Week 1 Vegetable Delivery 2015

May 30, 2015

Week 1

Here are some of the items you may be receiving in your delivery this week:

Zesty Greens, Apollo Arugula, Pac Choy, French Breakfast Radish, Purple Top Turnip, Chives and Mantilla lettuce.

Our season has begun!

For our first week we have some beautiful selections.

Both the Arugula and Zesty greens are spicy! Try them either with a creamy dressing or mix with other lettuces if you need to tone down the heat. Also the zesty greens can be sautéed as a side dish. Yum!

The boys and I love Pac Choy steamed. Slice into 1 inch pieces, place the stems on the bottom and the leaves on top as the stems take a little longer to cook. Steam until fork tender. They are wonderful on top of rice with some Tamari or on the side with Balsamic vinegar.

The turnips are also great steamed.

Chives can be added as a garnish or mixed into an omelet.

Use your imagination and have fun!

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Your Farmer,

Amber

Bayview School Garden

This week I was asked to be a guest speaker for a grade 7 class at Bayview Elementary School. The faculty are interested in setting up a school garden and asked for my input.

Talking with the kids was fantastic! I was so impressed with their attitudes and how much knowledge they have about vegetables and gardening. Numerous students have gardens at home, which is GREAT! Plus, all of them had many ideas on what they would like to grow. I'll be dropping off some topsoil and compost this weekend. Then hopefully on Wednesday which looks to be sunny we can start setting up. I have set aside a bunch of seedlings to give them a head start plus many students will be bringing in seeds. Flowers, veggies and fruit are all to be included.

The students were amazed when I was described how many wonderful varieties of vegetables there are. Tye-dyed coloured lettuce, purple carrots, red and gold striped tomatoes are just a few fun delicious varieties you don't usually find in the grocery store.

My hope is this can be a year round project including the whole school. The primary students already plant little pumpkins each year where my son Navarre's grew to produce a 9 pound Jack-O-Lantern last year. Also each year the grade 2's have butterflies in their classroom so maybe we could make one bed a butterfly garden.

Having a school garden is very important. It teaches children where their food comes from, uses hands on learning for science, math, social studies, language and visual arts, and also good nutrition. This project is very exciting and I am very happy to be a part of it.

Warm Weather Has Arrived!

Wow what a change in the weather! Last week it was snowing and today it reached almost 30 degrees Celsius! Suddenly summer. The farm is starting to green up, the daffodils have blossomed and we love eating outside again without our coats on!

This past weekend the deer fence had it's major Spring maintenance. Thank goodness that's over with. My hands are in agony and I don't want to even look at another pair of pliers. Ongoing maintenance will be keeping the grass under the wires cut. My plan is to mulch all the brush that's accumulated and line the area around the fence so it will save me some backbreaking labour. 

Now that the fence is set it's time to plant the garden. I've started planting my first bed with radishes. Tomorrow I'll start moving the Brassicas up including Brussels Sprouts, Kale, Broccoli, plus Lettuce and Onions. While pulling out some of last year's roots I was amazed at how many worms there were. In just one 4 inch spot I counted 12!

Another wonderful surprise was the frogs have woken up and I've been serenaded with their mating calls. I love living in the country.