Another year, another blog!

After 3 years it is time to have a blog site that has my company name on it (if you look at the address bar in the browser above you will see the name Looney Rooney). Originally, I was going to call my business Looney Rooney's, but after more thought decided that the name should be a little more ... business like. I just never got around to updating the blog space!

There is a lot of information documenting the beginnings of Backyard Bounty at this blog. It is fun to check back periodically to see just how far what began as merely an idea has grown (no pun intended). But for 2010 I will be using the following blog address so don't forget to bookmark it and check in periodically:

http://backyardbountyfarming.blogspot.com

2010 promises to be a very busy, productive, and interesting year. The CSA program will be growing again, hopefully to 40 customers, I will be working to have a more consistent variety of produce for the farmers' market, and I will begin a brand new venture The Little Seedling Co. More information to follow.

The end of Season #2

some of the many beautiful Tonda Padana pumpkins I grew this year

I started the 2009 season cautiously optimistic that I could supply enough produce for 20 families and still have enough left over for the farmers' market. I 'm glad to report that I needn't have been cautious at all because the season went very very well. So well in fact that I have the confidence to boost production next year to 40 families! This means that I will have to find another field: one of my many Winter projects!

In 2010 will also be starting a certified organic veggie plant business in collaboration with the Green Room. Propagation starts in February and the first plants will likely be available for sale in April 2010. I will report more about this in the coming months.

Even though it has been a great season I am delighted to now have the opportunity to sleep in sometimes and to focus my attention on other interests over the Winter period. I think this Winter lull is really important in order to be able to recharge the batteries, so to speak. Otherwise I could see myself getting burned out quite easily. I'm super excited about next year but will relish this slower time in the meantime! :o)

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Fall

Farmer Paul next to his prized sunflower! Actually, this is his I told you so sunflower. This one had grown elsewhere and he wanted to move it but I said it wasn't a good idea because sunflowers didn't like being transplanted once they got to a certain size. He did it anyway and here is the result!! :o)

Now this is the Paul I know and love.

How about this for a beautiful tomato! This variety is called 'Orange Strawberry', quite appropriate I would say. This is from a very prolific indeterminate vine that is still producing a great deal of tomatoes, I'm really hoping we get a couple more weeks of sunshine to help them along.

Fall is so in the air; the nights are cooling down, there is a cool wind at times and the plants have slowed down their growth substantially. But lately we been having gorgeous sunny days - Fall is stunningly beautiful when it is like this.

I'm very excited to report that I will be taking a few 'Professional Development' days off in a couple of weeks to visit a farm in the Kootenays. If any of you are familiar with the beautiful inspiring book The Garden That You Are you will have seen Elderbee Greens who are featured. They produce organic bedding plants including veggie starts. I am planning on expanding my business next year, in collaboration with Linda from the Green Room, to incorporate organic veggie plants. It seems like such a natural progression because I start my own plants anyway for the CSA, and it will extend my season by a few months into the Spring. By visiting Elderbee Greens, who have been doing this for 35 years, I hope to avoid many of the 'learn as you go' mistakes.

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Apologies.....

....for the long silence! The Summer is such an insanely busy time, and what a Summer it has been! This year we have had approximately 3 days of rain since May, and combined with the, at times, very high temperatures it has been a challenge to keep all the plots watered sufficiently. As a result, the produce at some locations have struggled. However, the heat loving plants have been fabulously successful. The beans, tomatoes, basil and cantaloupe have been incredible, and the Summer squash, aghhhh, it won't stop producing. This all makes for a great display at the farmers' market:


Things are starting to get less crazy now though. Most of my Winter crops are planted, I just have a few more flats of seedlings to go out. Trying to get the Winter crops in on top of the busy Summer schedule made for a pretty intense time, but fun because it is so nice to see the next wave of veggies coming along so nicely.

At some locations the soil really needs building up, so after clearing away the main season crops I've planted clover seeds. I'm not confident they will germinate well with this lack of rain, but I can reseed if necessary in a few weeks. My plan is to let the clover grow for a while then turn it under as a green manure later in the Fall and then dress the beds with leaves and straw to add mass that will break down over the Winter.

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Mid July already!

Snap peas gone crazy - these have been incredibly abundant this year - they have taken over the hoophouse! I had intended to put vine tomatoes in that spot, but I guess that isn't going to happen.


The new field looking lush and orderly - Grace had just finished weeding this whole area, which after the rain last week was overrun with large weeds. On the far right are pole beans, next to them copra onions and summer leeks, then 3 rows of different varieties of beans. In the distance on the left are pattypan squash plants. In between the beans and squash are carrots and beets.

This week I started harvesting some garlic and new potatoes. The potatoes are Sieglinde yellows. Very very tasty!

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Summer veggies

This week I've been eating tomatoes - yes my own!! This is a new variety that I am trying this year. They are a determinate (bush) yellow cherry variety called Gold Nugget. They taste delicious. I'm a huge fan of yellow tomatoes; I believe I read somewhere that they are less acidic than red ones. Unfortunately, there will not be enough yet to give a share of them to everybody, but perhaps there will be enough for a taste test at least.

The other new item this week is Summer squash. I am growing a few varieties: romanesca zucchini, butterstick zucchini, sunburst pattypan, and starship pattypan. Right now they are delicious because they are small and tasty. For those of you unfamiliar with pattypans, they are delicious cooked whole (when small) or can be chopped up just like zucchini and sauteed. I love all the Summer squash just simply grilled on the bbq.

This week's veggies are:

. salad mix
. Thai or Genovese basil
. broccoli spears
. peas
. green onions
. Swiss chard
. baby squash
. parsley

I'm sure everybody has their favourite recipes for using the classic Genovese basil, but have you tried Thai basil? I love it! This variety is Siam Queen; the authentic variety used for Thai cuisine. But it is also great with fish, stirfrys, soups, marinated with tofu, in salad rolls .......

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rain, rain, rain

Guess what?! It is raining here in Granthams - yippee! I just hope that means it is in upper Gibsons too. A few days ago we had a nice rainfall in Granthams and I was so happy to think that finally the complete field at the farm would get some water. But no, I arrived there about 20 minutes later and it was bone dry! The rain does mean I'll be doing some harvesting in the rain - oh well! ... Update: The weather cleared and I got to harvest in the sun, and bonus, had willing workers helping too - how lucky is that!! Pictures to come further below.

Despite the dryness everything is growing like crazy. As well as weeding and harvesting I'm busy starting Fall and Winter veggies. Most people think we have a short 6 month gardening season, but in fact there are many plants that do just fine up until the first hard frost or even through the entire Winter, some of them even thrive in that environment. I'm rereading Eliot Coleman's book FOUR SEASON HARVEST: Organic Vegetables From Your Home Garden All Year Long and am inspired to try some new greens: clayatonia, mache, minutina, sorrel, corn salad. The secret to Winter gardening is starting the plants so that they get enough time to grow almost to maturity so that when the very cold weather starts and they slow down they are at the right size for harvesting.

Enough about rain and Winter gardening! Now, we have months and months of warm weather crops on the way. This week we have:

. Backyard Bounty's famous salad mix
. baby carrots
. broccoli sprouts
. fresh snap peas
. green onions
. red Russian kale
. dill
. the last of the garlic scapes
. a head of romaine lettuce

A note about fresh peas. They are at their best when just picked. I pick them for you the morning of the pickup. Each day that goes by after they are picked they lose some of their delicious sweetness, so please try to eat them as soon as possible.

Below is my favourite kale soup recipe for those of you who are new to the Backyard Bounty community. Kale soup sounds boring and like something you should eat in the Winter. But this recipe is light and incredibly tasty. I promise! :o)

Kale Soup

Saute a large onion and a few cloves of garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add chicken broth (quantity depends on the number of people you are serving), a generous dash of fish sauce, a dash of hot sauce (I like Sambal Oelek) and a large bunch of kale chopped up. Let simmer for approx 20 minutes or until kale is tender. Serve with wedges of lime. The lime is crucial to transforming this soup from ok to delicious - enjoy!

Below is a link to a recipe for garlic scape pesto. I haven't actually tried this recipe, but aim to today as it sounds delicious:

http://www.whatgeekseat.com/wordpress/2007/06/16/garlic-scape-pesto/

We have two visitors staying with us right now. Be wary if you decide to stay with us in the Summer time because this is what you will be doing:

weeding!
It is amazing how much weeding three people can do in one hour. Look at the field - fabulous!

Today I harvested carrots. Sometimes you get a very interesting one:

I see two people dancing. What do you see?

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