in our indoor nursery.  Some of these crops are started in late February and early March, so the nursery needs to be small enough to heat efficiently.  

After mid March, the next round of seeding starts, and more nursery space is required. 

The design for the new nursery had to take a couple of factors into account.

One is the amount of space available.  I am at the limit of what I can put in the barn, so the new nursery needs to be located outside. 

The second is the amount of lights to keep the plants growing.  The cost of power is already significant, so I need to use sunlight. 

Mid March is when the need for nursery space is greatest.  The temperature is moderating at this time of year, but the nightly lows and cold snaps are still require significant protection for the plants. 

So the new nursery is located outside and built with insulated walls.  The clear covering is layered to trap and retain heat.  

This creates some new design issues to work around.  Too warm, and the nursery will cook the plants on the warmest says (not to mention being too hot to use during mid summer).  So a means of venting needs to be built in.

The biggest challenge are the insulated walls and doors, these need to be constructed in such a way as to keep the insulation dry.  As this project progresses, you’ll find out how I am working around this…

As for the rest of the farm, the field is in good enough shape to start the 2016 season with a few more customers than last season.  I have already had some expressions of interest.

Talk to you all very soon...

Hello Everyone:

Yes it's been a while since the previous post.  Much has been happening, but with the days shorter, little time to write about it.

Much of the work involves preparations for next season - cleaning out the last crop residues, edging the beds, clearing stones and grass rhizomes, and adding the amendments scheduled for each bed, depending on where it is in the rotation pattern.

Extra attention is being spent on adjusting some of the beds position, some of the paths are a little narrow due to a mistake made surveying a couple of years back and so some beds are getting moved north a couple of inches and some a couple of inches south.  It's a little more labor intensive than the ususal fall routine, but worth it in the long run - I figure that I will have my paths a little more user friends in about two years.

Then there is work in the field outside of the beds - turning the compost one final time, and working on the new beds for next season.

Hoses need to be drained and stored, sinks cleaned and placed out of the way, all the infrastructure that was required in the season tended.  I hope I get a chance to fix that gate - as I said for the past three seasons.

Meanwhile, back at the barn, our new shed is slowly rising.  This is a much anticipated event, and I really look forward to using this structure next season.

Before I leave, there are seed beans to shuck, inspect weigh, and store.

By the time I get home, I find another 'early bird discount' deadline approaching for seed purchasing, so it's into the deep blue screen with me to source and compare seeds and look at the plan for next season and go through the inventory to find out what I used, and what I know for sure I will need next season.

No wonder I never have time to write!

It's mostly fun (I make an exception for moving the beds or loosing the last good drill bit), but the clock is always ticking.  The junco's have left, a sure sign that snow is on the way.

Talk to you soon,

Bob

Hello Everyone:

Much talk about, there has been a lot going on at the farm over the past couple of weeks.  Too much to do and no time to write except on my  day off, and with an uptick in the farm workload for fall, the day off is all the more important. 

First of all, the farm has corrected it’s aphid imbalance.  My own actions probably had an influence, but I can’t be the only reason why they have returned to normal levels so quickly.

My approach to farming is to mimic nature, not replace it.  As with a natural or balanced setting such as a wild meadow or forest, there will always be a background population of a wide variety of insects (and bacteria, viruses, fungi, animals, plants etc.) that will compete and co-exist.  When I plant a concentrated amount of nutrient rich foods, I tilt this balance somewhat.  Nature responds by introducing a means of reducing all of the extra nutrient to it’s ‘balanced’ level.  How nature does this informs me as to how I can continue to tilt the balance toward more food, and then mitigate natures first response.

In simplest terms, when a particular insect population starts to increase beyond it’s background population, I interpret that as a symptom.  One factor that leads to aphid’s  thriving is water stress experienced by the crops.  This has been a fairly dry season. 

Compounding that, I may have inadvertently introduced some aphids with a compromised bag of potting soil, as mentioned in a previous post.  The aphids started in three transplanted crops  - cabbage, russian kale, and lettuce, all transplanted around the same time in three very different parts of the field.  The russian kale was very close to the toscano kale (unaffected), and the cabbage very close to the closely related daikon and arugula.  Neither of these neighboring crops were affected.

The aphids on the lettuce are only suspected.  The lettuce in question had no aphids on it, though it was transplanted at the same time and with the same soil as the kale and cabbage.  However, a couple of small pig weed plants on the bed had small populations being tended by ants.  Easily removed, the ants actually helped by concentrating the aphids (which seem to do better on pig weed than lettuce, if the ants farming activity are any indication).  At any rate, these cleared up with no damage that I am aware of.

The cabbage was so bad that all of the plants in the affected bed were removed and destroyed – sealed in a metal container until nothing was left alive and then kept in the sun to sterilize any possible eggs.  The Kale was only affected in a couple of plants.  I removed the worst of these , and the worst of the leaves of a few neighboring plants. 

Since then, I carefully observed the other crops for aphids and found only two other instances.  One (of two) zucchini plants were near the cabbage, and had aphids.  These were concentrated on a couple of leaves, again, tended by ants.  I estimate that more than ninety per cent of the aphids were removed by removing about four zuke leaves.  I also noted what appeared to be an uptick in ladybugs on the zukes, though only because I had never really noticed these bugs in zuchinis before – maybe they were always there and I never saw them.

I also found aphids on the nicotiana.  The nicotiana showed no signs of un-health, so I left them as a ‘trap’ for any aphids that hatched from the soil of the now empty cabbage bed.  If this particular species likes nicotiana, I figure that the aphids will go to these plants first (these are also close to the cabbage).  That way, I can use the flowers as a means of monitoring the progress of the aphids for the rest of the season and for early next year.

What have I done?  Simply remove the worst infected plants, and allow the farm to run it’s course. 

In certain conditions and certified procedures, I can use “organic pesticides” such as a chrysanthemum based solution; or I can make a spray of crushed garlic from my own farm to apply.  These may work against aphids, but they have several drawbacks.  

They would kill aphid predators such as lady beetles (and I suspect ants as well).

I would also loose valuable information such as nicotiana being such a great trap for the aphids.

Finally, I would waste a lot of time spraying every leaf involved, and have no time to relieve the crops water stress or solarise the potting soil, in order to prevent another outbreak.

A final lesson that I have learned from this episode is that I sometimes tend to assume worst case scenario.  I thought at one point that I would loose all russian and toscano Kale, cabbage, arugula, zucchinis (green and gold), lettuce, and just about everything else; plus have aphids hatching next spring from the soil and an entire season of battling tiny insects.  

Faith and confidence are as important as knowledge and activity when it comes to farming. 

Julia calls plants “…the worlds greatest optimists”.  I spend plenty of time around our crops, I should allow some of this optimism to rub off on me!

Before I sign off, I have a couple of other stories and farm updates to relate, but no time for the writing.  See below for a sneak preview, I anticipate being back from a self imposed farm email holiday for the next few days and will continue this edition of the Whitsend Post a week from now.  Time for family.

Have a good holiday.

Bob

By the way - Littledown Farm (whom we rent our land from) still has beef for sale.  Here is a link to their farm:

www.littledownfarm.ca



Also, I am certain most of you know, but just in case - we do NOT have pork this year.  The forage crop did not do so well in the spring and I was obliged to not buy the two piglets as there would have been too little for them to eat.


Coming post:

Preparing the field for next season:

Those of you who were here for the Open House may recall that this patch was covered in grass.



Beds 1 through 8 were lost after the third season due to mistakes made building them (too much tilling, resulting in an overabundance of quack grass.

I started clearing this group of beds using a low wheel cultivator with curved tines.  The tines pulled the grass rhizomes up from under the soil. After allowing them to dry out for 24 hours, I then used a bed rake to collect and remove.

Next year, I will grow crops here that will help clean the beds further - beans and potatoes.

Preparing fertility for next season:

All of the remnants of crops that are finished (tomato vines, squash vines, discarded celery, cornstalks, etc.) are gathered and piled onto one last compost windrow for the season.

This will likely be ready by late summer next season, thus becoming "next years' food".

Very little goes to waste here!

Frost mitigation - no one size fits all solution!

Some crops have two row covers - the first on short hoops.  After placing the row cover on the short hoops, I then put down a second set of long hoops over the short ones, and use a second row cover on these.  This creates an extra layer of air between the crops and the cold.

Some crops receive just one row cover, these are fairly cold tolerant but not as much as kale.

Sometimes straw is preferable to row cover:

I had a final celery or two reserved for the farmhouse.  As we are falling behind in putting food by (not to mention running out of fridge space!), I chose to leave these in the ground.  

Straw is a little more effective than row covers, though it does make a mess of the crops, particularly items like lettuce.

A little longer to apply than a row cover, but much cheaper than nylon row cover.

Some crops taste better after being frosted.  

Kale takes on winters might without much complaint.  Russian Kale in particular can survive a lot of cold.

For deep winter harvesting, plenty of straw helps to keep the leaves from drying out from the wind.

I often wondered if eating a lot of this will improve ones own cold tolerance...



Preparing for next year:  feeding the soil with rock phosphate and boosting the phosphate with buckwheat.

I apply rock phosphate to each bed once every four seasons (in beds that will receive fruit and bulb crops the following season, such as squash,  peppers or onions).

Typically, only 3% of the applied phosphate is in a form usable for plants.  Some plants, such as buckwheat, are more efficient in drawing rock phosphate from the ground, so I have started to plant this after application.  When the buckwheat dies off from teh cold, the plants decay and are incorporated back into the soil.  The extra phosphate that was taken up by the buckwheat is now available for the next crop.





Preparing for garlic:  Other than preparing the Kidney Beans, this is the final 'big task' for produce this season, though the garlic being planted now is for next year's harvest.

Cleaning and aerating the beds:  These beds were cleaned back in late August, after the lettuce was harvested.  A couple of late pig weed's and dandelion sprouts were cleaned out and the edges of the bed trimmed back.

Applying compost...last year's food is now returning to the field.  All of those carrot tops, squash vines, bruised tomatoes, un-formed turnips, gone to seed lettuce and past their prime arugula return to the field as nutrients for the soil.

Note the holes in the bed surface, these were made by the broad fork to provide oxygen to the lower levels of the soil column.  Oxygen promotes the bacteria and other living bio-mass in the soil which is so important for building fertility.


Compost continues to break down in the soil, processed by bacteria, worms, etc.  Each 'processing' of the compost - such as through a microbial mats 'digestive process', then a worm, which in turn may pass through a bird, etc.. - breaks down the nutrients and re-combines them in more complex and novel molecular arrays.  Complexity and diversity strengthen the community (in this case, the soil), which in turn makes for a better place to grow (the crops).

Soil is alive when viewed this way.  A considerable amount by weight is living organisms, one way or another.

Good food is simply a by-product of effective fertility engineering.



Garlic loves leaf mold.  Current research is devoted to the peculiar preferences garlic has for growing locations.  One suspected factor under study is the relatiobnship garlic has with mold and fungus.



These leaves were collected last fall and kept in a separate pile to accumulate a mold colony.  If these leaves had been mixed with grass clippings, bacteria would have broken them down into regular compost.

By leaving the nitrogen out of this particular cycle, the leaves decay much more slowly by mold activity.

After applying compost, I apply the moldy leaves and incorporate it all into the bed.



As garlic (being a bulb crop) falls into my 'fruit' category for the rotation pattern, the beds are also amended with rock phosphate.  three of the four beds for garlic this year had some buckwheat on it, so I will be paying extra attention to these beds in order to compare the efficacy of the buck wheat application.  No end to learning and fine tuning.




The rock garden was too warm for (last weeks) frost...the Thyme and Sage rocked on!

This week, with the minus seven predicted lows, the herbs were covered with straw.

The straw will remain on until next spring, when (hopefully), the plants will come back either through their roots or by having self seeded.