Week 2 Vegetable Delivery

June 6, 2015

Week 2

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

Mixed Kale, Zesty Greens, Red Kitten Spinach, Purple Top Turnip, French Breakfast Radish, Pac Choy, Mantilla Lettuce, Pablo Lettuce, Yugoslavian Red Lettuce and Asparagus.

Spring is the season of greens, usually meaning lots of salads. The colors of these lettuces always makes us happy and will easily brighten any meal.

The spinach, kale and zesty greens can be eaten as a salad. Also try them sautéed added to rice dishes or soups, or as a topping on a sandwich instead of lettuce for a little zip.

The boys and I enjoyed our turnips raw this week, they taste like a mild radish. A great little appetizer before dinner.

The asparagus is wonderful on the grill bringing out a nutty flavour. Also it easily steams or sautés in a pan with butter. Just break off the bottom of the stalk so you only eat the tender parts. Unfortunately the asparagus is quite limited this year on the farm. I’m planting more roots this year for an increased harvest next year.

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

Your Farmer,

Amber

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.

In The Greenhouse

This weekend I was becoming very hopeful about planting in the fields soon. The raised beds have almost dried out to a point where they are plantable and some small shoots of garlic are emerging! Exciting.  

This meant it was time to fix fence, my least favorite job on the farm. I’ll take pig wrestling, mucking out a stall, splitting wood, nearly anything instead of fixing fence. It took a full day with thankful help that ½ of the fence is now mended and ready. My hands are so sore from tightening the wires. I'll pick away at it the rest of this week. 

This of course was just in time for today’s snowfall. Goodness gracious. This Spring is crazy! Monday’s are usually administrative days for me but I found myself in the greenhouse quite often. I think I just needed to see a little bit of green. I was elated to see new shoots had emerged of watercress, onion, celery and cucumbers.

Here are green onions, Mizuna and Tatsoi. I tried some of the Mizuna yesterday. Yum, yum, yum.

Spring is coming. Thankfully it has arrived in the greenhouse.

And They Are Out!!!

The sun came out today furthering the immense snow melt. Its amazing how much has depleted just in the past few days. This winter has been a long one for all of us including the chickens who have either been smart or too "chicken" to come out of the barn. Each day I always open the barn door for them to enjoy the sunshine but this afternoon was the first time I saw more than one venture out. Here is a picture of some of them enjoying a nice dust bath.

Must be Spring!

A Little Visitor in the Greenhouse

This morning I went to check the greenhouse before heading to drop the boys off at school when I realised there was a visitor. A little sparrow had somehow managed to get inside. Maybe it came in through the opening for the drain I have for the pond overflow? Not sure. There I was wondering how on earth I was going to get this bird out without freezing the entire greenhouse. It was -3 outside and the greenhouse was +4 and completely snow covered from the night before. Meaning, it wasn't about to reheat very quickly until swept off. I gave it my best effort but had to run saying good luck and not to eat my seedlings!

Later when I came back I grabbed some bird seed and placed it on a board hoping the bird would go for the seed not the seedlings. Then I swept off the greenhouse. It is becoming quite treacherous to do so with how unstable the snow pack is. Thankfully I managed to stay on my feet and not have any sudden collapses underneath me. 

As expected the inside temperature started rising immediately so I felt good about leaving a door open halfway as I tried to get the little sucker out of there. After 3 swooping glides back and forth the length of the building it was out! 

Wish I had been able to get a pic but it wouldn't stay still long enough. 

The little birds and all other wildlife are having a hard time with the extended winter. Please remember to help keep them warm by providing some seed. Sunflower seeds and millet are the most widely eaten seed. Also it may sound icky but if you have a fatty meat for dinner one night place the excess fat in a mesh bag (I use an onion bag) and hang it up in a shaded area by your bird feeder. The Blue Jays go nuts over it.