4th CSA Week

4th CSA Week

The truck was full full full this afternoon when I headed to Charlottetown.  So many farm fresh veggies!!

It was a full house!!

Really have to sort this truck situation out.  I need more space!!!!

Yesterday's hot weather was pretty intense so harvesting today felt downright wonderful.  The field is really dry so I'm really hoping we get some good rain very soon.  And I don't mean a "shower", I would like nice gentle rain for a day or two.  That would be lovely.

We celebrated Ben & Jake's 4th birthday over the weekend and enjoyed having friends and family over to party it up under the trees.  It was a lovely day and the boys really enjoyed it being their "special" day. 

Ben & Jake decorated their own cakes.  Interesting concept!! 

Zucchini having a quick bath before being packed in the CSA boxes

All pretty and ready for town

Some pretty patty pan and small zucchini

Radishes

Turnips.  I decided to only put turnips in the grab box this week, they still went like hot cakes!!

 

The veggie shack is coming along nicely

I am so going to love working in there!!

I didn't have any empty containers so I put the zucchini in the passenger seat.  Worked great

Early cucumbers.  These little jems are amazing!!!

Some very tasty purplette onions.  Awesome quartered and roasted with other summer veggies

Enjoy this weeks veggies!!!

3rd CSA Week

So very very glad that the hot weather left and much nicer cooler weather came in its place.  I did a lot of weeding on the weekend and although it was almost unbearable at times those darn old weeds took a real beating and the crops are looking so much better now.  Still lots of weeds out there but seems more manageable now.

We had a giant harvest day today and we still managed to get a whack of transplants in the ground including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, green onions, fennel, basil, swiss chard, lettuce and eggplant.  It's getting pretty late for the eggplant but I'm planning on putting a mini greenhouse over it to hopefully help it along.  I never seem to have much luck with eggplant anyway. 

This weeks large share has lettuce mix, lettuce head, spinach, broccoli, green onions, white and red turnips, chinese cabbage, swiss chard, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, choice between arugula and a spicy mustard mix and cilantro.  The grab box has beet greens, green cabbage, baby beets, bok choy, kale, basil, parsley, summer savoury and more of the above mentioned veggies.  The small share has lettuce mix, spinach, green onions, white turnips, chinese cabbage, swiss chard, garlic scapes and a kohlrabi.  I don't think I could have fit one more lettuce leaf in those large shares this week!!! 

The peas are just about ready and man those plants are loaded with little green gems.  I think its going to be an awesome pea harvest this year.  I was up digging around the carrots and we should have baby carrots next week which is super exciting.  I love baby carrots steamed with new potatoes with butter!!  

Peas were in full flower earlier this week

Here are a few pictures from the weekend and this week so far.  Enjoy those veggies :)

Jen

Zucchini just about ready

Peas!!!  Just waiting for them to fill out

We rigged up a new system for rolling up the row covers.  Worked amazing. 

Garlic Scapes

So tasty!!  Lovely mix of tatsoi, purple mizuna and red mustard

Turnips

Summer Savoury

Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi getting all purdy!!

Another shot of this weeks large share

My super heroes!!!  Turning four on Saturday!!  Where does the time go.

2nd CSA Week

It was so refreshing to see the rain this past weekend.  I'm sure it was a bit of a downer for the concert goers but it was all smiles around here.  Vegetables need about an inch of rain/week for optimal growth so us farmers enjoy a nice day of rain.

But, with rain comes weeds!!  Someone mentioned the other day that they couldn't see a weed anywhere on the farm.  Well drive by today and its like a weed explosion!!  I get a bit anxious seeing all the weeds but once the ground dries up in a day or so we'll turn into weed killing machines.  Our ACG (allis chalmers G) cultivating tractor is able to do the majority of the weeding but there is still lots of hoeing that needs to be done too.  I actual love weeding, not so much the work of it but the before and after.  I do love a nice clean field.  

Our big bad weed killing machine.  Love this tractor and its electric!!

Our newest weeding tool.  It's a lay down cart so we don't have to bend over anymore when doing long stretches of hand weeding.  It's a beautiful thing :)

We spent quite a bit of time this weekend in the greenhouse tending to the tomatoes.  They needed to be pruned and staked and we left it about 2 weeks too late and man did we have our work cut out for us.  We are far from professional greenhouse growers and I think we have ALOT to learn!!  I'm thankful our friends at Heartbeet Organics are growing heirloom tomatoes for us this season and we will focus on the blight resistant varieties.

I have alot of lettuce ready this week and I mean ALOT!!  It would seem I have two plantings ready at once and as always I planted just a wee bit too much.  So if you know of anyone who needs a boat load of lettuce heads just let me know.  Some seriously beautiful lettuce out there!!!

 

So, what super star veggies are in the box this week you ask??
The large share has: spinach, lettuce mix, beta mix, arugula, red and white turnips, radishes, broccoli, green onions and a lettuce head.  The small share has a lettuce head, green onions, red turnip, broccoli, tatsoi, lettuce mix and beta mix.  The grab boxes were full to the brim with bok choy, chinese cabbage, swiss chard bunches, beet greens, kale, basil transplants, fresh basil and more of the above mentioned veggies. 

Be sure to check out our awesome bloggers when you get a chance. 
benourishedbyfood.wordpress.com
http://sallysrealfood.blogspot.ca/
http://allshanadian.blogspot.ca/

They are not big but green onions make such a great addition to salads and my favourite, egg-salad sandwiches!!

Beet greens - just chop off the beet ends, wash really well as they tend to hold alot of dirt and then throw in the steamer.  Butter, salt and pepper and there you go!!

Red Scarlet Turnip.  Beauties

Fresh basil from the greenhouse is ready

Lots of broccoli, not the biggest stuff I ever grew but it sure is early!!

Ruby Red Swiss Chard

Tatsoi

Beautiful "beta mix", its a mixture of beet greens and swiss chard.  Tasty tasty tasty!!

I've put the basil in a mini greenhouse in the greenhouse.  It gets crazy hot in there but they are loving it so far!!

And last but not least, the boys and I raided a strawberry patch on the weekend and they were delicious

We hope everyone had a wonderful Canada Day Weekend!!

1st CSA Week - Let's get this party started!!

Today was the first CSA pick-up for the 2013 season and boy was it a hot harvest day.  Very little breeze and some serious muggy conditions but we managed to get everything picked, washed and packed in time!!  It was great to see our returning CSA members and to meet the new families as well.  Thanks to my special little members for the fresh strawberry,  it was amazing!!!

So this week's shares are a tad bit "green".  I almost felt guilty when I was packing the boxes about how much greens there was but it's the season so might as well enjoy them.  As the weeks go on the amount of greens will dwindle and be replaced with more "regular" veggies so have no fear, it will be less green soon.

So, the large share this week includes the following goodies.  Radish, summer turnips, bok choy, cooking spinach and salad spinach, lettuce head, spicy salad mix, tatsoi, kale, cress and the choice between arugula and mizuna. 

Beautiful bok choy

The grab box system had basil plants, spicy mustard greens, swiss chard, beet greens and more of the above mentioned veggies.

I'm so excited to see what our CSA food bloggers are going to come up with for their first entries.  No pressure ladies but sure looking forward to your culinary creations.  Here is Sara's Blog  and here is Sally's blog  Both are busy parents to young children, very talented writers and creative foodies, its going to be an exciting CSA season with these guys in my culinary corner.  

Here's to another great CSA season getting started!!  Enjoy those veggies :)

Swiss chard

Beet Greens

Radish showing the love

 

 

 

 

 

A new season begins/ Employment Opportunities

Welcome back to the blogging universe.  I can't believe I haven't blogged since the last CSA pick-up in the fall.  The winter was good but it went by very fast and here we are again getting ready for another exciting season of farm fresh veggies.

Yummy veggie transplants living the dream

We are sold out for our CSA program and continue to hold an extensive waiting list.  I was pretty excited to see all the registration forms coming in the mail and when I tallied up the totals we had a 97% retention rate.  So thanks to our members for returning for another season, its going to be a great one!!

We are in the early stages of putting up a building dedicated to our CSA/restaurant veggies.  I am very excited about this as I think its going to drastically change the way I run my business.  I'm not sure it will be ready for the beginning on the CSA deliveries but hopefully not too long after.  Lots of refrigeration, tonnes of room for washing/weighing/prepping veggies and the best thing, lots of room to pack CSA bins.  The garage served me well last year but talk about cramped space!!!

So with all the expanding and infrastructure work going on we are in need of some labour.  We have two seasonal positions available with the main one  starting in late June and ending late October.  It will be Monday-Thursday from 8-2:30 and will be a mix of many activities including transplanting, laying row cover, weeding, greenhouse duties, harvesting, washing, weighing/packaging vegetables and prepping veggies for the CSA/restaurant deliveries.  This position will most likely start a bit earlier but not with as many hours.

The second position will be two mornings/week from 8-12pm starting the end of June and finishing the end of October.  Jobs would include harvesting, washing, weighing and packaging vegetables for our CSA program.

Both positions are $12/hour and vegetables to take home as well. 

We are looking for people with good teamwork skills, excellent communication skills, the ability to follow instructions, good attention to detail, and the ability to work in all weather.  We grow high quality vegetables and we need people who can pay attention to detail and ensure vegetables are in the highest quality before being packed for our CSA & restaurant customers.  

If your interested in either of these positions just send an e-mail to JenAndDereksFarm@gmail.com 

April 23rd planting. We start new veggies every two weeks in the greenhouse

Basil, best thing ever!!

Spinach, its the first time we've grown it from transplants.  Here goes nothing!!

The spinach is growing great in the greenhouse, planted way later than it should have been but it got done finally!!

Swiss chard beauties!!

Garlic

Tomatoes ready to be potted up to their 4" pots

The boys are getting bigger!!

Thumbs up for sunny warm greenhouse days