I get thrilled about Other People's Gardens too

It was so exciting to see the shoppers here yesterday.  Gardeners love to talk about their own gardens, successes and attempts.  We're always ready to learn, or re-learn.  It's always fun to discuss what other gardeners and cooks do with their home grown veggies.

In looking through my list of Tomatoes and Peppers, you may have gathered I'm into the sauce veggies.  (no I'm not into the sauce, I mean salsas, peppers, pizza and tomato sauces, etc.)  Our growing and fresh-eating season is so very short that we must keep those wonderful true flavours with us throughout the "cold months", in turn reminding us with every bite that Spring will, indeed, return again.

The Plant Sale will re-open Wednesday May 27 at 9:00.  I'm usually not too far away, but to be sure, give me a call or email if you know you're coming over.  That way I can set down that rake, hoe, hose, garden cart of transplants or wheelbarrow full of grass clippings to spend some valuable time with you when you come.  I also love giving the tour if you have time.  

Thanks again for dropping by yesterday.

Until next post, have a great every day.
Jo

What did you buy again?

this looks a little sloppy but it was a lot of work to do and I don't know how to attach an attachment onto this blog - sorry 'bout that

WHAT DID I BUY AGAIN?

If  label reads      You bought                                        Details

Cucumbers

CUK LEM              Cucumber, Lemon                             round, yellow tennis-ball-size fruits, high yielding, tolerates drought

CUK MM              Cucumber, Marketmore                  7-8” long dark green, great for eating fresh

CUK NP                 Cucumber, National Pickling           Highly-productive, disease-resistant vines start producing early

& produce an abundance of dark green fruit, crisp white flesh, black spines, retains quality over a longer season than most. Fruit can be picked small (2-3") for gherkins or larger (5-6") for full-sized pickles

CUK TG                 Cucumber, Tendergreen                   straight, thick, tender cucumber, skin is medium-green with fine black spines, pickling or salads

Herbs

BSL GEN                Basil, Genovese                                 large leaf, best for pesto and bruschetta

BSL GK                  Basil, Greek                                        compact, perfect for containers

BSL LMN                              Basil, Lemon                                      great for tea and in vinegar

BSL LIM             Basil, Lime                                 zesty lime scent 

BSL Ti                    Basil, Thai                                           distinctive anise scent & flavour/Thai & Vietnamese cooking 

BSL SWT DB          Basil, Sweet                                       

PRSLY, IT               Parsley, Italian                                  

SG                         Sage                                                   

Peppers

PPR ROF                 Pepper, Ring of Fire Cayenne           hot, high yielding              

PPR LRC                Pepper, Long Red Cayenne              fiery hot, dries well

PPR Ti                   Pepper, Thai                                       loads of tiny red very hot peppers, dries well, save seeds

PPR HHW             Pepper, Hungarian Hot Wax            medium heat, fresh in salads, or pickle for appetizer

PPR MSW             Pepper, Marconi Sweet Red            fruits can grow to 8-12" long and are 3" across at the shoulders,

                                                                        start out green, mature to fire-engine red, are incredibly sweet,

wonderful roasted or grilled, staked plant, can grow to 30"

PPR BC                  Pepper, Bulgarian Carrot Hot          very hot, long fruit that resemble carrots, good for salsas, chutney

 and roasting. Growing to 18" tall, 

PPR JAL                 Pepper, Jalapeno                               short, 2-3" fruits, thick-skin and juicy and are great eaten fresh,

cooked, dried, and in salsa

PPR HAB                              Pepper, Habanero                             hottest chile

PPR HP                 Pepper, Hot Portugal                        Long, thin, bright-red fruit, very hot, produced abundantly on

 sturdy plants

PPR DES                Pepper, D’Espellette                         really, really HOT

PPR AP                 Pepper, Alma Paprika                      loads of small, thick-skin, 2" round peppers mature from yellow to

                                                                       orange to red. Distinctive taste - very sweet/ bit of bite

PPR RB                  Pepper, Red Bell                                large, for fresh eating in salads or cook

PPR ORNG            Pepper, Tangerine Pimento             orange, thick skin, round, sweet

PPR RRP                Pepper, Red Ruffled Pimento          medium, compact bushy plant, sweet fruit

Squash

SQ DEL                  Squash, delicata                                winter, cylindrical fruits, which are cream-coloured with green stripes

SQ TQ                    Squash, Table Queen                         sweet golden yellow that turns more orange in storage and the rind

 is dark green and ribbed, fruits grow to 6"

SQ B BUT              Squash, Burgess Buttercup               winter squash, produces 3-4 lb. blocky, dark green fruits, tender

golden flesh is dense-textured, rich, buttery flavour, good storage

SQ SK               Squash, Sweet Keeper                 winter, tremendous storage ability, blue/grey fruit grows to 10-15 lbs

on long vining stems, bright orange flesh is very sweet, excellent for roasting or baking

ZK BB                Zucchini, Black Beauty                summer, earliest and most productive of the black/green zucchinis,

dark green and straight

SQ TKS TRBN    Squash, Turk`s Turbin               winter - bright orange fruits striped with cream & olive-green. grown for

both decoration & eating, grows to 6 lbs and up to 8" wide, the fruits

have light orange, fine-textured flesh that is good for baking or roasting

SQ SP                Squash, Spaghetti                      winter - need to fully mature before harvesting

SQ YCN             Squash, Crookneck                    light yellow fruit with crooked neck, white, sweet flesh, pick when

skin can be cut with a fingernail

ZUK GLD           Zucchini, Golden                        summer - produces bright golden-yellow fruits in abundance.

WHT PPN           Pumpkin, White                         

Tomatoes

TOM PR                Tomato, Purple Russian                beautiful, juicy, plum paste tomatoes 3-4" long, meaty &

blemish-free, heavy producer

TOM RC                Tomato, Red Cherry                          small round abundant with fruits

TOM SM                              Tomato, San Marzano                      heart-shaped fruits, sweet, few seeds, excellent sauce tomato

TOM YP                Tomato, Yellow Pear                         loads of small pear-shaped tomatoes, attractive colour

TOM BL PLM        Tomato, Black Plum                          paste tomato creates a beautiful dark sauce, 2" fruits ripen from

deep mahogany to black-brown, heavy yielder

TOM PK PL           Tomato, Pink plum                           large pink, plum shaped, great for fresh eating and sauces

TOM BSt or BS     Tomato, Belstar                                 matures earlier than most plum tomatoes, large fruit, compact

plants loads for fresh eating & wonderful sauce

TOM GIL           Tomato, Gilbertie                       long, narrow red fruits with crook at their end have thick, meaty

Flesh, perfect for soups and sauces and grilling, prolific producer

TOM ROP             Tomato, Ropreco                                             outstanding paste & sauce tomato, very early maturing, produces

an average of 30-35, bright red, meaty, 2 oz. fruits/plant, makes delicious sauce, well-suited to short season area, disease-resistant

TOM GD            Tomato, Gardener’s Delight        Packed with bite-size fruit which are extremely sweet in flavour

TOM GZ           Tomato, Green Zebra                lovely yellow/green stripes, citrus flavour, great for guacamole too

TOM RMA        Tomato, Roma                          oval, meaty red fruits that are perfect for sauce, paste & salsa

Preparing for Plant Sale

takes a lot of thyme, if you have sage advice on how to create more, please lettuce know.

Silly eh?    

We did get those last nine chickens, so we now have twenty altogether.  Egg production should be back up in a few, or a couple of, weeks.  

the new girls

The greens in the field are growing at an astonishing rate now that we have the soaker system hooked up.  Some pepper plants have started to grow . . . peppers, oddly enough.  The garlic seems to be involved in a race of some sort to be taller every hour - scapes should be visible any day now.  Over the next week or so, we'll be ousting everything from the little Greenhouse so we can get the peppers in there.

The Plant Sale Saturday, May 23 and again May 27 until done will free up space for tomatoes and cukes in the Large Greenhouse.  Our rototiller broke when the boys were making rows in one garden, so we've ordered another bigger, stronger-than-rocks one, which isn't here yet.  When it arrives, we'll have the space in two new gardens and one hugely enlarged garden for everything else.

In the meantime, you can see under "prices" here what's for sale.  You can reserve plants, as I think it's too soon to put them into the ground.  I can mind them for you.  

Just a few pictures of plants other than food plants.  I love spring, the season of lovely aromas.

Until next post, have a great every day.

Jo

Calendula, for the future, from the past

It seems terrible to look to the future when we've been waiting so long for today to come about.  Many of us attended a lesson on making calendula salve led by Dr. Shawn Yakimovich and hosted by Sustainable North Grenville the other night.  What a wonderful lesson to (re)learn.  I now know what I'll be doing at the end of this growing season and through the cold months, besides putting up tomato products, curing and dehydrating, and growing sprouts for us all.  I'm quite excited about it, not so much the cold months, but the fact that we'll all be saved from various ailments from the salve we'll be making here at Day Brighteners Farm.  Dr. Shawn made it look so easy.  After all, we grow calendula here, from his seeds I might add.  Why not take it a step beyond eating the flower petals in the Salad Greens.  Hmm, I wonder what else we grow here which can be used for furthering its potential.  We'll soon see about that.  

Sprouts:  So the sprouts aren't as popular now as they were over the last four months.  I'm not surprised.  They are still as good for us but we are quite distracted by the fresh spinach, salad greens, herbs, kale and all the other veggies preparing themselves out there for our future meals (there we go again looking to the future, it just happens). So, rather than growing too many sprouts or not having enough of that certain kind you may like, I've decided to not sprout on my own discretion but will only sprout when you pre-order.  So if you'd like me to have sprouts available for you, please order the week ahead and I'll be happy to make it work.   

Eggs:  A few things are happening here.  Out of our eleven hens, we usually get five eggs a day, except when we get two or three.  Three of the older girls are broody right now which means they won't be laying eggs for a few weeks.  Therefore, we're down a few dailies already.  A couple of the new little ones are starting to lay eggs, sporadically, so we might be back up to four, five or six a day, depending on the weather.  It turns out the nine laying hens we reserved from our chicken supplier may not be coming after all.  I'll look into it, between planting, up-potting, soil and garden preparation, harvesting and delivering, but I may be out of luck until fall for buying new birds.  I'll keep you posted for when that blessed day arrives when we're getting more than a few eggs a day.  I know you understand, it's nature, right?  I've been working on this egg production thing for a couple of years now, it's not as easy as people let on.  

Salad Greens:  This week, you'll see what I mean about the lettuce varieties being able to grow once we ate up a good portion of the aggressive arugula.  From now on, the Salad Greens will also be hosting more edible flowers, some of which may surprise you.

The beans, snow peas and radishes are getting bigger every day.  All of the onion sets we planted a couple of weeks ago are up several inches now.  The garlic is growing at an astonishing rate.  It seems early this year.    

Garlic Scape Pesto here we come.

   

I believe we're good for salad until
 the outside rows are ready. 

We found this little kale plant growing,
where there was kale last year.   

I love allium flowers.  These are just the beginning of all the beautiful colours and smells to arrive in the upcoming weeks and months - lovin' Springtime.

We're busy getting ready for the Plant Sale here beginning May 23.  It's also the weekend of the North Grenville Dandelion Festival but we're on the edge of Townships and I feel many people closer to us have never heard of that particular festival (if you can imagine) and we and they will do well.  I also feel any earlier is too soon to plant out.  After all, we're expecting a low of 3C tonight - ugh.  My little girl will be visiting from that big old city for a few days but the Plant Sale will continue again from Wednesday the 27 until we're done selling and you're done buying.  

Just keeping you up to date.  Until next post, have a great every day.  

Jo

Rocks for Sale

I have to tell you there is not a square inch in any garden on this property that does not have a rock of some shape and size.  Every single time we put in a stake or a shovel or a row cover hoop, we hit a rock.  It does make me wonder how anything can possibly grow in this region of ours.  But it does.  And it does very well.

I also have to share something else with you.  Arugula is not a team player.  It's more of a leader by showiness.  Surely you noticed that your Salad Greens last week consisted mostly of Arugula, that wonderful, spicy and fresh taste of the green which falls into its own category.  It's sort of a cross between a lettuce, a spinach, a mustard and a cress.  But it is delicious.  Arugula has decided to take over the salad space in the little greenhouse.  Once we eat bunches of Arugula, though, the green and red deer tongue lettuces, the tango, the black seeded simpson, the red salad bowl lettuce and batavian endive, the various mustards, mizuna, tatsoi et al,  will be able to see the light and get a little larger themselves. 

   

see what I mean about the Arugula

We built raised boxes in the new Greenhouse on Sunday.  We filled them with garden soil today and planted several cucumber seeds - lemon, marketmore, english telegraph, suyo long, longfellows and national pickling - that should get us started at least.  Think ahead a month or so and imagine climbing vines thick with broad leaves, dripping with cucumbers waiting for a place on your table. 

Some plants are getting used to being outside and are waiting to be transplanted.  We have hundreds of leeks, more kale, bunching onions and some herbs in this holding bay.  

With the recent afternoon heat, our days begin much earlier.  The up-potting, seeding and any constructing in the new Greenhouse get done before 9ish as it's just too hot in there after that.  We then move the operation out to the Salad Garden in the north field where there's usually a lovely gentle breeze blowing across the rows in which we're transplanting and seeding, placing row cover and cutting and laying soaker hose.  By just after lunch it's time to go in, write and answer emails and read much about organic gardening and chickens and make tomorrow's planting plan.   Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this weather, it's just hard to work out in it after a certain point, the body and mind both slow down after about 8 hours of digging, lifting, bending, pushing, climbing . . . you get the picture.  

We're expecting to have three new gardens prepped to plunk plants into in the next week.  Then we'll be getting ready for the Big Plant Sale which begins May 23.  I'll post a list of plants and prices soon.  You can reserve plants for your own garden if you like.  

So if anyone needs rocks, we got 'em.  Actually, they're free.  Let me know what time you'd like to pick them up.  

Until next post, have a great every day.  

Jo

Okay, this time it's here, really. Spring IS here, no joke, right?

We're not fooling around anymore.  All the signs are here, again.  

Most of the songbirds are back, waking us with their delightful shrills and trills each morning, now that we can open the windows for that lovely fresh cool spring air.  

The warmer nights are a promise of seeds popping up from the soil wherest they were planted a couple of weeks ago.  The longer days are providing more light to the hundreds of seedlings waiting to earn their place in your garden beds and our acreage of food plots.  

We had a great time at the North Grenville Sustainability Fair on Sunday.  We saw many familiar faces from years gone by and lots of new eager gardeners-to-be.   

The tomatoes are starting to gain their second, third and fourth leaves.  The precious peppers are still indoors and their leaves are hitting the grow lights.  They're excited about going out in the next few weeks.  They can't get out to the Greenhouse until the plants in the Greenhouse are selectively placed in their plots outside.   The plots outside can't be worked and rowed up until the ground is a tad drier.  What a process!

Meanwhile, in the Herb Department, we have Chives, Sorrel and Thyme available, the Winter and Summer Savory, Cilantro, Tarragon, Sage, Oregano, Parsley and Chervil (at least I think it's chervil-time will tell) are not quite beautiful enough to make an appearance, but they are working on it.  They hope to garnish our plates next week.  

Our Salad Greens contain pretty much everything green which is edible and grows on the property plus edible flowers.  Therefore, every week will be different.  I don't put controversial herbs such as cilantro or chives into the Salad Greens as many people find them - um - too flavourful.   For instance this week, you'll find a mix of spicy greens, mizuna, pepper cress, spinach, lamb's quarters, dandelion leaves, baby kale, lettuce varieties soft and crunchy, arugula, mache, mustards, red orach, parsley, batavian endive, baby chard, tatsoi, colourful pansies - that's all I can think of for now, but there's probably more.  A nice mix, I must say.  

Just keeping you up to date.  

Until next post, have a great every day.  

Jo

Delivery 2015

Hi, We would be delighted to deliver Excellent Organic Produce, Herbs and Edible Flowers to you this eating season.  Deliveries begin now.  

We grow the usual summer vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and bean varieties.  I like to say we specialize in Salad Greens because that is our biggest seller and has been for the last 3 or 4 years.  The Salad Greens are provided to you washed and table ready.  We grow varieties of summer and winter squash, root veggies such as onions, leeks, beets, turnips, parsnips.  We grow fall veggies - cabbage, kale and chard - we're presently trying cauliflower for the first time, that should be interesting.  Then there's the other foods like celery, broccoli, the list goes on.

Herbs love to grow here and we've expanded our list of edible flowers, which we also include in the Salad Greens as often as possible.

I strongly encourage everyone to grow as much or as little as you can yourself so we sell hundreds of plants to new and avid gardeners at the end of May each year.  I like to save most of my own seeds from the previous year's harvest.  Our Plant Sale begins May 23 until you're done shopping or we run out of sale plants.  

I hate wasting food so have begun preserving, freezing and/or dehydrating any food that may not sell at the end of each week so it's always fresh in the end.  

Delivery:  Each Special Customer on our Delivery List will receive an email on Wednesday setting out what foods are available that week.  Customers who are interested in purchasing from this list order by Thursday afternoon.  Deliveries are made Friday to your home or business.  We understand that it's more exciting to eat a variety and maybe try new items from time to time, rather than receiving the same food each week.  Sometimes people are just too busy to eat at home one week, or might be on holiday for a week or two and would prefer not to order.  We're not offended by this at all.  We know you'll want to order again as soon as possible. 

Payment:  Some of our customers pay cash at time of delivery, others provide a certain amount every few weeks and whittle away at that until they owe more.  Also, some prefer to stop by and pick up their order as they're not quite sure what they'd like.  Seeing all the colours growing here is very inspiring to eat well.  The farm is open to visitors, we love showing off the work we do.  

If you have friends or family who might be interested in the services offered by Day Brighteners Farm, please let them know about us, let us know about them.  We currently deliver to North Grenville, Merrickville and parts of Ottawa.

Thanks.  

Jo

North Grenville Sustainability Fair - today

Come see us at the Municipal Center today - specifically the North Grenville Sustainability Fair - 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Day Brighteners Farm has a booth.  I'll also be at the COG (Canadian Organic Growers) booth for a bit as well.

Jo

April showers, yes and April wind, Big Wind

Trying to keep the backyard furniture in the backyard is an issue these days.  We bought a couple of IKEA items, table and chairs, which are really heavy and weren't moved at all by the wind the last few days.  But the lightweight stuff - right across, upside down and sideways - yup. 

         

  

Our seedlings are doing great!  

We're running out of table space in the greenhouses as every 72-plant tray we up-pot turns into four 18-plant trays.  That's a lot of trays of future food.  

Seven new chickens moved in last weekend, 3 silkies and 4 d'uccles.

We get about 3 eggs a day now, the newest hens are about 6 months old and are starting to lay eggs.  They're awfully adorable, both the chickens and their eggs.  I'm thinking of selling the eggs 1/2 dozen at a time at first, until each girl steps up to the plate and contributes to the cause.  

I got a good response on the new Sprout Blend last week so am preparing that one again.  I'm hoping to have for your eating enjoyment next week (subject to weather co-operation of course) baby sorrel, thyme, sage, baby arugula, small portions of salad greens.  Pay particular attention to the "subject to weather" part.  The snow peas are becoming more recognizable each day - future yumminess.   

We'll be at the North Grenville Sustainability Fair Sunday April 26 - 10-2 at the Municipal Center.  I'll have some Sprouts with me if you find you've run out by then and can't get through another day without them.

And HAPPY LOVE THE EARTH DAY.  

Until next post, have a great every day.  

Jo

Happy Wednesday, Happy Week, Happy Spring, Happy Happy!

Doesn't the sun just massage energy into your whole being?  It's hard to believe that last Friday we were up to our knees in water and mud.  Then came the rain, the wind, the sun and yesterday we were kneeling on the ground weeding out garden rows, planting carrot seeds and transplanting companion flowers and not getting wet.  Go figure.  

We've been up-potting peppers, tomatoes, herbs and flowers almost every day and watching all our little ones facing and racing towards the light.  We've now planted almost all of the tomatoes that will grow here (I found a variety we haven't yet planted so will do that this week).  We've planted with everyone in mind - for the Plant Sale, good eating during the summer and for sauces to be put up in jars for the Winter months.  We also started some eggplant seeds.  Eggplant is just fun to grow and such a treat to eat - mmmmm think pizza, stir-fry, lasagna - mmmmm.  We've seeded in the little old Greenhouse, the plan being we should be eating salad greens from there until we can harvest from the outdoor gardens. The radish seeds we planted in November are showing signs of life and we have a lovely toad standing guard over the whole affair.  

a few trays- several hundred plants

Interim Salad Greens starting

plants and some hundreds of
 tomatoes on heat mats

waiting to move outdoors

We made "pallet tables" in the new Greenhouse which are now holding trays of new tomatoes, kales, broccoli, cabbages, herbs, leeks, onion varieties and flower seedlings.  We've built more shelves and installed more lights and heating mats in the house for the abundance of peppers and starter tomatoes until it's time for them to all live outdoors.  

In a few weeks, when the floor in the bigger Greenhouse is actually soil and not pure boot-sucking mud, we'll start some rows of cukes and the starter plants of squash varieties which many of you will choose for your own gardens. We decided to build a few raised boxes for the specialty cukes like the Soyu Long and the English which do much better in a greenhouse than outside. 

We'll be prepping more rows today, planting golden and red beet seeds and making trellises for the peas and beans.  We still have some up-potting of newer tomatoes and various other veggies to keep us busy indoors for the next few rainy days.

Oh, and we're getting ten more chickens by the end of this week some bantam d'uccles and more silkies - they are so pretty. 

That's it for now.  You may notice less posts nowadays, we're just busy outside, which is a wonderful thing.  Grounding and earthing, good for our health and well being.  

Until next post, have a great every day.
Jo