Vegetable Delivery Week 20 2016

September 23, 2016

Week 20

Here are some of the items you may be receiving in your delivery this week: Red Bok Choy, White Bok Choy, Mustard Greens, Genovese Basil, Yellow Beans, Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant, Sweet Peppers, Habanero Peppers

Car issues on Friday were the start of a whirlwind weekend here at the farm. Some deliveries had to be postponed to Saturday afternoon but thankfully the majority of the Friday bounty’s were on time.

Turkeys were able to be processed early Saturday morning. It was an immense relief in finding a butcher who had enough water in their well to process. Loading the turkeys was an incredible ordeal as always. My male friends all have many ideas on how to load them in the truck when I’m saying “Will you just grab a leg and a wing and help me!” Now that this year’s turkeys are done I’m open to ideas on how to load next year’s birds, admittedly I was not in the most open frame of mind when I had less than 30 minutes to load them in the truck. Sorry guys. The weights were kept down to 18.5-20lbs plus three larger 27lb birds. Cleaning them up at home was an incredible chore. Just lifting them, goodness it’s beyond me how I manage to lift them live. I almost got my nose broken three times and quite frankly your farmer was overwhelmed after the 3^rd bird. Thankfully 10 out of 13 are sold with 3 smaller ones remaining for sale at $4.50/lb.

Meat birds are scheduled for October 7^th. At least with them I can carry 2 at a time and only end up with bruised and battered knuckles.

Sunday morning found me with wonderful helpers to move 2 huge truckloads of garbage wood down to the curb for fall clean up. I still have one more load to do before Wednesday but am relieved to have had so much help.

We also fenced in an area measuring almost 4000sqft for the laying hens. Hopefully many more eggs will now be found and more orders will be able to be filled. Only two have flown over the fence so far, so I will open the gate for a while at bedtime for them to go back in if needed. The chickens were protesting very loudly to me this morning but settled down after an hour and are now foraging in the tall grass on the hill.

A new coop is in the works for the hens near the greenhouse. We are hoping to have them out of the barn and into a brighter coop before winter which will increase egg production with the sunlight. Also their body heat can be blown into the greenhouse for extra heating. This will be fantastic as we are hoping to grow some greens and other veggies over the winter. Breaking ground is scheduled for late October after we get the garlic planted and the garden is tilled and put away.

The weather turned last night and I’ll have to immediately add insulating the house to my “To do” list. Also all of the more tender plants succumbed to the cold last night. Even some in the greenhouse took a hit. I am very happy to have been able to include basil is this week’s delivery along with the cherry tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. The beautiful greens for steaming and beans are always an enjoyable dish for us here. The boys are always trying out new toppings like balsamic vinegar, soy sauce or just salt and pepper.

We enjoyed two dishes with the tomatoes here on the farm this weekend. Chicken, potato and tomato bake with oregano as well as Sausage and Tomato bake with fresh baguettes. Yummy.

Please feel free to contact me at any time with comments or questions.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and have a great week!

Your Farmer,

Amber

Vegetable Delivery Week 19 2016

September 16, 2016

Week 19

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

Kale, Golden Turnips, Carrots, Cherry Tomatoes, Peppers, Assorted Beans, Cucumber, Fresh Garlic

This week I had a very fun experience delivering a half share on Friday. I was welcomed into the kitchen as usual and we went through their veggies. I showed them the technique of removing the kale off of the stem and the response was an absolute delight. They had me do it again so they could take a video. The whole scene brought a huge amount of happiness to my heart.

The technique is to hold the stem at the base and with your other hand pull up along where the leaves meet the stem which will rip them off. This means the hard stem can easily and quickly be removed and make the kale both faster to cook and yummier.

I’ve had a request for pumpkins and as I’ve noted before we have none. They need a huge amount of water to grow and we’ve lost all of our squash including the pumpkins to the drought. We are starting to put the garden to bed for next year already. Garlic should go into the ground within the month and everything else will be pulled or turned over and mulched with seaweed or manure.

Our layer’s are showing more production. I am still hoping for the possibility of moving them out of the barn and into a coop where they can have an inclosed area around the orchard. The little suckers are starting to lay in different places around the property and finding the eggs is proving impossible. If we can move them to a spot where they are happy and I can be guaranteed to find the eggs I will be happy. Plus of course then more of you will be able to receive the eggs you’ve requested.

Also I have just received some unfortunate news from our butcher. His well has gone dry so he is unable to process any animals. So incredible how much this drought has effected all of the farmers and now the ranchers. On our end it’s proving to be a struggle to find someone else who can help us. I am hoping to hear back from 2 people by tomorrow morning. I know I will figure it out and find someone to take care of our turkeys, it’s just another stress of farming.

Once the turkeys are available which is hopefully this week I will send out a newsletter. Please contact me ASAP as I have limited numbers. Their price is $4.50/lb delivered.

I am taking orders for meat chickens at $4.50/lb. Delivery date is September 30^th.

Hope you are all enjoying a great weekend!

Your Farmer,

Amber

Vegetable Delivery Week 18 2016

September 9, 2016

Week 18

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

Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers – Green or Holland White, Beefsteak Tomatoes, Eggplant – Listada Di Gandia and Diamond, Beans – Yellow, Purple and Dragon’s Tongue, Peppers – Red, Green, Purple, Yellow, Kale, Swiss Chard

I hope you all are enjoying a great week. Our’s here has been eventful. Thankfully my foot healed up just in time for me to get accidently hurt by a very boisterous Anthony who was practicing his kicking and hit me right in the back. It took me out of commission for a day. He still feels very bad about it and has certainly doing his best to be more careful.

This week the boys went back to school. They were happy to see their friends again but were very vocal about how disappointed they were not to be harvesting with me anymore this year. It was quite lonely without them. Their exuberance always makes the day brighter and I admit it has been getting quite difficult to continue to watch the garden decline this early in the year. The droughts effects have really taken hold.

The beans produced another successful harvest this week. I admit I was shocked as none of the plants in the garden are doing very well. Harvest day is becoming a difficult day for me to see the under abundance this year. I am very thankful for whatever it does produce.

Turkeys are available within the month, please contact me ASAP as I have limited numbers. Their price is $4.50/lb

I am taking orders for meat chickens at $4.50/lb. Delivery date is September 30^th.

Hope you are all enjoying a great weekend!

Your Farmer,

Amber

Vegetable Delivery Week 17 2016

September 4, 2016

Week 17

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

Fresh Garlic, Cucumbers – Green or Holland White, Cherry Tomatoes, Beefsteak Tomatoes, Eggplant – Listada Di Gandia and Diamond, Assorted fresh Beans, Assorted Peppers, Assorted Summer Squash, Blue Kale, Shanghai Bok Choy.

Harvesting with the boys this week was wonderful. We were all smiles to see an abundance of beans even with the drought. It’s such an amazing experience witnessing the boys care and happiness as we work together as a family. I am a very proud Mom.

They really stepped up to the plate this week as I suffered an injury to the bottom of my foot. As I was unable to look at it (need to do yoga again obviously) Anthony took care of it best he could. Hoping it was just a cut I hobbled around in quite a bit of pain.

Unfortunately I found that the barn well had gone dry again Friday morning so your dedicated (or nitwit) farmer lugged 4 loads of water up to the field to give most of the plants a very small drink as they were parched.

Saturday found me waiting to see a doctor as I’d promised my friends I would go get it checked out. I wish freezing worked on me as the horrible pain of having him dig out my foot was intense. Turns out I had a pointed shard of glass the size of my pinky nail in there plus many other little pieces. So your farmer is now patched up and as long as I take it easy I’ll heal up in a few days. We’ll see how that works out.

Thank you for all of your wonderful support. This farm means so much to the boys and I. We are very proud to be able to provide naturally grown, delicious food. It has been heartbreaking to see our continuous efforts at growing this year being devastated by the extreme lack of water. We are persevering as best we can.

Turkeys will be available within the month, please contact me ASAP as I have limited numbers. I’ve decided to have them done a little earlier this year as my butcher says mine grow so big due to great raising but frankly 35lbs is enormous. My hope is to have their weights between 20 and 32lbs.

I’m also taking orders for meat chickens. Delivery date is September 30^th.

Yesterday I found our first egg from the new pullets. Hooray!!! Our egg production looks to be increasing soon!

Hope you are all enjoying a great weekend!

Your Farmer,

Amber

Vegetable Delivery Week 16 2016

Week 16

August 26, 2016

Hello Everyone,

Here is the list of bounties you may be receiving this week: Peaches, Eggplant, Mesclun with Nasturtiums, Scarlet Globe Radishes, Beefstake Tomatoes, Mixed Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers- Holland White or Green, Peppers- Purple or Red, Beans- Dragon’s Tongue and/or Royalty Purple Pod

Incredibly once again major downpours passed by the farm. I am completely shocked at the difficulty that all farmers are being put through. Thankfully the compassion and understanding is overriding the hardships. Thank you to all of you for your wonderful support. I am overwhelmed by the support.

This week we have a treat of organic peaches. They are from a farmer in the valley who has been incredibly supportive and gave us a great price on them so we could add a new item to our shares. The boys and I each got one for ourselves. Yummy.

Included this week is beautiful eggplant. Multiple uses for this one including our standby from Rome:

Heat olive oil in a pan, place sliced eggplant in, adding more olive oil as needed. Flip eggplant to cook other side. Remove and set aside. Place thickly sliced tomatoes in pan and fry until just softened. Be careful this does not take long! Next return eggplant back to the pan top with the tomatoes and place Provolone cheese on top. Cover with lids and cook until cheese melts. Serve immediately. Makes a great appetiser.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Your Farmer,

Amber

Vegetable Delivery Week 15 2016

August 20, 2016

Week 15

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

Assorted Summer Squash, Eggplant – Diamond and Listanda De Gandia, Purple Peppers, Cucumber- either Holland White or Green, Cherry Tomatoes and Beefsteak, Purple Beans, Green Onions, Fresh Garlic, Purple Dark Opal or Genovese Basil.

This week has brought an incredible warmth to my heart. Thank you so much to all of you who have sent the boys and I support. To you who have sent financial assistance to help with us with getting through this drought it has been overwhelming and I’m speechless at your generosity. Any amount helps immensely. Also your continued encouragement with your friendship and kind words keep me going.

This farming year has been very hard with an incredible amount of loss. The boys and I continue to persevere and I am extremely proud of my two junior farmers. We continue to learn a great deal and look forward to a fantastic year next season.

We finally received rain this week, unfortunately for us and other farmers in Nova Scotia it came a few weeks too late to fully save the season. The nights have also turned cold once again which has slowed down our tomatoes from ripening. The trials and tribulations of farming continue.

This week did bring the boys and I the joy of seeing the eggplant ready for harvest. Navarre was especially pleased as he loves it sautéed with his other favorite, summer squash. Add some tomatoes and herbs and he has one of his preferred breakfasts.

Hope you are all enjoying a great weekend!

Your Farmer,

Amber

Vegetable Delivery Week 14 2016

August 12, 2016

Week 14

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

Assorted Summer Squash, Green/Purple Peppers, Cucumber- either Holland White or Green, Tomatoes, Green/Yellow/Purple Beans, Green Onions, Fresh Garlic, Swiss Chard

It has been another hot dry week. We’ve been doing our best to maintain the garden, watering every two days and sounding the well daily hoping for a miracle. This drought has proved very difficult for all farmers in Nova Scotia. Ours has suffered with all of our profits having to be reinvested into filling the well, replanting and supplementing our bags with some additions from other trusted organic farms.

This morning brought great relief in the form of thundershowers. I was so exhausted that I couldn’t even wake myself up to watch. Thankfully the numerous rain barrels up in the garden caught enough for another watering, hopefully we will see some improvement in the well. Possible rain in the forecast for Wednesday.

Through a great amount of effort including that of our junior farmers Anthony and Navarre, this week the garden was able to produce a beautiful little bounty.

The beans are wonderful steamed or boiled until tender with some corn and then mixed with smoked salmon. The natural oil from the fish bring the whole meal together and is a nice light entrée to have on a hot tired evening.

Hope you are enjoying a great weekend!

Your Farmer,

Amber