The Power of Plastic

This year I am growing my eggplant and basil under plastic. I used old PVC black hose to make small hoops and put old greenhouse plastic over it. Bailer twine is used to tie the plastic down on either side and is tied to cement blocks so the plastic is always tied down very well. It was super easy to make and to my surprise its still standing and in one piece 2 months later. The eggplant are loving the heat!!! I had also planted several eggplant close by but not under plastic to see if there would be a big difference. The size of the eggplant under the plastic is unreal. They are about 3 times bigger then the ones not under plastic.


Eggplant leaf not under the plastic

Eggplant leaf under the plastic


Eggplant flower

The basil are also loving the extreme heat. The little greenhouse is vented on hot days by pushing up the plastic at two of the hoops and using a notched board to prop it up. Too easy. The basil has been growing so fast that I can harvest on Friday for Saturday market and by the following Friday they have grown enough for another harvest. Simply amazing. I have tried to grow in the past years but did not have alot of success. I am so excited that they are doing well. I also direct seeded basil outside two weeks ago but not under plastic. It will be interesting to see how it grows in comparison to the first planting.


Basil under the plastic

Technical Difficulties

We are having some technical difficulties here on the farm. Our computer is enjoying crashing just in the middle of documents and is not happy with any sort of pictures. I am afraid I will have to try and figure something else out soon for putting up pictures on the blog.

Besides the annoyance of the computer crashing things are very well on the farm. Things are growing steadily including the ever present weeds.

We had an excellent day at the Summerside Farmers' market and sold out again before 11:00. Our grand opening for the market will be this coming Saturday, August 2nd, and we are all very excited. We will be having a gift basket with donated items from the vendors to be drawn for during the day, entertainment, face painting, giveaways, and much more. The market will be open as usual from 9:00 till 1:00 and a short time will be held at 10:30 with a ribbon cutting and plant watering ceremony. Come check it out!!!

stuff

I haven't posted much of a blog lately. Its been quite busy with weeding, squishing potato bugs, harvesting and going to market. It finally rained yesterday and this morning, yippie!!!! The veggies should be much happier now, I'm much happier now too!!!



A funky strawberry we found in the berry patch, looks like Mickey Mouse



This was an 5am shot just before I started harvesting Saturday morning for the market.



Our Farmers' Market Sign, I love it!!!

First Market Week

Well we have survived the first Farmers' Market Week. Wednesday in Charlottetown was pretty quite and the other vendors said it would pick up as the summer went along. Our produce sold very well and I was quite pleased with the response. The CSA pick up went great and I hope everyone was pleased with their shares.

The first farmers' market in Summerside on Saturday was crazy. We had received much publicity in the days leading up to the first day and the people came out to show their support. It was overwhelming at some points with so many people lined up for veggies. It was awesome. Derek and I were moving our hands as fast as we could counting change, packing peoples purchases in bags and trying to have at least a second to chat with them in between. We had the following items for sale the Summerside Farmers' Market.

New Potatoes (neighbors from up the road)
Lettuce Mix
Lettuce heads
Mizuna
Tatsoi
Joi choi
Radish
Chinese Cabbage
Potted Herbs



We were basically sold out a little after 10:00. We have never had those kinds of crowds before and I had not harvested nearly enough for the demand. I'll know better for next week. We had great response from customers about the new market location. Everyone said it had such a "market feel" and many said they were very impressed. Alot of work and planning had gone into the first day by so many people. Arnold Croken from SRDC, Pat Ross contractor, Gerry Reicheld market manager, Arthur Davies farmers market co-op board, Peggy Miles promotion, and many others did so much to ensure Saturday's first day was a success.



We also were highlighted on CTV news Saturday evening at 6:00. Dan Veo did a few interviews during the market and I was one of them. I have never been on tv before, it was pretty neat.

Unfortunately I did not get many pictures this past week as I forgot my camera down in Charlottetown and I was so busy yesterday that I didn't get a chance. Here are are a few pictures from the garden.

Gas Tank, Baby Chicks & New Purchase

The baby chicks in the delivery box before going into the chick hotel


Tiny chicks in the chick hotel


This poor little chick didn't know the water bowl was for drinking not swimming

Its been an interesting week so far. Tuesday I was heading into town with our truck to pick up our baby chicks and to drop off lettuce mix at the Village Store and at ADL. I was almost to the store when I heard a very strange noise. The truck was already giving off some strange noises so I just thought it was the same thing just worse. When I pulled into the store and had a look under the truck to see what this new noise could be, what did I see? The gas tank had completely disconnect from the truck, so the noise was me dragging the gas tank up the road. Not good!!! It was only held on at the filler section. I had to call Derek and he rescued me as usual. He was able to strap the tank back up by using winch straps and the truck jack. Very impressive. He drove it to the mechanic and we headed into town to look for another truck. Our old truck is 1990 GMC and has been very good to us but its definitely on its last legs. The body is very rusty and its just a matter of time before major body work will be needed. So it looks like we have bought a 1999 GMC 4x4. We picked up our new truck yesterday. Not brand new but much newer than the one we have now.

After all that I was finally about to pick up our chicks. They are doing well now at their fourth day here on the farm. We have 80 this year and we went with the typical white meat birds. They are happily eating, drinking and sleeping the day away. I sneak in every now and then to make sure they are not piling on top of each other under the light. They seem content so far.

We have had a lot of rain today. It was very much needed. The strawberries are coming along very well now. Yippie.

Strawberry patch


Strawberry flowers and small green berry

I dug up some potato plants tonight to see how they are coming along. Surprisingly there were some nice tiny potatoes. Not big enough to sell yet but in another week of two we should have tiny taters for sale.

Farm fresh tiny taters


Farm fresh "clean" tiny taters


Eggplants under their protective greenhouse

The other excitement this week was discovering we had a family of skunks living under the horse barn. We tried to count them all and we think there are 12 babies and the mom. I tried to get a good picture but it was dusk and the camera was not being very agreeable. We have to be very careful at night now to make sure we do not run into this big happy family!!!


The Mom is leading the pack followed by at LEAST 12 babies, this could be a stinky situation

Strawberry Planting

We have successfully finished planting over 1250 strawberry plants. Next year there will be strawberries aplenty around the farm. We have four varieties, Kent, Sable, Sea Scape and Annapolis. It was a big project and my back and legs were really feeling the pain yesterday when I finished.


Strawberry plants laid out before being planted

Luckily for me and my back there was much more transplanting to do including the peppers, the remainder of the tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash and the eggplants. Its been a great weather week for transplanting, over cast, low winds and moderate temperatures. After the strong winds last week some of the previously planted transplants are looking a little "stressed" but I'm hoping they will outgrow that.



Newly transplanted hot pepper plant

Many of the vegetables are starting to green up and grow. The early greens including lettuce mix, arugula, mizuna, tatsoi and joi choi are really thriving in the cool temperatures. Once the weather gets hot these crops will bolt and go to seed making them very bitter and inedible. The summer turnip is also doing quite well.


Lovely lettuce mix, yummy

The weather forecast is calling for rain which is welcome news to the newly planted beds of carrots, lettuce mix, arugula, mizuna, zucchini, dill and cilantro. The weeds will also enjoy the drink which means I'll be out with the wheel hoe full force when the soil is dry enough to weed.


Wheel hoe, the best investment ever!!!



a pretty picture of a newly sprouted bean seed

Count down to first farmers market day: 18 days Yippie!!
We can't wait.

Weeds & Pea Trellis

The plastic that we used to cover the potatoes worked really well to increase the soil temperature. The potatoes sprouted quite quickly but so did the weeds. I removed the plastic last Thursday to find the entire area to be very green with tiny little weeds. Derek got the hillers out when he got home from work and hilled up the rows which pretty much got rid of the weeds.



Weedy potatoes before hilling



Potatoes after hilling, so much nicer



Derek checking the potatoes after the hilling

We also finally were able to trellis the peas. It took a few hours but it went quite well. We'll see how it holds up when the strong winds come. The peas are still a few inches from the trellis but hopefully this week they will be able to start climbing. I've been reading alot the last couple of weeks about the benefits of trellising and as far as I can tell the yield will be higher and it should make picking the peas much easier. In the past we've just let the peas grow on the ground with no trellis but picking was such a pain and it was hard to keep them weeded.



Trellised Peas, so pretty



A pretty sky picture towards the community pasture

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