Saturday September 5th

Today Calvin is planting spinach for the winter shares. He harvested some melons today. We are thinking that this week we will have melons ready. Yippy!
This picture was taken last week. Gerald is in front with the red hat and Calvin bringing up the rear.



Last night Josh and I had a few friends over for a full moon bonfire in the field. It was very nice. I was thinking I should have taken pictures, but I didn't. Earlier in the evening Izaak, Lily and Frank were helping to set up chairs. They were having fun in the alfalfa field and they looked so cute with the alfalfa up to their waists. Throughout the evening there were lots of kids running around, roasting marshmallows and just having fun. It is the kind of night that keeps me going for a long time.

Report on Canning session

We had 4 participants in the first ever Taproot canning session. We made a triple batch of salsa.
We used the recipe from the Simply in Season cookbook - I've used it before and liked it. Everything seemed to go very smoothly. I learned a bunch - timing and how to be organized etc. It takes 5 hours to do the whole thing but the woman were here for 4 hours. They went home with out the salsa because it was going to take an additional hour to process all the jars. Next time I might try to have a few canners on the go instead of just one. We did three cases of salsa in total. I will deliver a case to each participant on Tuesday - everyone came in from the city.


Peeling tomatoes - this takes time. We did 42 cups of diced tomatoes.


Chopping onions, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes.
The crew and the tomatoes. We had two great young helpers. After a while they joined in with our kids and went for a walk to the cheese house for a snack.

Here are the tomatoes we used. I had them harvested for the Incredible picnic. We harvested
the rest of the veggies from the garden.

The next canning day is set for Sept. 19th - if you are interested please let me know. We can decide closer to the date what we wish to can. Could be salsa, could be pickles, could be pasta sauce or it could be apple sauce. There are loads of options. We also talked about the price. The people who participated this time felt that between $25 and $30 was reasonable. We provided the jars, the produce, the space, the time and the lunch - the lunch was simple - sliced cheese, tomatoes, almonds, bread, etc.

Thanks for coming - it was fun!

Sunday night report

We got some welcomed rain, some wind, some blown over flowers, but no disasters.

Thankfully all of the tunnels are fine, the tomatoes inside them are fine, and we are relaxing tonight. (I haven't checked the outside peppers - I was worried about them.

There is some sweet corn that is flattened but hopefully the roots are still in tact and it can be harvested. It is a more painful harvest since you need to bend over. Below are some picture from the last few days.


Here where the onions were planted. They are all in the greenhouse now - getting ready for storage.

Here is Josh - returning from a farm check during the rain and wind on Sunday.
Franks was out with Josh to check on things during the "tropical storm" on Sunday late morning. He was really mad when I took is soaked suit and clothes off.

Calvin just finished harvesting onions and moving them into the greenhouse to cure.

Here is Nicole on Thursday cleaning up some onions for the road side stand.

Hurricane Bill

We have decided to take down two tunnels, tighten the ropes on the three tunnels covering all of the tomatoes and hope for the best. It has definitely been a very stressful few days of trying to decide what to do - of course two days ago the forecast was more intense than it was last night. The tunnels are able to sustain winds up to 90km/hr. In the past we have lost a tunnel from wind and we don't really want to push it. He has taken the plastic off of two in Canard. The challenge is that all of the tomatoes will be really damaged by the wind if we take them down.

Anyway - it is Sunday morning and we are just going to ride out the day. If the winds get too high Josh's plan of attack is to cut the ropes and then we can save the structure.

Take Care!

Freezer troubles

Yesterday the new freezer decided that it didn;t like all the heat. We had all the zucchini, loads of beans, pesto and cauliflower that at 10 PM were exposed to + 5 degrees. We were not happy. That was down from +12 a couple hours earlier. Anyway - we moved things to the almost full deep freeze upstairs and let the new freezer thaw.
Things seem to be ok now at -11.

Working in the Kitchen

Well we have the kitchen in working order.
Today Valarie (mom in law) and Kayla (next door neighbour + farm helper) and I froze shredded zucchini - we have missed some during picking and now they are massive - the best for baking. So in the winter for those of you who are 52 weeker's we will have zucchini. Also - Kayla spent hours today trimming beans. Later on tonight I will steam and freeze them.

Yippee - our family kitchen is free.

Enjoy the night.

August 10/11 newsletter

Hello All - I have had some comments, positive and not so positive about the newsletter this week, or more to the point the info in the newsletter.

FYI - by no means were my comments to be of concern to anyone in terms of security. It was simply for awareness and connectedness to what is happening on the farm.

I have now realized that not everyone is interested in all the details of what is happening and from now on I will offer info to those who request it.

So very sorry for any discomfort I may have caused you.

Things are great - the sun is shining, people are smiling, Calvin is back from his trip home to Newfoundland and the freezer is running in the kitchen AND the stove is hooked up. This means we will be freezing green and yellow beans today for the winter baskets.

Have a lovely week.