With our Community Supported Agriculture program starting next week, the farm is a flurry of activity as we try to wrap up our big spring projects and plantings. The beginning of harvest season means that we can settle into more of a routine with regular harvests every Tuesday and Friday. This routine is a nice change of pace from the chaos and busyness of spring, but it also means that there is less time for field work (planting, prepping, weeding, etc), so it's imperative that we work thoughtfully and efficiently to get everything done. Before the end of this week, we are hoping to put up our 4th and final tunnel and fill it with peppers (sweet, hot and shishito) and finish planting our leeks.
The past few weeks have involved a lot of heavy lifting. We've trucked around over 100 wheel barrow loads of compost by hand, raised beds with our new plow, broadforked, pounded posts and spread lime - a labour of love indeed! Despite the days being long, hot and dry, it is a nice feeling to know that we are developing sustainable systems on the farm and setting ourselves up for a successful season and hopefully for years to come.
We have been having a lot of fun with our new rotary plow! This implement for the BCS, our walk behind tractor, is a tool designed to make raised beds. After a dramatically wet 2023, we were inspired to focus on building up our soil and our beds. We're doing this by literally raising the beds with the plow - we walk the BCS through the path while the plow spins and throws soil onto the bed. We are also building up the nutrients and organic matter in our soil. We invested heavily in compost that we are adding to our beds (about 1/3 of a cubic yard or 4 wheel barrow loads per bed). The compost we use is a mix of manure, wood, and peat. Compost is great because it's full of microbiological activity that feeds the soil and benefits the plants. It's also high in carbon/ organic matter which is useful for moisture retention and nutrient cycling. By having clearly established permanent raised beds, we look forward to prioritizing our amendments and soil building to the space where we will actually grow crops. Not to mention, our field blocks look really sharp with rows of raised beds!
Another exciting event from the week was our annual organic inspection. As we received our organic certification last summer, we now need to maintain the integrity of our growing practices and renew our certification annually. This entails paperwork, proof of inputs, record keeping and an annual inspection. The maintenance is fairly tedious and there is a lot of record keeping, but we believe that the certification is worth it and the record keeping makes us better farmers and business owners. We're proud to be certified and ensure the transparency of our practices with all of you.
We look forward to launching our CSA program next week and sharing our beautiful spring harvest with you!
Our go to salad this time of year with all of the crunchy turnips and radishes is as follow:
Chop a few turnips and radish into thin discs and put in a bowl. Salt to taste.
Add equal parts sesame oil and rice wine vinegar and mix.
Garnish with sesame seeds and chives.
Enjoy!
It's simply, tasty, fresh and always a spring favourite! We often have this on the side of buckwheat noodles stirfried with whatever veg we have around.
Friend of the farm Bryanna's dad, Brian, took some very cool drone shots last nice! Check out are the straight lines, crisp tarps, freshly sown cover crop, and neatly piled compost - woohoo!
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