tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes

There are not too many moments of the day when my hands were not touching a tomato over these past few weeks. 
I think maybe we picked the last of them on Thursday - but you never really know with this crazy weather. 

Yesterday was tomato sauce day again, today was pesto day since we picked 75% of the outdoor basil, tomorrow will be dehydrator and freezer day, Monday will be salsa day.  Then there's those apples to put up.  We did 44 jars of applesauce and dehydrated twice this week and may try to be more creative if we have time over the upcoming days.

I'm still selling tomatoes and peppers but you need to buy them soon before they start to go bad in the house.  Every tomato and pepper will be used here in one form or another. 

Until next post, have a great every day. 
Jo

I LOVE tomatoes

And peppers and onions and garlic and beets and carrots and chard and kale and potatoes and … okay I’ll stop now. 

We’ve been kind of busy here, making tomato sauce and more tomato sauce and since I picked up over 200 pounds of apples on Monday we’re also making applesauce – lots and lots of tomato sauce and applesauce – oh my.

200 pounds of apples

we found something to do with those apples

and the dehydrator gets some apples too

Just a heads up – we’re going to skip Salad Greens this week for a few reasons, the main two being:

1.       I need all hands on deck tomorrow to pick more tomatoes.  Temps might drop to close to zero in the next several nights and I don’t want to be out there picking up what’s left by myself on the weekend. 

2.      The Salad Greens could do a little more growing this week to ensure we will all have plenty for Thanksgiving weekend coming up. 

I’ve also decided to let the beets and carrots grow for another several days to be their best for you next weekend.  Granola, Fresh Salsa and Pesto are also off the menu today but will be back next week.  I simply don’t have the time to make these items on top of getting all the tomatoes roasted right now.  We picked several pounds of beans yesterday and will again tomorrow. 

BUT next week, adding back the usual Salad Greens, Fresh Salsa, Pesto and Granola, there will be extra wonderfulness for you and your guests and perhaps some gift-giving, specifically Applesauce and Tomato Sauces.

No need to despair though, we have the following this week:

Beans  $3/pound   you can order ½ pound if you like

Celery  $2 bunch

Chard  $3 bag

Garlic  $3, $2, or $1 each

Garlic  $12 / pound

Herbs, fresh:   bay leaf, cilantro, citrus thyme, dill, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme  $2 each bunch

Kale  $3 bunch

Leeks  $3 / bunch

Onions, yellow  $2.50 / pound

Onions, large sweet Ailsa Craig  $2.50 pound

Onions, red multiplier  $2.50 pound

Onions, sweet Spanish  $2.50 / pound

Potatoes, red and fingerlings  $2 pound

Radicchio  $2 each

SHOOTS, Pea  $2 / bag

SHOOTS, Sunflower  $2 / bag

SPROUTS, Sandwich Booster (clover, alfalfa, radish & mustard)  $3 / bag

SPROUTS, Spring Salad Mix  (broccoli, radish, red clover & alfalfa)  $3 / bag

Tomatoes, cherry  $3 / pound

Tomatoes, heirloom $3 / pound  Order as many as you like, we have lots.

That’s not so bad a list for the end of September, I’d say.

I look forward to receiving Your Special Order.  Call or email me with amounts you’d like and any questions you may have.  Remember you can order any day.  Give us 24 hours to pick freshest for you.  I deliver to Ottawa and Merrickville either Saturday or Sunday each weekend. 

Thanks.

joanne.daybrighteners@gmail.com

613-258-7970

Well, helllllo Summer

I had tears in my eyes when we planted the peppers and tomatoes so very late in the season due to the vast amounts of water in the gardens.  I never believed we would get even a pound of ripe tomatoes or peppers for all of our hard work starting the plants from seeds in January and February.  A few weeks ago I was in panic mode and picked every red tomato visible in the tomato garden just before a few really, really cold nights.  I was hoping with all hopes we would have a warm fall and not lose these hundreds of plants to an early Frost.

Silly me, this is absolutely the best year of tomatoes ever grown on this property.  We have more beautiful colourful ripe red, yellow, orange, burgundy, rust, green striped, pink and black tomatoes than one could ever imagine.  And now even the peppers are turning red.  That I totally doubted would happen this year.  The basil plants I picked drastically a couple of weeks ago have come back to life wonderfully so there’s plenty for all.

Aside from these two very special items in our inventory of nutritional goodness, all of the garlic, onions, beets, carrots, greens, beans and cukes have turned out far better than expected.  The potatoes are even showing their strength these days as we hill them up from week to week.  I credit this to raised beds – it’s the best way to go – and our wonderful garden helpers who diligently weeded, laid plastic mulch in the right places, sowed and transplanted and sowed again from daybreak to early afternoon sometimes in downpours and hail and sometimes in extreme sweat breaking heat.  We even prepped rows and sowed more arugula yesterday after emptying rows of onions, hilling leeks and potatoes and picking boxes of tomatoes, cucumbers and beans. 

Today we weeded and tidied up the pepper garden, fertilized and weeded in the greenhouses, started pea shoots, sunnys and basil plants and made fresh salsa for your orders this week.

I just did my walk-about and found we have Potatoes.  Yes, we have potatoes!  That is so exciting.  I only checked the reds and they look pretty darn good. 

Oh ya, needed to pick just a "few" more tomatoes for more sauce, for caning, for freezing, for dehydrating - oh and for eating too.  

Newly picked fresh tomatoes, 'cuz what would we do if
we didn't have hundreds of tomatoes in the dining room?

mmmmm, sauce-to-be

these little darlings, Amethyst Cream cherry tomatoes
don't last long once picked so into the dehydrator they go

perfect little pears, it's the dehydrator for you too

Here’s the list of edibles for your palates this week:

Arugula  $3 bag

Beans  $3/pound   you can order ½ pound if you like

Beets, red and golden  $3/pound

Beet Greens  $3 bunch

Calendula flowers – to make your calendula healing salve - $2 lunch size paper bag

Calendula Seeds – free for lots

Carrot TOPS  free with your order if you need them for your little bunnies or horses, etc.

Celery  $2 bunch

Chard  $3 bag

Cucumbers  $2 each  sadly this is the last week for the cukes L

Edible Flowers  $3 bag

Garlic  $3, $2, or $1 each

Garlic  $12 / pound

Granola, with fruit  $8 /500mL jar  

Granola, with nuts and fruit  $10 /500mL jar

Herbs, fresh:   basil, bay leaf, citrus thyme, dill, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme  $2 each  

Kale  $3 bunch

Leeks  $3 / bunch

Mustard Greens  $3 / bag
Onions, yellow  $2.50 / pound

Onions, large sweet Ailsa Craig  $2.50 pound

Onions, red multiplier  $2.50 pound

Onions, sweet Spanish  $2.50 / pound

Pea SHOOTS  $2/ bag

PESTO, basil (made fresh) $4.50 125mL jar 

Potatoes NEW! $2 pound

Radicchio  $2 each

Radishes  $2 bunch

Salsa, fresh  $4 250mL jar

SHOOTS, Pea  $2 / bag

SHOOTS, Sunflower  $2 / bag

SPROUTS, Sandwich Booster (clover, alfalfa, radish & mustard)  $3 / bag

SPROUTS, Spring Salad Mix  (broccoli, radish, red clover & alfalfa)  $3 / bag

Tomatoes, cherry  $3 / pound

Tomatoes, heirloom $3 / pound  please let me know if you’d like all large or a mix

Zucchini  $4 each  I only have large ones right now, good for baking

Call or email if you'd like to place an order for pick up or delivery. within our delivery range  joanne.daybrighteners@gmail.com or 613-258-7970

Until next post, have a great every day.

Jo

Such pleasant weather

Well, here we are smack dab in the middle of September.  The beans are slowing down just when they finally got started (we only picked about 4 ½ pounds this morning), the cukes are on their way out now (we only get 6 or 7 instead of 20 or more when we pick now), the onions are ready for storing, the leeks are growing nicely as we hill them every now and again, each section of beets planted at various times gets larger each week, some of the sweet peppers are actually turning red (I didn’t think that would happen at all), the potatoes yes I said potatoes are doing really well (they are a surprise for us all as we got them in so late it was a gamble which is why I didn’t mention them earlier), some of the edible flowers are done and some are still blooming nicely, the chard and kale are just doing as chard and kale always do – growing nicely, the celery is amazing and more carrots are growing longer and thicker as we planned. 

This morning we emptied some spent rows of salad mix and arugula in order to plant more, which we did.  We picked and picked tomatoes until it was too hot to pick any more.  Imagine I said too hot.  I actually turned on the irrigation system in the Beans, Greens and Onions bed for a second time this year.  The Tomato garden never needed water at all.   Same with the Pepper garden. 

some great variety, roprecos and green zebra
oh, and a volunteer yellow zucchini 

some huge carletons, my favourite gilberties for
dehydrating and a purple russian tucked in there

more plums, romas and friends

the blanche du quebec tomatoes we thought would never ripen

cherry varieties including yellow and red  pear, black
and green cherry, gardener's delight and ceylon

There are almost too many tomatoes to pick in the time we have.  Tomorrow morning we'll be picking, washing and packing salad greens, hilling up potatoes with straw, emptying an onion row, hilling up leeks, a bit of weeding and hopefully processing some tomatoes in one form or another.  

a few of the hot peppers heading to Wilf & Ada's Diner
this weekend including hot portugal, black hungarian, long red cayenne,
jalapeno and thai -
there will be many more by Saturday

sweet peppers starting to turn red, hopefully more to come

People have been calling for bushels of tomatoes, which is certainly doable.  The weather this week is completely suitable for tomato ripening at its best.  We’ve made and processed batches of basil tomato sauce and have started on the Vampire Buster sauce you’ve been asking for.  I’ve been lucky to have local cilantro donated for our fresh salsa and see that the cilantro we transplanted several weeks ago is doing great and should be ready when we start canning up Salsa.  In the meantime, we’ll have fresh salsa for you each week.  The basil in the gardens h as come back to life when I thought it had been damaged permanently by the cold nights.  Good basil. 

I had a tooth pulled on Monday and was unable to work outside and was instructed not to lift heavy things so was able to clean and tidy indoors a bit.  Housework is a piece of cake compared to the work we do outdoors all these months.  I prefer the outdoors work.  Thus the saying “Gardening Forever, Housework Whenever”.  J

I bet you are good and hungry with all this talk about food so let me tell you what we have to eat this week:

Beans  $3/pound   you can order ½ pound if you like

Beets, red and golden  $3/pound

Beet Greens  $3 bunch

Carrots  $3 bag

Carrot TOPS  free with your order if you need them for your little bunnies or horses, etc.

Celery  $2 bunch

Chard  $3 bag

Cucumbers  $2 each

Garlic  $3, $2, or $1 each

Garlic  $12 / pound

Granola, with fruit  $8 /500mL jar  

Granola, with nuts and fruit  $10 /500mL jar

Herbs, fresh:   bay leaf, citrus thyme, dill, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme  $2 each  

Kale  $3 bunch

Mizuna, Red Streaks  $2 bag

Onions, yellow  $2.50 / pound

Onions, large sweet Ailsa Craig  $2.50 pound

Onions, sweet Spanish  $2.50 / pound

Pea Shoots  $2 bag

PESTO, basil (frozen now) $4.50 125mL jar 

Radicchio  $2 each

Radishes   $2 bunch

Salad Greens  $5 bag 

Salsa, fresh  $4 250mL jar

SPROUTS, Sandwich Booster (clover, alfalfa, radish & mustard)  $3 / bag

SPROUTS, Spring Salad Mix  (broccoli, radish, red clover & alfalfa)  $3 / bag

Sunflower SHOOTS  $2 bag

Swiss Chard   $3 bunch

Tomatoes, cherry  $3 / pound

Tomatoes, heirloom $3 / pound  please let me know if you’d like all large or a mix

Zucchini  $6 or $4 each  I have LARGE ones right now, good for baking

I look forward to receiving Your Special Order.  Call or email me with amounts you’d like and any questions you may have.  Remember you can order any day.  Just give me 24 hours to pick freshest for you.  I deliver to Ottawa and Merrickville either Saturday or Sunday each weekend.

Until next post, have a great every day.

Jo

613-258-7970

joanne.daybrighteners@gmail.com

more new foods each week

The Online Store was not for me … right now … I might try again in the new year.  I just don’t have any more time to put into it right now.  I’m in the throes of harvesting, sorting, cooking, canning, dehydrating and all the things those of us with gardens do in the fall, which does not allow extra time for constant work at a system that seems to not have been meant for my business.  I’m told it’s meant for someone who doesn’t change their inventory on a regular basis.  I knew we were unique here, but I guess unique isn’t a good thing when setting up an online store.  Oh well. 

I do want to remind you that you can now order almost any day of the week, keeping in mind that Salad Greens are cut, washed and packed every Thursday and only available the few days afterwards while they last.  Everything else here is easily accessible on a daily basis with twenty-four hours’ notice to ensure your vegetables are picked and delivered as fresh as possible.  Monday is the exception.  That’s the day I need to take care of my house.

Fresh goodness ready this week for you is as follows:

Beans  $3/pound   you can order ½ pound if you like

Beets, red and golden  $3/pound

Beet Greens  $3 bunch

Carrots  $3 bag

Carrot TOPS  free with your order if you need them for your little bunnies or horses, etc.

Celery  $2 bunch

Chard  $3 bag

Cucumbers  $2 each

Garlic  $3, $2, or $1 each

Garlic  $12 / pound

Granola, with fruit  $8 /500mL jar  

Granola, with nuts and fruit  $10 /500mL jar

Herbs, fresh:   bay leaf, citrus thyme, dill, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme  $2 each  

Kale  $3 bunch

Mizuna, Red Streaks  $2 bag

Mizuna, Green  $2 bag

Onions, yellow  $2.50 / pound

Onions, large sweet Ailsa Craig  $2.50 pound

Onions, sweet Spanish  $2.50 / pound

PESTO, basil (frozen now) $4.50 125mL jar 

Radicchio  $2 each

Radishes  SURPRISE!  $2 bunch

Salad Greens  $5 / bag

Salsa, fresh made today  $4 /250mL jar

SPROUTS, Sandwich Booster (clover, alfalfa, radish & mustard)  $3 / bag

SPROUTS, Spring Salad Mix  (broccoli, radish, red clover & alfalfa)  $3 / bag

Sunflower SHOOTS  $2 bag

Swiss Chard   $3 bunch

Tomatoes, cherry  $3 / pound

Tomatoes, heirloom $3 / pound  please let me know if you’d like all large or a mix

Zucchini  $6 or $4 each  I only have LARGE ones right now, good for baking

Day Brighteners is a non-certified organic farm, where we practice sustainability and environmentally-friendly farming.  We always use non-GMO and organic/heirloom seeds.  You are very welcome to drop by most days, but calling or emailing first is a good idea.  We do appreciate your business very much and would like to hear from you with any comments or questions you have.   

I look forward to receiving Your Special Order.  Call or email me with amounts you’d like and any questions you may have. 

Until next post, have a great every day.

Jo