Monday July 27 - real summer

What a wonderfully hot day. Nicole and Lydia are here finishing off the beans. We had the "girl power" crew at it today. Sarah, Leah, Kayla, Lydia, Nicole and harvested a pile of beans. Purple, Green and Yellow. The yellow beans are not quite ready yet. The farm is beginning to feel the real weed pressure now. With all of the rain and the difficulty in cultivating with wet soil the weeds are catching up.

Gerald and Louise are just heading off for their break. Louise has been bunching radish and Gerald harvesting.
Today we have the plumber here to get the sink hooked up in the new kitchen. I can not wait to be down there cooking, canning, freezing away food for the winter. It will be so nice to get it out of my own kitchen.....last week we stewed 3 trays of sweet cherries that had split from the rain. I made 50 bottles of sweet cherry conserve and had double that left to do frozen in the freezer.

Other news - there is a lot happening here but no much to report on. The crops are growing well. The weather is good today and now I must focus and get a newsletter done for tomorrow.

Enjoy the day!

What a day......

Everything seemed to be getting done and everything was calm, until it started to get late and the onions weren't picked yet and the swiss chard was still coming in from the field. That was all doable, but then we ran out of boxes and the van broke (power steering problem), so we needed to sort out how to get the shares to the city. On top of all that we didn't have enough room in the boxes for both heads of lettuce (so much lettuce is ready that I wanted you to all share in the bounty of lettuce). Anyway - I am sure that some of you might be thankful for no extra lettuce.

With such a great crew: Louise, Lydia, Leah, Nicole, Nickle, Kayla, Sarah, Valarie, Jillian, Chris, Gerald and Josh - it all got done. Thanks to Nicole for taking a trip to the city. And so sorry to one new shareholder who didn't get a box because I didn't have my list correct. All in all, looking back today was a challenging one. What I do love about today is that such a wonderful crew of people were helping out, working together to provide the food. That feels just great!

Meal Planning for this week

As we eagerly walk through the gardens it is hard to decide what to put in the basket this week. There are some things that just can't wait another minute- like the head lettuces. And other things like the beets that can wait.

This posting is meant to prepare you for the large influx of greens. My hope is that you might want to take on the Taproot Farms salad challenge - two large salads per day - until you are clean out of greens.

See you soon!

Sunday July 12

Izaak used the camera this morning to take some photos of what is happening on the farm.


Josh watering.
The lavender that I harvested this morning
The Basil tunnel.
The honey bee in the lavender - I just love this lavender.
Izaak chilling in the hammock.
A lady bug thankfully feeding on the aphids. (all the black is aphids)
Our Cauliflower that we messed up on this year. It is about the size of the palm of my hand. Too bad. :( I understand that cauliflower is a heavy feeder and needs nitrogen - obviously it didn't get enough.
A bumble bee.

We had a great day together today - this evening we went for a walk and Izaak and I tried catching frogs in the pond. No catches - but great attempts.

What I Did When I Got Home

Considered the mountain of green stuff freshly deposited on the kitchen counter.
Poured a glass of red wine.
Chopped a handful of scapes and a couple of scallions, tossed them in a hot pot with olive oil and some hot pepper flakes.
Added a can of chopped tomatoes and half a can of water.
Added a swift pour of orzo (though any pasta would have done).
Added a heap of chopped kale when the pasta was nearly done.
Added a few chopped black olives.
Turned off the heat, added the whole bunch of parsley, chopped.
Sat down to soup in July, that seeming to suit these cool evening temperatures.
Field to table tastes so good.

July 5th Open House

On Sunday we had a nice crowd of picnickers. It turned out the be a wonderful day for strolling around the farm. In the picture below in the centre are my grandparents, Avard and Sandy Bishop. Being 80 doesn't slow them down. At the "home farm", Noggins Corner Farm, our Bishop family has been farming on the same land since 1760. My grandfather has lived their his entire life. It is a really neat feeling to have such a long history in one location. It is also really special to be creating a new "home farm" - Taproot. Maybe one of our great grand children will be saying the same sort of thing in 80 years.

The tunnel to the right is full of romaine lettuce and butter head lettuce.
The greenhouse in the back is where all the transplants are started. And the house in the back - the basement is the work space along with our office on the main floor that you can't see from this picture.

The kids loved the swing. At one point all the swings were going and I was a bit concerned about the top bar - it was put to the child test.

Nicole helped prepare and serve the yummy strawberry shortcake.

Thanks for coming!

10 AM Weather Update

It is still overcast here. We've had sprinkles on and off, but now it seems to be brightening up....I have no idea......yesterday we had hot sun and down pours all in the same couple of hours. It is all over the place.

Patricia

Wear your rubber boots

We had quite a down pour last night. Things are quite wet.
If you have rubber boats and wet/rain pants - I would bring them along.
It is really hard to know what the weather will be these days.

I will post at 10ish with a report on the weather here.

Patricia

Sunday Farm Picnic

Hello All - So sorry for the delay in posting something on our Sunday Strawberry Picnic. Where does the time go?

Starting around 11ish on Sunday you are invited to bring a picnic, a blanket or chairs, all your cutlery and dishes you need and we will join together for a farm picnic with Strawberry Shortcake. Bring a ball or kite if you like.

Our farm is located at 1736 Church Street.
Take Exit 11 off Hwy 101.
At the lights go straight.
Drive across the bridge into Port Williams
Take the second right, Starrs Point Rd. (There is a church on the corner on your left)
Drive until you come to Magee Rd. It is the second road on your left. It takes about 2-3 minutes.
Drive along Magee Road. Fields on both sides of you.
Go Straight at the stop sign, around a sharp turn to the left. The farm you see on the left is our farm. You are now on Church Street. We are 1736 the first on your left.

OR

You can drive straight through Port Williams. Turn Right onto Church Street. (about 3-4 minutes from the bridge)
Drive until you come to 1736. Just past Foxhill Cheese House.

See you soon!

Patricia