Home again and ready for a new season!

Hello again! It has been too long since my last post but I do have a good excuse, I was away on vacation. Now that I'm back from my travels I'm excited about getting started on the 2009 season. I had a fabulous time on the Big Island of Hawaii, did lots of hiking across lava fields, snorkeling with fish, turtles and even an octopus, visited many isolated beaches and even an active volcano, read five books (!), and worked on an organic lettuce farm. Yes you read right, I worked while on holiday! I learned a lot at the farm and am planning on implementing some of their ideas, but best of all it was just plain fun.

one of the many areas at the lettuce farm in Hawaii

A couple of weekends ago Paul got my seedling area set up in our basement. I started some trays: red onions, two types of leeks, endive, green onions and fennel. These will be followed shortly by broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, many varieties of lettuce, more onions, italian parsley, mustards and kale. And this only takes me to March! Of course, the peas and radish will go out in the field very soon too. I love this time of year: the activity after being idle through the Winter, the anticipation, the expectation, and being outside again.


I am excited to announce that this year the CSA program will include some produce from The Green Room. Linda and Gabriel, the owners, grow fabulous certified organic tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers to die for! These are items that are quite difficult to grow well in the field in our area. I'm very excited to collaborate with Linda and Gabriel in order to bring even better quality produce to my customers.

---

Incredibly hardy lettuces!

This picture was taken today of some of the lettuces growing in the hoophouse at the farm.

I decided to experiment and followed Elliot Coleman's recommendation of using a basic plastic hoophouse with row cover inside the hoophouse directly over the lettuces - a double barrier against the elements. What is truly amazing is that this year we have had a really hard Winter already with zub-zero temperatures for almost a month. I don't think I would have even considered attempting to overwinter lettuces if I had anticipated this weather. Even more amazing is that these plants have survived after the hoophouse collapsed on top of them too (see previous post)!

Maybe they will make it?!

----------------

snow, snow and more snow!

Since my last post we had two more snow storms! Yep, one the day before christmas and then one the day after - phew! This is what you can see at the farm - absolutely nothing!
Except for a couple of hoops barely peeping out above the snow - hard to believe that anything could survive underneath all this snow, especially since there has been rain and freezing temperatures so the snow is frozen solid, you just walk on the top of it now, when these photos were taken you sunk down to your knees!Below is what the hoophouse looked like when we arrived - pretty sad!

It was the sides that had collapsed inward from all the weight - it took a lot of digging:This is what it looked like inside.............you can see the snow weighing down the sides:Today (January 2nd) we replaced all the broken hoops and added a wooden beam across the top with some extra wooden supports in the hope that this will be enough to withstand another snow storm. I didn't take any pictures because I just wanted to get it done - my fingers and toes and nose were frozen! It is no fun doing work like that in zero degree weather. To show how cold it was one of the pipes that was broken had a lump of mud frozen to it. I tried to get it off as we needed to reuse this specific pipe - I couldn't, it was frozen solid!

Not sure that I like farming in the Winter. Roll on Spring! :o)

--------

A white Christmas!

What a crazy couple of weeks we have had! We have had constant sub-zero temperatures (very unusual for our neck of the woods) and two snow storms. We have about a foot and a half of snow on the ground and another foot expected tonight; if anything survives in the hoophouse I will be amazed. It has been a full-time job keeping the snow off of the hoophouses so they don't collapse. Thank goodness Paul thought ahead and put some supports in them both the day before the snows started, otherwise they would have collapsed by now for sure! As it is, they are built with pvc pipe, which I have found gets quite brittle in the cold.


Yesterday I dug down in the snow where I knew the brussels sprouts were (you couldn't see them) and harvested some for Christmas dinner. Gotta love Winter crops!

Yes, we will have a white Christmas this year, what a treat! Since I've been in Canada I only recall that happening once before. Seasons greetings to everybody, may 2009 bring everything you dream of. :o)

-------------

Oh dear......

It is SO long since my last posting! In fact, it is so long that I hardly know where to begin.

I recently committed to a new space in Gibsons; an elderly gentleman named Bruce has kindly allowed me to use his large vegetable garden as he is not able to work it anymore. The space has raised beds and lots of sunshine. Right now it is quite overgrown and will take a major bit of work to get it cleaned up, but I think it will be worth it. Now is a good time to be working on it while there is not too much to do at the other spaces.

Tim and Wendy have also built another veggie bed at their place for me to use. It is so awesome because slowly but surely their grass is all disappearing and being replaced by veggies - they love it, and I love it too!

I decided to put together a 'To Do' list for the Winter:

• design business cards
• shelving and lights for seedlings
• turn compost and cover (better late than never?)
• look for space for wash station and pickup
• build a wash table with grid surface
• put together seed list for 2009
• buy more harvesting bins
• fencing for new field at farm
• build or buy a cooler

It is amazing to me that it can be the middle of December and I still have quite an abundance of veggies growing despite there having been a few pretty hard frosts: arugula, pac choi, broccoli sprouts, mustard greens, kale, swiss chard, brussels sprouts, chinese cabbage, red cabbage, mizuna, green onions, and even lettuce in the hoop house! A few weeks ago I had an abundance of cauliflower; I left a few of them a little too long and they got some frost damage. Now I know, unlike other Winter veggies, cauliflower does not like frost at all.

I recently started learning to make my own cheese. It is SO MUCH FUN! My only problem is trying to find a source for local raw milk, I had no idea it would be so difficult. I would be making so much more if I could find the milk. I'm just going to have to get myself a couple of goats! I actually wish I could but it is impractical as I don't have the space where we live right now.

The sun is blazing outside so I can't sit here in front of the computer anymore. I will do another update soon..........really!! :o)

---

beautiful sunny Fall days

The last few weeks have been extraordinarily beautiful; mostly sunny days with cold evenings. The leaves on the trees are their amazing Fall colours, and it is hard to stay inside. Perfect days for doing a lot of clean up at the various properties; removing spent warm weather crops, planting rye and clover.

Below is a picture of the rye/legume mix coming in next to the brussels sprouts. These brussels sprouts plants are the same ones that were struggling a couple of months ago when they were inundated with flea beatles - look at them now, talk about a come back!

legume mix and brussels sprouts

Next year I will be expanding the business. Steve at the farm has kindly offered me more land! This new patch is right next to my existing area (see below). Steve grew potatoes on this area this year and has recently put rye on it. Combined, the area I will be working on the farm next year is approximately 9,400 square feet. Very exciting!

the new area at the farm that I will be using next year

One of the bigger projects I worked on recently was clearing out the hoophouse at the farm (it was full of tomatoes and basil (and weeds!) and then adding compost to the soil. I then planted some different types of lettuce, radicchio and mustard greens into the beds. These will be covered with remay (floating row cover). With the double protection of the plastic hoophouse and the remay I'm hoping that the greens will survive well into the Winter. My Grand Experiment!

the hoophouse at the farm cleaned out and replanted

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fall harvesting

Today is week #19 of my csa main season! I can't believe there is only one more week to go, and that I did it. What a great feeling!! Amazing what you can achieve with a dream and hard work, and support from a few key people. Next year will be very exciting; I'm planning on expanding the csa and being prepared for the farmer's market (this year it was an after thought) - maybe I'll make some money! :o)

I would like to introduce some of my wonderful csa customers. These people committed to a brand new venture based on my word alone; I had no previous experience or reputation to show them - that is a huge leap of faith and I'm extremely grateful for their support.

Sally

Karen

Nick

Matt

It is amazing what I am still producing from the gardens. Below are some pics of the veggies at the pick up last week:

Sweet peppers and 'fairtytale' eggplants

Pole beans and broccoli sprouts.

Salad mix containing lettuces, mizuna and arugula.

Rainbow chard.

I've been busy lately preparing all the beds for Winter. The beds that aren't being used have been weeded and seeded with rye and clover. A few beds had manure added to them and I've planted garlic in them. The cloves I planted came from the garlic I grew this year at Lee Ann's house. It is fabulous! Huge, beautiful cloves. Paul hates to see them put in to the ground - he wants to cook with them!

I've also started cleaning out the hoophouse at the farm, removing old basil and tomato plants. I'm going to add some compost to the soil and then start some Winter greens in there. It will be interesting to see how they do. I'm planning on putting row cover over them too, so with the double protection of the plastic and row cover they have a fighting chance perhaps. I do wish I had put the hoophouse in a different location though. I'm finding now that the sun is lower in the sky there is a good portion of the day when the hoophouse is in shade because the sun is behind a large tree. I'm not going to move the hoophouse now though, maybe in the Spring if the Winter greens don't work out as well as I hope.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------