Saturday, 23 June 2012

where DOES the time go?

Every waking hour has been spent trying to get all the little plants into the ground or flowers to a potted place on the deck, oh ya and the office job which only consumes about 10 hours of each weekday - ah how boring it would be to have nothing to do eh?  Everyone keeps saying broccoli doesn't grow this early, I'll have to point that out to the broccoli every day while it keeps growing, we keep selling it and eating it - yum.
dinner tomorrorw, the next day . . .
dinner tonight

 The Farmers' Market has been extremely good for us this year, located on a corner lot, prime real estate, lovin' it.  It's such a social scene, we really enjoy watching the regular shoppers (we used to be) arrive and get their baked goods first, spring rolls to munch on, iced tea or lemonade and then visit each vendor, chat and leave with fresh locally grown colourful food for the week.  How much better can it get than that?  

Cars slow down at the roadside Stand but not too many shop just yet.  We're busy working the potatoes, stringing up the beans, planting more radishes, beets, leeks, snow peas and peas and we wave at them - the people, not the plants.
I've been getting calls from customers regularly who'd just like to stop by and get a bag of greens or a bit of this or that - that's the part I like, I get to visit with each customer.  If you phone ahead, I can have what you need ready for you, then when you arrive and see the food actually growing, how can you resist getting just a little more?
Tom takes food to his Cornwall office each week, which is an hour away, so are we still local?  We are, Cornwall isn't, ya that's it.

eager tomatoes
The tomatoes, peppers and cukes in the Greenhouse are growing like there's no tomorrow, they are indeed in some kind of race. I hope to be selling tomatoes in a couple of weeks.  Some peppers have formed too.
peppers starting
cherry toms - soon, soon
more eager tomatoes

spinach & chard


And just for the simple pleasure of growing flowers, doesn't yellow make you smile the most?  
a sea of sundrops 
Call me or drop in if you're looking for a plate of  local organic produce
 and maybe some flowers on the side. 





Thursday, 7 June 2012

The Potatoes are all in.

As of yesterday afternoon, thanks to Thomas and Ryan, the potatoes are now all in the ground, they are happy, we are happy, we'll all be happy in a couple of months - yeah.  So Ottawa and Brockville had rain last night, it has rained every day this week in Toronto.  Heckston had dew.  Just dew, no rain, dew.  The last bout of rain many many days ago filled the rain barrels so we're still watering with them.

So we're going to try the very first broccoli tonight with dinner, just testing for you.

Wandering around the gardens after doing some weeding amongst the greens, I was inspired by certain flowers that made me smile - please enjoy.

wigelia
iris
lady's mantle
siberian iris



peonies
peony - my favourite of all








 Put it together    
 and
 what do you get?


Tuesday, 5 June 2012

Very exciting - broccoli and garlic scapes

Well, this should make good eatin' for the weekend, broccoli and garlic scapes will be ready any day now - mmmmmmm.  The bags o' greens, tomato, pepper and herb plants are selling well at the Farmers' Market as well as the herb pots.  Heather and I had put together a few lettuce pots which are popular as well, we put in a few varieties so you can just pick from a nice cool spot on your deck.  I love to have an herb pot in a sunny spot by the door so I can snip whilst cooking, sometimes if the weather is bad I just don't feel like running out to the gardens.   The beans, snow peas and peas are getting taller, must get some trellis up there soon.  And of course, must get more potatoes in, we've planted about two-thirds so far.  Sunflowers, squashes, cukes and melons are coming up.  I feel like the plants and I are running a crazy race, where we all win in the end, but it's quite exhausting at times.  Camera's batteries are out so must buy new ones today, have had time to weed some of the flower gardens, no urgency there, it's really quite peaceful, the result is already complete, just need to cut and bring in to enjoy.

Saturday, 2 June 2012

Pretty Busy - how is it that it's June already?

The first Kemptville Kinsmen Farmers' Market for 2012 was last weekend amid the hubbub of The Dandelion Fesitval.  Rydell (Thomas' band) played Friday night, terrific down east band Stanfield had everyone hopping Saturday night.  We opened the roadside Stand Saturday, small turnout of customers but the exposure is good, hoping to catch some of those garage sale shoppers on their way by.
Last Sunday at the KKFM was the BEST market we've EVER had!  It was so wonderful to see everyone, what a social scene too.  The weather was perfect, the farmers' (not a full house due to the longer hours last week) were happy to be back, seeing each other, greeting visitors - it felt really great to be part of it all.
But oh no - we were too busy to take pictures, the 11:00 to 4:00 long day seemed like just a couple of hours and it was all done for another week.
Tom left at 4:15 a.m. today to attend a funeral in Oakville, I picked up Thomas at 7:30 a.m. we planted more potatoes and sunflowers in the rain, now the sun is out, we've eaten a good lunch and out we go again to weed and plant more - cukes, herbs, peppers, I planted about 50 tomatoes during the week - and then the KKFM again tomorrow 2-4.  Today was the Giving Garden planting day as well - and it's only 1:00 now - plenty of day left.  We're missing Heather - she's in Alaska!
If you can't make it out to the Stand Saturday morning or the Market Sunday afternoon and you need:  plants or salad greens, just call me 613-258-7970, I can accommodate during the week.
And we're very excited to see the broccoli is coming along quite nicely along with the new greens planted.
Will try to take pics. bfn

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

What's growing at Day Brighteners right now?

Julie and I hiked over to the large area by the Stand and saw that coming up are: pole beans-green and scarlett; snow peas, peas, radishes-2 kinds and beets.  Last week Heather, Ryan and I planted out some pumpkins, watermelon seeds and lots of sunflower seeds.  The pumpkins are doing fine, sun and rain, what a perfect recipe for success.

daisies and chives living in harmony watching
over the peppers sprouting their first flowers.

Can't eat the cilantro fast enough, it's
gone to seed but the new batch is coming up in between,
I'll use the seeds again and again and again . . .







The boxed greens bed is now completely planted, finished that this morning.
It is astonishing how fast everything grows.  


Tom's getting a grass cut in before the sun sets, lookin' good Tom.
The lettuces in the Greenhouse are going to seed, but that's okay - I need the space to plant more cukes, tomatoes and peppers.  Cilantro seems to love the Greenhouse so it can live in there this summer.  We opened up the sides of the Greenhouse Monday, tonight we're taking the plunge and leaving the trays of plants outside to harden off and the sides and doors up (yikes).
I was out at 5:30 a.m. today (best to be up before the bugs find me) planting summer squashes, pattypans and zukes- more varieties this year and planting a lot earlier than last year - of course I think it rained until summertime last year, didn't it?
Am tired, getting up early tomorrow to start on herb pots for the Farmers' Market starting this Sunday (plug).    
Next week we'll get all the field tomatoes out ...in the field, some cukes, herbs, more squashes - and need to must have to definitely will get the rest of those potatoes in soon. Good night.

What a Fabulous Weekend.

So much done, so many visits, so much food, so much sun, so much of everything and then to top it all off: a soft steady gentle rain at the end the weekend to say "It's done, it was wonderful and thank you".
Look carefully- who is posing for this pic?




                                So everyone - everything was happy for the sun and the rain.




  

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Opening Date and Hours

I thought I should mention that I was awake most of the other night filled with worry as to how I could possibly be ready to open the Roadside Stand on the long May weekend.  The answer eventually became quite clear.  I can't.
As this year May 24 is not really May 24, it's too early to transplant the little darlings I've been growing for you since March.  Executive decision - I am going to enjoy going to my son Thomas' band's show Friday night and relax with my daughter Julie and her Matt this weekend while they visit us from that City where they insist upon living.
The STAND will be OPEN SATURDAY MAY 26, 9 A.M. TO NOON.  We'll have plants for you to buy, greens for you to bring home.  I'll try my best to get a price list for you by then.  The office is very busy right now and there's still more planting to do this week.
So please drop in even just to say Hi.
And as always, I'm usually in the office so you can call me on my home phone and leave a message saying if you want to drop by another time that isn't Saturday morning.
For you I am open.
Thanks.  See you soon.

We've been making stuff happen - ahh Spring

Tom was taking a picture of a little red squirrel sleeping on a tree branch, but about 1' in front of the camera a woodpecker thought he'd steal the show.
Then the squirrel woke up, it's cute how cat-like he is, stretching his front, then his back.

Back inside, the houseplants are craving for attention, we almost missed FOUR consecutive passionflowers in bloom last week.  I'm out so early in the morning now and we have our coffee outside every chance we get.

As boring as this may be to someone else, this is quite exciting for us.   We now have plowed patches for pumpkins and sunflowers.  Aren't they beautiful? 


We got the call that our 155 pounds of seeds potatoes were in -Tim and I went to Berwick to collect them.  Heather, Tom and I planted about 300 seeds on a stinkin' hot afternoon in the sun digging a hole for each, bending, covering, marking rows (huff puff). Then Tim told us how to do it properly after that.  So with about 1500 more to plant we put the plow back on (we had exchanged it for the discs thinking we were done with plowing).  So we're getting quite proficient at interchanging tractor implements. 
Then last Monday I looked out at the field, the dandelions were a foot tall and they were going to seed in a day or two.  We HAD to cut the grass, how did they all grow so fast??? I told Tom this was an urgent situation and it had to be done right away, no options, work could wait, we can work in the office at night if we need to, but the grass had to be cut.  The mower took somewhere between 2-3 hours to put on, next time it won't take so long, but why on earth would Mr. Massey-Harris want to make our lives so difficult on a Tuesday morning while we could hear the dandelions laughing at us while they grew?  Oh my.
*********************

 Fast track to this weekend, the beds inside the Greenhouse are coming along nicely.  We're still eating lettuce from the December planting and the garlic runs down the middle of the center beds. I don't have it in me to pull them out so we're sort of transplanting around them and the toads are getting really annoyed every time we alter their living space.  Oh well, they always look grouchy anyway.  We also raised the "greens" bed with old boards Michelle had given to us a couple of years ago, some of which we used for the roadside stand.


There's so much beauty around us in the Spring, so many colours, so many smells - mmmmmmmmm.


Can you just smell the lilacs?  On Monday night, Katie and the boys noticed there was a butterfly on almost each and every blossom.  I've been here 20 years and never saw that before.


 
I couldn't resist going out this evening after closing up the Greenhouse, the sun was low, but quite intense, it was pretty steamy in there as you can see by the pictures.  This is truly my happy place.  Friends know where I am if they come by, except the one time when Heather knocked on the door at 7 a.m. and I had done too much the day before, too much sun, too many black fly bites, hurt all over. I usually start the morning in there around 6:30somethingish and then sigh at the end of the day when we close it up and say good night to all of our babies.
 

The raised beds are coming along quite nicely.
Garlic and trays of plants to be sold and put into gardens in and outside the Greenhouse.
Lettuce planted in December-doubles in size each day.

Evening sun - lovin' it







WE couldn't be BUSIER if we tried.

A week ago, I was saying "Pshaw, it's not even the middle of May yet, no worries, plenty of time." Ya right!  Then everything (including weeds) started to grow so fast.  We decided to raise the beds in the Greenhouse encouraged greatly by a workshop run by the KKFM presented by Tim Aubin.  Off to the lumber store we went to get lovely-smelling 8x8x2s and hardware.  The temperature in the Greenhouse goes from 5 to 20 in the first hour of the day, gotta up-pot seedlings, haul in soil from the humongous pile and water everything in there before you can't breathe at 50 deg.C.  The irrigation system will be put in place next week, in the meantime, it's rainbarrels which fill remarkably fast after a day of rain.  Here's some pics before raised beds.



Thursday, 26 April 2012

Spring into Action - COG

Please see Canadian Organic Growers' link - urgent message regarding fundraising.  We can all help together.  It's so very important.

Here is a link to the fundraising site:

http://www.cog.ca/shop/index.php?main_page=document_product_info&cPath=82&products_id=268