Let’s see now, where did we leave off last week? Oh right, we were praising the rain and sun for creating ideal conditions for our garden plans. Let’s just skip past that un-nice weekend we survived through and move on to today. Could it be any better? This is definitely the hardest working day we’ve put in so far this year. We’ve been preparing for it for the last two months doing some lifting, stretching, bending and getting our hands somewhat messy. But now we’re actually outside hauling wheelbarrows and kneeling in the muckiness and feeling the sun’s glow with some wind and setting up soaker hoses and weeding rows and moving straw around.
We transplanted most of the cabbage varieties and onion sets. Em and Lu came out today to help Jennie and I plant potatoes while the last onion row was broadforked. Some rows were never used last year because they were so wet we couldn’t till, dig or plant in them. This year is already better.
Here’s a cool thing. We planted spinach outside last fall. I read an article on how you could over-winter it so we did. It worked. It’s not lush yet, but it is alive.
The compost arrived yesterday. The compost will go on the newly-tilled-last-fall gardens where the tomatoes and peppers will live for the summer and early fall. But wait . . . it gets better. I just found out this afternoon that the new greenhouse is being delivered TOMORROW! What perfect timing. We’ve been snapping off the first flowers from the hot pepper plants to avoid the peppers themselves from starting to form before we get the plants into the ground.
Again, I have to say I really appreciate all of the yogurt containers you’ve been providing to me for labels. Let me get a plug in here for Biemond Yogurt. If you haven’t tried it, you can’t know what you’re missing. It’s organic. It’s made right near here at Upper Canada Creamery in Iroquois by a local family. It has two TWO (2) only two ingredients. Neither of these two ingredients are sugar nor anything you can’t pronounce. You can buy it for $4.99 at Heather’s Healthy Harvest and B & H Grocer. Just sayin’. Your health is worth it.
Old Pants
Yes, I said old pants. I love to reuse things – like old pants. When we put floating row cover over certain plants to keep them bug-free, such as arugula, cabbage, broccoli and others, that row cover needs to be held down on the sides with something heavy. A few years ago we shovelled soil over the sides, removed the soil when we picked, then put soil back. This was a good idea but a lot of work and not overly efficient time-wise. The next year, we used large rocks but found the strong winds could actually blow the covers enough that the rocks would fall off and expose the plants, letting those cabbage moths and other nasty bugs in to lay eggs and eat our food. Removing the rocks was also heavy work and not time-efficient. Last year I starting making rock bags out of old pant legs. I cut and sew the pant legs leaving one end open. We fill the “bags” with as many large and small rocks as we can, tie the ends and simply roll the rock bags off the sides of the row cover when we pick and roll them back on when we’re done. It’s much easier to do and takes very little time. Eventually the fabric disintegrates and we just toss it into the compost.
If you’re getting ready to trash those old pants or are making shorts out of them for the summer, please save me the legs. Thanks.
Saving on Plastics
Thank you to those who have provided me with your own containers to fill with your orders. Putting your name on them with some sort of marker is a good idea. I’m happy to collect empty ones from you each week in place of the full ones I leave with you. Any little bit we can do to save on using so many plastic bags is a good thing.
Growing
This time of year is so satisfying as we see our foods getting larger by the day. On that note, we have kale for the first time this year and it is lovely.
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| some lettuce ready for the salad |
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| fresh cilantro, can't you just smell it? |
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| kale is lookin' good, and there's lots to go around |
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| arugula mixed in with orach |
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| happy plants |
The baby spinach we planted in November has been in your salad greens the last couple of weeks and what we planted in February should be ready for everyone by next week.
We also have cilantro and sorrel for the lovers of same.
New Customers
To let you know how ordering works here, I have it all set out in the previous blog entitled Green Green Green
Plant Sale
Just a reminder I’m growing for you. We’ll have our Plant Sale beginning May 19 and continuing the week after. You can pre-order. I’ll be making lettuce pots, herb pots, edible flower pots (no the pots are not edible) and a mix of these. I also have heirloom tomatoes and hot and sweet peppers, cucumbers, various summer and winter squash plants, kale mix . . . . . . . . and more.
This week’s available food is as follows:
Apples, organic, dehydrated $2 bag
Arugula $4 bag
GRANOLA:
with fruit $8 /500mL jar
with nuts and fruit $10 /500mL jar
HERBS: NEW Cilantro, Sorrel $3 / bunch
KALE NEW $4 / bunch
MICROGREENS: $2 / snack bag
Arugula
Curly Cress
Kale
Radish
Red Cabbage
MICROGREEN MIX: (arugula, basils, curly cress, kale, parsley, radish, red cabbage) $3 sandwich bag
SALAD GREENS, washed and table ready $6 bag
SPROUTS $3 / bag
Broccoli Brassica Blend (broccoli, broccoli raab, radish, mustard & arugula)
Sandwich Booster (clover, alfalfa, radish & mustard)
Spring Salad Mix (broccoli, radish, red clover & alfalfa)
Tomato Sauce $6 /500mL jar sealed
I look forward to receiving Your Special Order. Call or email me with amounts you’d like and any questions.
Thanks.
Day Brighteners is a non-certified organic Farm practicing methods free of any GMOs, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or “cides” of any kind.
Until next post, have a great every day.
Jo
joanne.daybrighteners@gmail.com
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