It is over here

Our days on Blogspot are now over. You can keep up with us at Taproot by going to our webpage www.taprootfarms.ca and clicking on blog. We have it embedded in our site now. Hopefully this will make things easier to manage.

Sorry for any trouble this may cause you! I very much appreciate your contributions and following! Please start following us over there too.

It will take me a bit to get use to the new program - but I hope it will be as friendly as this has been. Thanks blogspot!

Patricia

Photo catch up

It seems like it has been weeks since I uploaded some pictures for you. Now I will play catchup:)
The youth team - with the fresh garlic and scape harvest on Monday.

My Grandmother Sandy and my Father Andrew at Franks 3rd b-day party - 4 generations of farmers in we include the kids:)

Louise and Gerald on back with Calvin at the wheel - Transplanting cabbage


The Farm - Canada Day Picnic - Izaak front and centre.
Onions and weeds
Tomatoes coming along well
Peppers coming along well too.

Have a great day!

Walk about

This afternoon I have been weeding a patch of cilantro, dill and then I took a long, slow walk about to see how things are coming along.

The broccoli is getting ready to harvest. Some heads are ready and Calvin is spot picking each day. We will not have enough for everyone on this first harvest, so what I am proposing is we give the Monday group the first lot, Tuesday the second lot, etc.....so that everyone gets broccoli.

The tomatoes look great a few of the golden nuggets are nice and ready. Only a few handfuls at a time right yet. The peppers are sizing up too. The hungarian wax look great and will be the earliest I think.

The basil is in full production how. The artichokes look very interesting. I can not wait to see how they turn out.

We had a lovely day on the farm yesterday with all of those members who came. Thanks so much - the kids had a great time and I hope the adults were happy too.

Frank is 3 today. We are having a birthday supper tonight. It sure will be a great evening.

The plants are growing well here and we are looking forward to a great variety so very soon.

Happy Canada Day and Farm Day

http://nogginsfarm.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html#4843301072064060507

I posted pictures today but I posted them to the wrong blog. Opps....

Here you will see a few shots from the picnic today. We had a wonderful turn out, the sun was shining the kids were playing and the day just felt great.

Thanks so much!!

Happy Canada Day and Farm Day

Good Morning - It is 9 AM and the weather is beautiful here on the farm.
We will see you later this morning for our strawberry shortcake picnic.

Looking forward to some fun on the farm.

Saving the Season Workshop Series

Taproot Farms Saving the Season Workshop Series
email me to register

Sunday July 11th 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Strawberry JamCost: $35.00 per personSpace: 5 peopleYou bring: 12 250 mL Jars with lids - clean and ready to use, liquid, certo, sugarWe provide: berries, equipment, snack

Sunday July 25th 1:00 PM - 5 PM
Canned BeansCost: $35.00 per personSpace: 5 peopleYou bring: 12 500 mL jars with lidsWe provide: beans, equipment, snack

Saturday August 14th 1:00PM - 5:00PM
Basil PestoCost: $50 per personSpace: 8 peopleYou bring 4 ice cube traysWe provide: basil, all other ingredients, equipment, snack

Saturday August 28th 9:00 - 5:00
Canned Plums and PeachesCost: tba - depends on price of fruitSpace: 5 peopleYou bring: 24 1 litre jarsWe provide: fruit, all ingredients, equipment, lunch and snacks

Saturday September 4th
Canned TomatoesSession one: 9-12Session two: 1-5Space: 4 people per sessionCost: $70.00You bring: 24 1 litre jarsWe provide: tomatoes, equipment, snack

Saturday September 18th
Farmers Market SalsaSession one: 9:00 - 2:00Session two: 3:00 - 8:00Space: 4 people per sessionCost: $60.00 per personYou Bring: 12 500 mL jarsWe provide: all veggies, all ingredients, equipment, lunch/dinner

Saturday October 2nd 9:00-12:00
Sauerkraut and KimchiSpace: 8 peopleCost: $35.00We provide: all ingredients, equipment and a snack

Saving the Season Workshop Retreats
The retreat workshops will take place at the farmstay, Swallows Nest. Each retreat weekend includes 6 meals, (Friday night supper, breakfast, lunch and supper on Saturday, breakfast and lunch on Sunday.) Participants have access to the sauna, the farm, the walking trails and the jacuzzi tub.There is space for 8 participants. The workshops will begin at 6 PM on Friday and end at 2:00 PM on Sunday. You will leave with a smile, a rest of sorts, and with 48 1 litre jars of preserves for the winter. Cost per participant is $414.00 taxes included.

Retreat 1: September 10, 11, & 12th
Tomatoes (12 jars), Pasta Sauce (24 jars) and Bread & Butter Pickles (12 jars)

Retreat 2: October 22, 23 & 24th
Canned Corn (12 jars), Canned Pears (12 jars), Salsa (12 jars) and Canned Apple Sauce (12 jars)

Thursday June 24th

School is out. One last day next week, but really it is over. This will add an element of family to the summer which feels great. Izaak and I got the market all set up at the end of the drive this morning. Then he collected the eggs and did some transplanting.

The other day, I missed taking a picture of it, but Calvin was driving the tractor with Louise and Gerald on back transplanting with a mechanical transplanter. Whow, they were excited, we were excited. It was so quick and all of the cabbages went in that day.

Things are growing well on the farm and there a few new things on the go - Canning workshops. I finally have a list of workshops for this year. Also, we are entering into an arrangement where we are going to test the waters with dehydrating some fruit and veggies. I am excited about this project. There are lots of projects and fun days ahead.

I hope you are loving the scapes, you know it means garlic to come. Yippy!!!

Friday the 18th of June

This morning I woke up to the blating of a sheep, the sound of our little tractor and a bit of chatter between the guys so early in the morning. Josh is up and gone. The farm is still this morning with a haze over everything as the sun comes up. I think it will be a hot day. My mind is spinning already with the lists of things to do today. First task is to get the kids fed and off to their activities, Izaak to school. Lily and Frank to preschool.

My todo list is long, but it is exciting. We are welcoming guests to the farmstay for the weekend. This afternoon Drea will be here to work in the kitchen making rhubarb jam and it is time to get our end of driveway market stand opened up. It is the beginning of another great day!

Farm Stay - Available Weeks

If you are interested......

Only week remaining open in July is 18 - 25

In August we have 7th - 12 and the 22 to 28th available

September there are some openings for a few days at a time.

October is wide open. Consider a Thanksgiving on the farm????

Here are some pictures. Also a whole bunch of walking trails have been mowed now that the threat of distrubing the nesting is over. It is so beautiful here so I hope all of you have a chance to come. Even if just for the day on July 1st for our Farm Day.

This is a shot of the upstairs room. The couch pulls out. There is also the Queen bed shown below in the south windows. Behind the couch is a twin bed and the toys are in containers behind the couch. The crib is hidden away in the other bedroom. This room is also the grand room where events take place.


The awesome sauna that I love!
The 'master suite' with a king bed, two person tub with jets, shower, fireplace and washroom and large door that opens to the gardens.
The kitchen and dining area and sitting area too. This room has a large fireplace, not shown in the picture, a cozy place to curl up. Just to the right of this picutre is a dining table and chairs.

Mary Beth's Workshop Series

Intro to healthy eating

3 Week Workshop

Presentation, cooking demo, tasting, and recipes

June 16, 23 & 30 at 7pm

or

June 15, 22 & 29 at 10am

$85 for all 3 or $30 per session

Phone MaryBeth 670-9355


Week 1

Concious Eating -

Learning to listen to your body and the messages its sending

Digestion guidelines- eating properly

Cooking - Gluten free grains


Week 2

How food can affect your mood -

good/bad mood foods

Balancing moods - understanding sugar, flour and fiber

Cooking - breakfasts, variations on oatmeal, homemade granola


Week 3

Raw Foods

Superfoods

Cooking - Nutrient rich dessert treats

www.nofarmsnofood.ca

Dear Friends of Farmland and Supporters of Food Security. Please click below to visit the No Farms No Food webiste launched yesterday.

www.nofarmsnofood.ca

In the weeks immediately ahead a decidedly pro-development municipal council in Kings County is set to rezone close to 600 acres of agricultural land for residential, commercial and/or industrial uses. This municipal council has been described by external reviewers as dysfunctional and lacking in ability to plan for either the short or long term benefit of Kings County. These councillors continue to push their individual agendas having dismissed the CAO and "let" key planners "go" in response to the external review.

This website invites you to help us stop them from destroying Kings County farmland.

Please spread the word by sending the link to our website to your networks.

Many Thanks in Advance --- Pauline Raven

Taxes

What a beautiful morning.

Last night I met up with Mike who is creating a new and improved website for us. We will have the ability to do add on's and payment processing so you can add on a flat of berries or a pound of basil to your CSA and pay with paypal. I am really excited about this and hope that it will work better for everyone.

Let me know if you would like to be one of the members who test runs it for us to see that we have all the bugs worked out.

The farm is hopping today. We have Tim harvesting some garlic scapes that will be added to the shares going out today. Calvin is harvesting mixed greens, Gerald is harvesting spinach and green onions. Lousie and a new addition Jem are bagging. And Andy is planting two rows of sage plants for next year.

Sylvan is building the moveable chicken house.

And in a few minutes I will be off to the accountants office to file my taxes. Nothing like the last minute.......

Have a great day everyone! It is June 15th - what a wonderful day!

Young farmers forum

This morning Lily, Frank and I joined the NS Young Farmers Forum for an annual meeting and farm tour. Here we are.


Minister John MacDonall, joined the young farmers at Charlie Keddy's farm in Lakeville

Saturday morning walk about

Radish plantings


Herbs and flowers


New haskap plants


Greenhouse


Transplants ready for planting and garlic to the right


Louise weeding spinach


Calvin turning on the water for the tunnels


Chickens out and about


Greens growing
Enjoy the weekend!

Farmer on the go!

The sun is out

Finally the sun is shining. The farm is quite wet but hopefully we will get back into the regular swing of planting in a day or so after things dry out.

Last week, our first week of the 26 week CSA went over okay. We had a few hiccups on Monday and a few on Thursday but overall it was a great week. We are two days into week two and I am finally getting to a blog entry.

I've had lots on my mind to write here but the days are going so fast I can't believe it.

We have new sheep on the farm. They arrived on Sunday. I gave a tour to a small group of University students yesterday. They are learning about food, culture, health, etc. Sounds like an interesting class. They heard all of my opinions on how we eat and the choices we make.

Enjoy the day!

Busy week

We are nearly finished our first week for the 26 week members.

Josh and I took a late night walk to check on the crops. Rapini is such an interesting plant. We thought our plants were done, but they have grown a bunch and we are harvesting some today. It seems to be behaving a bit like zucchini.

Have a great day. I am off to Bedford and Hammonds Plains this afternoon for the final day of pickups this week.

- Farmer on the go!

Edgewood - oxford 1st pickup

Even with the rain ( thank goodness for the rain) we were all smiles at the church pickup.

Here are a few new members.


And Alex who will be doing the majority of driving to the city on Tuesdays.




Have a great week!

- Farmer on the go!

Monday after lunch

26 Weeks begin

Good Morning.
Starting today.....

Dartmouth area deliveries. Hawthorne Elementary School 4:30 - 5:40
Peddars Way 4:40 - 5:30

Tuesday - Halifax area deliveries. Edgewood-Oxford United Church 4:30-5:30
Grainery 4:40-6:30

Wednesday - Local area deliveries and at Taproot pickups - Farm 4:30-6:30, Wolfville 4:45-5:15, Kentville 4:45-5:15

Thursday - Hammonds Plains and Bedford area deliveries - Springvale Nurseries that is now newly named Bloom - 4:30-5:30. Bedford pickup is at St. Ignatius Catholic church on 5 Bedford Street between 4:15 and 5:45PM

Windsor deliveries will be drop on Monday or Thursday we will see which day it works into better. Wilmot deliveries will occur on Tuesday.

Thanks - enjoy the week! Patricia

26 weeks start this week

Over the weekend I will get an email out to remind everyone of the times, places, etc for pickup. I will post it here too. Yippy, ya who, it is the start of the 26 weeks of CSA.

Rapini Bolts

Wouldn't it be neat if our daily news headings were all about what is happening on the farm? Not what is happening with the PM or the scandal of the day, but of the goin'ons of our food production. The heading in tomorrow mornings newspaper would be 'Rapini bolts from lack of moisture' Here at your farm, we have two lovely rows of rapini that are small and flowering. They are a bust. In retrospect I should have had them set up with trickle irrigation, but I just didn't know that they were so sensitive. Anyway, live and learn and luckily they will make wonderful organic matter for the soil and the next batch of plantings.

Just an short evening update! Enjoy the weekend!

Middleton CSA delivery

Hello Friends,
After talking with a few interested people, we have decided to offer 26
weeks of Taproot Farms CSA and 20 weeks of the Noggins Corner Farm Fruit
Share in the Middleton/Kingston area. The pickup will be on Tuesdays
from 4:45-5:15 PM starting June 1st for the Taproot CSA and June 14th
for Noggins CSA. We will meet at the parking lot beside the Guys Frenchy's in Wilmot.

If you would be so kind as to pass this information around to your
networks I would greatly appreciate it!!!

People who are interested can just add the location to the bottom of the
registration form.

www.taprootfarms.ca
www.nogginsfarm.ca

Look under CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) on both sites to learn more!

Thanks so much for your help in sending this out.
Patricia

Wild night

At 4:30 AM I bolted out of bed, woke Josh up because 'the chickens, the geese, there is something getting into the chickens!'
Josh ran out to to see what was up, but then we realized the noise was coming from our neighbours Barb and George's. They have chickens and piglets and cows. So Josh drove over to check on them. The sound was terrible. In the meantime I called over to let them know that Josh was on his way over.

Come to find out, it was raccoons fighting and they had one raccoon out on a limb screaming like what I thought was a chicken dieing.

I feel so bad for waking everyone up - it was quite a commotion. No sleep after that. Maybe a bit paranoid I guess. Now I am even waking the neighbours:((

Have a great happy chicken day!

A special surprise

Josh found these tonight.
A Killdeer nest. Whow!




They are amongst the broccoli.
- Farmer on the go!

Saturday am pic's

Rapini


Tomato tunnel

Sunny Morning

Josh has just loaded the kids in the van to go on a crop check this morning.
They are heading over to Medford to check on the peas and beans planted there.
Josh picked a handful of ripe strawberries yesterday. It will soon be time for earily berries!
I am off to do a morning check of this home farm. Things here are greeen and growing fast!!! The weeds are also growing fast:)

Over cast Thursday

Well this morning Lily headed off to her first morning at school. It was the orientation day for the primary kids. It is hard to believe that she is already old enough to adventure off to school.

Last evening we went for a drive around to see how things are coming along. The strawberries are starting to turn colour. In a week we will have berries.

Josh is very excited with the healthy condition of the berry plants. They are so lush and green and full of health!

The garlic looks wonderful, the potatoes are up about a foot, the carrots are up, parsnips too - altough I can imagine that some of you aren't too interested in hearing about parsnips:))

The artichokes are planted in the tunnels, we are going to try them this year. I can't wait to see how they work out.

The leeks are all planted out on the new side field and the onions are going out next to them.

Things are moving right along! I am just starting to get organized for some canning weekends. We can begin with a jam weekend with rhubarb I hope. I will keep you posted.

Enjoy the day!

Planting tomatoes

Here is Gerald and Calvin transplanting tomatoes this morning

May 13th - Thursday

It is another beautiful day on the farm. Last night it was music to our hears hearing the rain come down in the night. What a perfect routine, sunny all day, rain at night and the plants just grow, grow, grow.

Yesterday I had an interesting experience. I was a witness for the Standing Committee on Agriculture. There were about 15 people who were witnesses, we each had 7 minutes to speak. Once we spoke the MP's asked us questions. It was hard because there are so many issues and it is difficult sometimes to articulate them and to think of what are the best strategies for moving forward. The topic for feedback was Young Farmers and the Future of Agriculture.

It will be interesting to see what the committee recommends from their consultations.

Tonight the film DIRT is showing in Truro. After the drop in Hammonds Plains this evening I will scoot to Truro for the movie. Hopefully there will be some people out to see it. It has shown in Truro a few times already so we;ll see.

Today I am catching up on a large pile of papers in the office here. Last night Ron was spreading manure before the land is cultivated likely in the next day or so. Calvin is seeding and Gerald is digging out kale stalks so we can cultivate where it was planted.

Justine and Conall are likely into NB by now on their trip to Ontario. What a wonderful day to be starting an adventure!

Enjoy your day!

Peppers going in

Here is Gerald planting the pepper tunnel.



- Farmer on the go!

3 kids and fiddlehead soup

Seeding

Friday events

We are cultivating land preparing it for planting.
Harvesting spinach.
Weeding the asparagus bed - next year we will be able to harvest from it.
Mulching raspberries.
Seeding.
Weeding greens.
Varnishing floor in Swallows Nest.
Cleaning out herb garden beds.
Transplanting green onions.
Celery has been planted.
Plant more radish, arugula, and greens.

Enjoy your day!!!

Newsletter corrections

Goodmorning -
I realized in the city yesterday that the newsletter said that Wayne Parker grew the parsnips - they are Josh's farm parsnips and were grown on transition to organic land.

Also there was 1lb of fiddle heads and 1/4lb of greens.

Sorry!

Orchard update

If you are intersted in following the progress of the fruit CSA - you can check in at http://nogginsfarm.blogspot.com/

We are going to start backing greens in about 20 minutes. They are being harvested right now.

Enjoy the day!

Draft Day Care Centre Policy - Consultations

Other CSA's

Please share......so we can ensure a viabrant, sustainable, small scale, new farmer, presence here in Nova Scotia. Here are four CSA's that have emailed me their info. There are many more. Thanks!

Farm Name: Moon Fire Farm
CSA Location: The Grainery in Halifax
Start date: June 2nd 2010
Contact: Kimm or Domenic 902-757-1912 moonfirefarm@gmail.com

Localmotive Farm
Stewiacke, NS (serving Stewiacke to Halifax)
Tentative start date of June 9th
localmotivefarm@gmai.com
www.localmotivefarm.com

Farm name: Southfield Organics
CSA location: Tantallon
Start date: June 16
Contact info: southfieldorganics@gmail.com

902-757-0262
Shani’s Farm- www.shanisfarm.com
668 Hwy # 236 Scotch Village, NS

Charlotte Harper
Horse and Garden Farm
1563 Wentworth Rd. RR1
Windsor,
Nova Scotia
B0N2T0
(902) 472-2498
charper@eastlink.ca
Our CSA runs June 14- Oct 30 (20 wks) at a cost of $500 for the season. ( $25 per week) Pick up at the Farm is preferred, but we offer delivery at $3.00/ wk

New pigs next door

Lily, Frank & I went next door to see the 12 new piglets. They are so cute!!! They were born at the beginning of last week.

Tomatoes

This morning Josh and I made a list of tomatoes for planting inside the tunnels There are only 7 rows ready so we need to be selective. The tomatoe plants will be so happy to get out of the trays.

End of the day. End of the week

Well here it is 4:05 PM on Friday. I just finished entering new CSA members into both the accounting program and the spreadsheet program. Justine is done for the day and the kids are jumping around on the trampoline.

We have finished week 4 this week and I finally feel like I have a handle on names, spreadsheets and numbers. So finally, a bit of order to it all.

I think having order it the key to many things. It is sometimes hard to maintain order when there are lots of things going on, but finally today I feel that there is some resemblence of order in the office.

Tonight we are gathering together with a group of friend who are interested in viewing the film DIRT. If you have a group of friends and you;d like to use the movie, just let me know. I can't lend it out until after the DIRT showings are finished but starting in June - we can pass it around.

And on Saturday night there is a Grand Reviaval at Sutton Oak Farms on Church Street. A great list of performers will hit the farm, the Hupman Brothers included. It is looking like a full weekend.

If there is anyone out there who has a love for staining and varnishing floors, let me know. Swallows Nest is coming along so nicely - walls painted, bathroom in, new floor upstairs and newly varnished floor down stairs, newly tiled shower. And brand new beds. I am so excited for when everything is in place.

Oh, it is starting to down pour - the kids are running in, gotta go.

Enjoy the weekend!

Blueberry blossoms

Just on a walk about and see these blueberry bushes are blooming. They are next to Swallows Nest. I am just checking out the new paint job and floor in the house.





- Farmer on the go!

Lots of nettles

Get ready for some stinging nettle soup next week:) We are fortunate to have such an endless supply of the green.



Calvin just finished transplanting the rapini in the tunnel. It is our first time growing it so I am not sure how long from now until it is ready.

The Slow Food Canada leaders were just here for a tour. If you'd like to learn more about the events surrounding their visit check out the slow food Mova Scotia website.

Enjoy your evening.

Tuesday happenings

It is 11:23 AM and we are rushing to get the shares done in time. Right now we have 43 bunches done of the garlic so the push is on:) We need 88.

Crab Meal arrived

On Thursday the 4 ton of crab meal arrived. Friday Josh was able to get it spread, chisel plough the fields and tunnels, and this morning the harrow passed through. Calvin has been transplanting Swiss chard and kale and direct seeding carrots, radish and cilantro.

Yippy!!! Seeds are going into the ground.

It is a beautiful today. Both farms, Canard and here are bustling. Josh is planting corn and covering with clear plastic for a second planting of early corn.

Enjoy your day!

On the road

Today has been a day of driving and talking. This afternoon I presented at an agriculture event in Truro. I talked about CSA's and about how ours works. It was a good few sessions I took in and there were great questions after my talk.

I jumped in the car and headed to Mahone Bay were at 7pm the film Dirt is showing. Tonight, Earth night, we are showing the first of four viewings. I am enjoying the art in a lovely bistro called Cheesecake Gallery.

A glass of wine and a great meal will hit the spot before heading to set up the movie.

Enjoy this lovely spring evening!

Out for a walk

Checking out the gardening results at swallows nest. Valarie and crew were very busy today and did a fabulous job!

Share day

- Farmer on the go!

Try it again

This is our nicely organized seeds