Auction & Equipment Salvage

Yesterday we went to a farm and garden auction and came home with quite a truck load. We are very excited as we were able to successfully bid on two stand-up coolers which we will use to cool our veggies before market. Last year we had an old fridge that was left behind from the previous owners when we bought the farm. It worked fine but it was always quite a job trying to squeeze all the produce in the fridge without squishing everything. We now have a double door Pepsi cooler which our black harvest crates will fit directly in and a single door cooler which we may take to the market for greens. We also bought an anvil which Derek was quite excited about.

After the excitement of the auction we went to Lower Bedeque where my father grew up. They had some old equipment in the fence line that they are not using any more so we rescued a two row tool bar, two cultivator teeth and two mouldboard hillers. We took this incredibly heavy metal back to my family's farm and hopefully this week we can reassemble to create a two row hiller for our potatoes. Last year we simply raked the soil up around the potatoes, that was such a long and back breaking job that I thought, NEVER AGAIN!! We forgot to take pictures of the before disassembly but we will have pictures posted of the reassembly soon.

The seedlings are growing well. I'm out of table space inside so I'm waiting for the nights to get a bit warmer for the leeks and onions to go in the greenhouse shed to start another batch of seedlings.

Derek is in the middle of putting up a hoop house where we will grow some of our peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. So far just the frame and hoops are up but it looks pretty neat so far.



Derek also worked up the front garden section last week before the snow came. The ground was surprisingly dry. Hopefully this week I will be planting some spinach and lettuce mix.

Seedling Status & Snow

Last week was beautiful. Warm weather, not windy, very manageable. Yesterday it snowed all afternoon, it made everything very greasy around here. So much for our semi dry driveway.



Yesterday was another big planting day. I seeded several greens (kale, joi choi, tatsoi, MeiQui Choi, Chinese cabbage), summer turnip, purple Kohlrabi and I transplanted all the pepper seeds that we germinated a week ago in paper towel. We started germinating the pepper seeds in paper towel two years ago as we were finding low germination rates just going strait to the potting soil. A week in moist paper towel and you are planting only seeds that have already germinated. There was 192 pepper plants started yesterday.

The seedlings are all looking well. The broccoli, lettuce and fennel that were planted last week are growing quickly.



1 week old broccoli



1 month old red onion seedlings



1 week old fennel



1 week old lettuce

Eagle Sighting

Yesterday while we were getting our mail from the mailbox we saw something on the side of the road that looked like a big crow with something white attached. We saw the "crow" fly away and it was an Eagle. I have never been that close to one before. Derek and I got the camera and followed it to our neighbours and got as close as we could. It's not the best picture but its as close as we got untill it flew away.



We then saw another eagle flying overhead and both birds were soaring overhead for quite a while. They looked so graceful.



Spring has finally arrived here at the farm. We still have drifts of snow but Derek has been scraping the driveway and its actually starting to dry up. Our greenhouse shed has also started signs of spring. Now that the sun is warming up the shed is starting to get higher in temperature. Today the thermometer said it was 33.5 degrees. Toasty!!! Its still too cold at night to put the seedlings out but in another week or so hopefully it'll be warm enough.

Potato Storage Experiment

These potatoes were left in our unheated clay basement for the winter to see how they would survive. I was quite surprised that they lasted as long as they did. The Red Norland seemed to sprout the worst, the Fabula's held up really well with little to no sprouting. The True Blues also did really well.

It seems our growing season keeps getting pushed back, we had strong winds and blowing snow today. Good news is week end they are calling for +10 degrees, how exciting. I'm sure spring weather must be just around the corner.

First Seeds of the Season

Sunday was our first planting of the 2008 season. Leeks and onions really like an early start and we probably could have gotten them in even earlier but that didn't happen. We make our own potting soil using our composted horse manure, peat moss, Jolly Farmer earth worm castings, nutrient balanced mix and we like to add in a bit of purchased organic balanced potting soil in case our mix was lacking anything (Jolly Farmer Certified Organic Grow-on Mix)

We planted seven trays in total, three leeks and four onions. We do not have enough room to start as many transplants as we would like as we use our front living room and there is only so much room. We normally do not plant onions from sets but this year we think we will have to as we do not have the room to grow as many onions as we would like. Most people do not realize that you can grow onions from seed and that you will get a much bigger bulb, plus there are so many more varieties to choose from.



Tiny onion seeds




The living room before and after. We use this room because it has a big south facing window.



Under the table on the left we now have plastic that hangs down to the floor with a tiny space heater. The trays will stay under the plastic with the heater untill they germinate. This usually takes about 5-6 days.

Chores

This will probably be the last "slack" weekend on the farm until next fall. Next weekend is the annual Acorn organic conference which will be filled with new information, meeting new farmers and learning as much as we can in two days. Seeding will begin shortly after that which will turn our living room into a seedling grow room.



Above are bales of peat moss that will be used for our farm made potting soil, and Derek working with the tractor putting in hay for the horses. Derek uses a tow strap and a chain to strap the bale to the front end loader, it works quite well.

More Ice

We received more snow last night only to be followed by rain. By the time we got home from work the driveway was again a sheet of ice. I was able to get a few shots this time.