2nd CSA pick-up

We had a great rain last night, almost an inch. I could almost see the veggies growing thanks to all the moisture. This weeks share is still pretty green but the carrots are just starting to bulk up so hopefully next week's shares will have bright orange treats. I forgot to take a picture of the share but I have some individual ones from this morning.

This weeks large box contains lettuce mix, spinach, chinese cabbage, mixed turnips, kohlrabi, daikon radish, beet greens, green onions, lettuce head and garlic scapes. I made a really yummy fritatta last weekend with spinach, eggs, cheese and bacon. I just sautéed the spinach, fried the bacon, mixed up 10 eggs, poured the beaten eggs into the frying pan, put in the sautéed spinach and fried bacon and covered in cheese. I let it cook slowly on top of the stove and finished under the broiler, talk about yummy. It would work well with kale or swiss chard as well.

The beet greens will need to be washed extra well as they were bunched in the field and washed in the tubs but lots of dirt will still be hiding in there.


Chinese Cabbage - The following recipe was popular last season so I added it again

Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad
3 packages (3 oz each) chicken- flavour noodle soup mixture
8 cups shredded Chinese (Napa) cabbage (1 medium head)
4 cups cut-up cooked chicken
1 cup shredded carrots
1⁄2 cup chopped red onion
1 cup sesame-ginger dressing (purchased or use recipe below)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup wasabi peas (optional- available at Bulk Barn)
3 tablespoons sesame seeds toasted (to toast, sprinkle in ungreased skillet. Cook over
medium low heat 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently until browning begins, then stirring
constantly until golden brown.)

In 2 quart saucepan, heat 1 1⁄2 cups water to boiling over high heat. Break apart noodles before opening soup packages. Stir 2 of the seasoning packets and all of the noodles into boiling water. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until noodles are tender. Do not drain.

In large bowl, toss noodles, cabbage, chicken, carrots and onion. In small bowl, stir together 1 cup of dressing, sugar, and remaining seasoning packet. Toss dressing with salad.

Cover and refrigerate. Stir in wasabi peas and sesame seed just before serving.

Ginger-Sesame Dressing
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
2 tablespoons peeled and minced ginger
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Combine all the ingredients in a blender. Add 2 tablespoons of water. Process until smooth.


Garlic scapes. We remove these scapes so that the garlic plant will put its energy into the bulb and not into these scapes. Just chop and use as you would garlic, so yummy!!


Swiss chard - awesome steamed lightly or sautéed with a bit of butter


Daikon Radish - a nice spicy white radish, try grating it over a salad or on top of spaghetti


Beautiful mixture of lettuce heads, all washed and ready for the cooler


Turnips, Hakurei and purple top. Many like the purple top raw just like the hakurei but I find it a bit stronger and like it better cooked. Also a few tiny carrots for the kids.


Kohlrabi - remove the leaves, peel the outer lawyer and eat the inside raw. It's amazing


Kale getting spun in the lettuce spinner

The start of today's harvest was very very muddy but thankfully the weather improved mid morning so we did not have to sloop around in the mud. We have washed all the greens but you might want to give them all an extra wash to make sure all the dirt is gone, especially with the beet greens


Muddy veggies


Some of our harvest knives


Lettuce getting a "bath"


Wash station, now under the tent

In other news, Ben & Jake will be turning two tomorrow. Wow, can it be true? Two years ago today I was picking potatoes and wondering what all the "baby" fuss was about. That seems like a very long time ago!!! A CSA member and I were chatting today about the dreaded terrible twos and I wonder if were headed for the terrible twos times two!!! Time will tell but they sure are awesome to have around. Not much work gets done but we sure do have fun going on our daily farm adventures.


Ben & Jake checking out their weekend baby sitting bunny rabbit. They had fun feeding her and trying to make her nibble on their fingers.

1st 2011 CSA Pick-up

Well another season of CSA pick-ups started today with a full truck load of farm fresh veggies headed for the Charlottetown deliveries. It was the perfect harvest day, overcast all morning which allowed me to get all the veggies picked before the heat of the sun came out to try and wilt everything. The kale and arugula did get harvested after lunch so it did not get as much time in the cooler as the rest of the greens.


Not a bad view for my Charlottetown pick-up location

It was great to meet all the new members as well as to see old friends. The large share had lettuce mix, spinach, hakurei turnips, bok choy, arugula, red russian kale, green onions and a black seeded simpson lettuce head. It was also supposed to include a bunch of Giant Red Mustard but there was just no room in the bins so it went in the grab box which also had mizuna, rhubarb, radish and Chinese cabbage. There was lots of grabbing going on so I think people enjoyed the extra selection. The grab box is nice as we can offer those veggies that are not that plentiful as a grab option. The radishes were the most popular grab item today. The picture of the share this week did not turn out that great but as you can see it was quite green.




My new favourite vegetable, hakurei turnip. I'm loving it raw, its really crunchy, sweet and delicious. The greens can be eaten as well


Giant Red Mustard - Gives your salad an extra kick


Beautiful Black Seeded Simpson head lettuce


Bok Choy - Great start to a wonderful stir-fry. Chop the stalks and leaves separate. Saute or stir-fry the stalks first and then add the leaves just at the end. The stalks give a really nice crunch


Green onions - great chopped into salads or scrambled eggs or my favourite with egg salad sandwiches


Bins all filled up


Oh so spicy Arugula - try it on pizza or on steak or just toss in your salad. Its not everyone's favourite so just test a leaf first before you make a big meal.


Red Russian Kale - super food!! You can chop it up and add it to your salads or its also great added into a quiche or frittata.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone Thursday at the Summerside pick-up.

In other news our 1951 Allis Chalmers G cultivating tractor was delivered to the farm on Saturday. We needed to get a new battery for it which I got tonight and Derek is out as I type driving around in the dark. It's quite the little rig, "cute" is what everyone says when they see it for the first time. Ben & Jake refer to it as "mommy's G". We have high hopes for this little tractor to be able to do the weeding that the eco-weeder can not. We need to rig up some cultivators for this season but we are looking at buying a basket weeder next season. The highlight of this tractor is that the engine is behind you so you have full visibility of the crops you are weeding, just awesome.


Ben giving the G a good look over


Going for a spin - quite noisy and very smoky, but still awesome


I think the Ford is feeling a little "blue"

A Busy Week

Last week was a very busy week here on the farm. After two full weeks of wet and cold temperatures the sun has decided to return and bring some heat with it. We have gotten all of our leeks and onions transplanted and the first round of broccoli & lettuce heads. A pile of veggies have been direct seeded including beets, carrots, turnips, Asian greens, radish, spinach, lettuce mix, dill and cilantro. The peas, onion sets and the first plantings of carrots/beets/lettuce mix/spinach/radish/asian greens are all growing well and will be in a bad need of a good weeding this time next week.


The field looks quite a bit different now after all that planting, I'll need to get another picture taken

I am hoping to return to the Summerside Farmers Market for the month of June with tomato and herb transplants and early greens but the two weeks of cold wet weather has defiantly set me back. Hopefully with the sun and heat the plants and greens will grow fast so I can get back there sooner.

We had five kittens born late last week but unfortunately 1 died last night so we're down to four. Ben & Jake love to check out the kitten several times per day and are going to be loving it when they start to wander around.



This week's weather is looking promising to getting more transplants in the ground including cabbage, chinese cabbage, joy choy, brussel sprouts, tatsoi, kale and turnips as well as strawberry crowns and hopefully the remainder of the potatoes. Even though it was a wet start to May I would like to see us get some rain fairly soon. Lots of our direct seeded crops are planted quite shallow and need a good soaking to be able to germinate. Hopefully we'll see some showers tonight or towards the end of the week.

This and that

It has been wet, cold and windy for about five days now. The sun has not made an appearance since last Sunday and its starting to get a little depressing. The long range 7 day forecast is looking similar to the last 5 days which is not encouraging at all. The one good thing is I've made some time for doing chores such as cleaning and organizing our porch, planning our new wash station that is going to be up in the new barn and finalising the purchase of our hopefully soon to be Allis Chalmers G cultivating tractor.

I am very excited about the AC G. From the research I've done over the past 3-4 years everyone who owns one, loves them. They are not much to look at but its a lean mean cultivating machine. Between the G and the eco-weeder it should basically cut down hand weeding by about 90% at least. It may take some time to get it all set up properly and we may not see all the benefits this season but I'm like a kid in a candy store. I have been watching way too many Youtube videos trying to see all the different cultivating options that folks have been using and I'm pretty excited about the basket weeder in particular. Oh, the options are endless.



This is not our exact tractor but gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. The beauty of this machine is the visibility you have when cultivating. The engine is behind you so you have full sight of the plants and the cultivators. I can hardly wait. The other great thing is the tractor also comes with an electric conversion kit so it will be run off batteries making it quiet and more sustainable.

Moving along

Farm Fresh Family

Things are starting to move a bit quicker here on the farm. CSA registration forms are coming in pretty steady, seedlings are growing like crazy, lots more seeding to do and on Easter Monday we got our first official seeds in the ground. I planted radish, lettuce mix, spinach, carrots and onion sets. I knew there was rain in the forecast so I wanted to get a bit in and Monday was a beautiful day.



Fancy carrot sign


Taking a moment to enjoy the beatiful sunny day, measuring my bed to make sure it really was 350feet


Peace to all

Yesterday started a new round of seeding in the greenhouse shed including broccoli, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, regular cabbage, basil, kohlrabi, kale, turnip, Asian greens and mint. I also finished potting on the eggplants but still have peppers and parsley to go. I start my peppers, tomatoes and eggplant in open trays and then pot on when they reach the first leaf stage. It saves alot of space for the first 3-4 weeks of the plants life.

On an unrelated farm topic I successfully completed my first 5K last Saturday at the Source For Sports 5K Bunny Hop. I've always wanted to learn to jog but never made the time but about 4 weeks ago I laced up my sneakers and made my first attempt. It was not a pretty scene but I quickly became hooked on going further night after night. The first race was quite the experience, there was over 250 people there and they all looked very professional in their racing gear doing all there proper stretches and looking all so serious. I loved every minute of it. My goal was under forty minutes and I came in 32:49. I was very pleased even though I was towards the end of the pack. I quickly realised that the folks there were not messing around, they were there to "race hard". I took it pretty easy and tried to just finish without collapsing in a heap at the end. I hope to be able to participate in a few more this summer, hopefully the farm schedule will allow a few races here and there.


Here's sending good hug vibes to everyone reading this blog!!!!

The Waiting Game

All of the 2011 CSA registration forms have now been sent out. It's now a waiting game to see how many people will respond to renewing their shares from last year or how many of the folks on the waiting list are still interested in the program. I find this time of the year to be very anxious as I'm waiting for all the forms and checks to be sent in and wondering if I'll sell all the shares or if I'll have to actually advertise a bit. In the past word of mouth has always sold the shares but this year we have expanded to 60 members and we are no longer going to the farmers market so it has gotten to be much harder to advertise the program. Derek tells me to just relax so I guess I should just take his advice.

We have started a few seeds in the grow room but we have purposely waited a bit longer than other years. I found that starting seeds too early just does not pay off as the plants often are root bound and stressed before they are even planted into the ground. So far we have leeks, onions, peppers (hot and sweet), eggplants, celery, celeriac, cutting celery, parsley and brussel sprouts planted and broccoli, green onions, tomatoes, lettuce, basil and a few others are in line this week to be planted as well.


A tray of onions just nicely coming up


The greenhouse shed is all cleaned up and ready for plants


Thermometers, I'm not sure why there is always a difference between the two. It was very toasty in their yesterday, over 30 degrees for most of the day


Ben & Jake are pretty excited that the snow is almost gone from their swingset


The raspberry canes


Boys and their toys

Potting soil, dirty fingers & smiling faces

Well, we finally got the seedling room set up, bye bye play room, hello grow-op. The boys think its great right now as the room sounds very hollow and they can make a lot of noise with their trucks and tractors, but little do they know that "mean" Mommy will be returning soon growling at them when they touch the tiny seedlings or when they think its fun to have potting soil fights. I'm hoping that they will be nice to my tiny plants but I'm afraid it may be a battle. So far, leeks, onions and shallots have been seeded to be followed later this week by peppers, celery, celariac, parsley, lettuce and eggplants.


Just planted red onions

The Local M.E.A.L event went over really well. I had a great time and I was amazed at how many people showed up. The 20 seconds per slide trick was actually quite pleasing to listen to but it was hard being the presenter. I was glad when it was over but I really did have a great time. The video has been uploaded so if you want to give it a watch here it is A Local M.E.A.L

Work is now all done at the ski park which is a mixed blessing. I really enjoy my winter job and find it a bit sad when that season is over but at the same time I'm happy to be getting back into the farm swing of things which really means trying to catch up on the piles of paper work and the organisational activities such as planting schedules that I've neglected.

I also finally finished up the final touches on our 2011 CSA registration form and got that e-mailed out to our members. I've now got to get organised and start sending off information to all of those on the waiting list. The fun never ends!!!


The boys having fun in our friends greenhouse, it was SOOOO nice in there.