Wednesday 11 October 2017

The times they are a-changin'

The shorter cooler days, the long nights for reading and planning and a chance to give this body a rest – that’s what I’m talking about.  I actually took several hours off this weekend between chopping, canning, saucing, shopping for supplies and delivering.  I hope everyone had a terrific long weekend and enjoyed the outdoors as much as possible. 

At the beginning of today I said I was done with tomatoes.  By the middle of today when three more boxes of freshly picked tomatoes from the field were brought in I realized I am not done with tomatoes after all.  
You might think you've seen these tomatoes before, but oh no you haven't.  These were all picked just before noon today.  They definitely look like they want to be salsa this week.  


We made three case of applesauce today.  I am now done with apples, really, done.

Today Mark and I started to plan the location of new gardens for next year – imagine.  The new ground-churning-garden-making thingy to attach to the tractor arrives tomorrow or Friday – what fun Mark will have with it over the next couple of weeks.  Me – uh – I’ll be making more tomato sauce, sowing onions, radishes and lettuces in the greenhouses – and not sitting on the tractor.  I’m okay not sitting on the tractor thank you.  Mark and Tom love it though. 

I met a lovely young lady yesterday who is opening a shop to sell local produce and locally made healthy products in Brockville.  Her business is called By The Seasons – check out her facebook page or her website – livenlearn.ca to see where Sara has been and where she’s going.  It’s quite clear how she and small business owners from our community can add much more goodness to the area. 

Well, the beans are done being beans for eating and will now become beans for planting.  I’m letting them go to seed so we’ll have plenty to sow come Spring.  The carrots and beets will wait another week until we pick more.  Their flavour will become sweeter with the upcoming cold weather, if it does actually get cold. 

Now is definitely seed saving time.  Those tomatoes and peppers which grew to their fullest before we could pick them and are quite gross with rottingness – they’re the ones with the best seeds - yechh. 

The fresh food supply dwindles at this point in the season thus kicking off the availability of homemade salsa, tomato sauce, dehydrated and frozen tomatoes, granola, maybe some baking with overgrown zucchinis which were shredded while fresh then frozen, applesauce and, of course, super-nutritious sprouts, shoots and microgreens.  Non-gardening weather doesn’t stop us here.

The lettuces we planted are enjoying the cool weather and hopefully will grace our tables in a couple of weeks.  The cabbages we transplanted are happy out there too.  I hope the moth/egg cycle is done now and we can have veggies without the holes.  We’ll soon see. 

Be sure to come out to the Kemptville Naturopathic Clinic on Van Buren Wednesday October 25 at 7 p.m. where Dr. Shawn Yakimovich is running a Healthy Winter Workshop.  It’s always good to learn new ways to stay healthy and also to be reminded in case you forgot some important tips. 

Speaking of staying healthy, how about some local organically grown food such as:
Applesauce  $4 500mL jar  sealed, can be stored for a year
Arugula  $3 bag
Celery  $2 / bunch
Chard  $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, citrus thyme, dill, mint, oregano, sage, thyme  $2 each  
Kale  $3 / bunch
Leeks  $3 / bunch
Onions, yellow  $2.50 / pound
Onions, large sweet Ailsa Craig  $2.50 / pound
Onions, sweet Spanish  $2.50 / pound
PESTO, basil  $4.50 / 125mL jar I froze it right after making it
Potatoes  $2 / pound 
Radicchio  $2 each
Rapini $3 bag.
Salad Greens  $5 bag  washed and table-ready
Salsa, canned $8 500mL jar sealed, can be stored for a year
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, dehydrated  $2 snack bag
Tomatoes, mix $3 / pound  mostly paste now like roma, san marzano, black plum
Tomato Sauce  $6 500mL jar  sealed, can be stored for a year
Vegetable Stock, tomato based  $3 pint jar  I froze it right away

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.  We use no “cides” of any kind.  You are very welcome to drop by most days, but if it’s picking/packing/delivery day (Friday) you take your chances on getting the tour.  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.   

Please 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.

Until next post, have a great every day.

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