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....

Hello Everyone:


Work continues.

Sales have reached fifty percent of our goal this season...about the usual pace of sales.  If you are considering purchasing a share of the 2017 harvest, be sure to contact me soon.









The first big task of 2017 is finished.  The wind falls are cleaned up, ensuring that I'll be able to drive in here next spring.

The burn pile.  Our source of potassium, which wood ash is very high in.

Another great use for dead fall is wood chips, which are useful in maintaining grass free paths.

Not something we do here currently (I don't have a wood chipper yet).

Another example of how we keep waste to a minimum on the farm by using what we have.

The dark side of farming.  Last year I had quite a lot of trouble with rodents in the nursery, which seem to get in under the walls and up through the gravel "floor".

So far, no difficulties, but I maintain the traps as a deterrent.

In our six years of farming, rodents have been our number one source of damage.  In the barn, they have chewed tarps, stored row covers, and a cardboard box containing tools.  In the field, they have damaged some potatoes, nipped the buds off of sprouting bean plants, and even sampled a couple of low hanging tomatoes.

This is not too bad, all things considered.  One barn down the road had a rodent gnaw into electrical wiring between the tractor starter switch and the battery,, which in turn caused a short.

The result was a burned down barn.  Not bad for an animal weighing a couple of grams.

I made sure that all our outlets were fitted with ground fault circuit interrupters, just in case any of our mice got some ideas...


New post coming in a week or so, we are close to getting the nursery warmed up, with some seed starting soon to follow...

Bob

Update as of January 27:


Sales have reached fifty percent of our goal this season...about the usual pace of sales.  If you are considering purchasing a share of the 2017 harvest, be sure to contact me soon.

Unusually for this time of year is the number of new customers that have signed on.  Welcome to our table!

The first big task of 2017 is finished.  The wind falls are cleaned up, ensuring that I'll be able to drive in here come spring.

Tasks like this have a way of getting bigger as the work progresses.  As one tree was cleared out, surrounding trees revealed their damage, usually in the form of dangerously hanging branches and split trunks.  In the world of chainsaw swingers, these are known as "widow makers".  The sort of word that will get even the most seasoned of rednecks quaking in their boots.

With due caution and some friendly banter, we finally cleared the the blocked lanes and hauled the debris out to the field for burning next year.



Next tasks...

-Start preparing the nursery for sowing (our first onions, celery, celeriac, eggplants, and thyme start mid February);

-Continue building the "ice-fridge";

-Testing and refining our request system;

-Annual regulatory hoops to hop through;

-Supplies to purchase;

-Bring in a few more customers

-And more flyer distribution...








Hello Everyone:

Off to a good start for the 2017 season.  Most of the seed purchsing is finished.  I have run our first test of the new request sytem and waiting for the results to come in.

While assessing the performance of the past two years, I noted a couple of activities that could be more efficiently completed.  One of these was our harvest requests - customers have some options available with each week's harvests.






The old method was slow, awkward, and prone to mistakes or ommissions.  Thanks to a suggestion from one of our customers, we may have something new...details to continue in future posts.

In the meantime, the search for new customers continues as a few more from last year return.

I'll be delivering more flyers over the coming week - if you are interested in great tasting, locally produced, certified organic produce, then call soon.  Our contact info is on the bottom of the page, and you can learn a little more by checking the pages 'About our Shares' and 'How to Buy a Share'.

Space is limited...


...In a hurry to contact Whitsend?  Heres a link direct to our email...


whitsmg@gmail.com

It may seem a little early for farming, but there is plenty to do at this time of year.

Last year, I set aside about 4 Lbs of Kidney beans for seed.  Now that I am purchasing seed for the new year, I want to ensure that the stock I have produced is viable.  

Here is a photograph of the second germination test.  18 out of twenty seeds have germinated, it appears that the one on the far left is just starting to split as well.  So we have a germination rate of 90 to 95%.

This compares favourably with the first test with a result of 64%.  I suspected that the temperature was a bit low, so I made a second attempt using a germination heat mat to provide a more accurate growing condition - after all, these will be sown in late May, when the soil temperature is reaching 20 degrees or so during the day.

Germination rate of the kidney bean seeds I purchased last year was 86%.  So the saved seeds are well within the industry standard.

I require about 4 1/2 Lbs for this season's sowing, so I'll purchase an additional pound to make up the shortfall.  

By saving the extra 4 Lbs, I have reduced my Kidney bean cost from $40.00 to about $10.00.


Enough chatter about the warm cozy work at the desk...now I am off for my next task...

Winter weather is quite capable of affecting your produce.

Ice storms in particular are a cause for worry.

Though in this case, the blocked lane way is more of a nuisance.







Typically, ice storms have the potential to bring power outages which in turn cause sprouting crops in the nursery to freeze.

Nursery planting won't start for another four weeks.  then as the weather slowly turns from winter to spring, the conditions for icestorms increases.

I opened up the insulated walls and the doors of the nursery this past fall, to check if the insulation was settling.  Sure enough, two doors (the two I use most) had uninsulated spots up at the top.  Easily remedied.






Having completed that task, I am confident our nursery can withstand 48 hours without heat.

In the meantime, plenty of manitoba maple to move.

The debris will be burned in spring, and the resultant  ash collected for use as a soil amendment.  Ash is high in potassium, which beneifits the root systems of plants.

Talk to you soon, 

Bob