What a Lovely Evening Just Spent

I attended a meeting of the Kemptville Horticultural Society to talk about our farm and herbs and edible flowers.  The group was so nice, warm and inviting.  There was a seed exchange first and then after my talk we sat around sharing information.  I brought Sprouts and several of the members made yummy sounds whilst eating them and chatting around my little display table.  We made tentative plans for the group to come out for a tour of Day Brighteners Farm for one of their meetings.  I'm excited for that time to come.  A thank you card they gave me had a photograph of a beautiful painting of gladiolus flowers done by the President.
It was a pleasure being in a room with so many gardeners.  I could feel the energy, the hope in every one of us that Spring is right around the corner.
Good Night.
Jo

Warm days, Cold nights, Warmer greenhouses

Monday's weather report: -20 wind chill outside.  It was +17 inside the unheated greenhouses.  The sun is so intense and our days are about 12 hours now.  

So, I guess we'll be planting in the greenhouse by next week, just wanting those nights to be a tad warmer so as not to lose the days' planting efforts.

I've been seeding, watering, and taking care of new seedlings in the house for the last couple of weeks.  I've been doing this for a few years now but am always astonished by the rate at which seeds germinate.  I pushed some basil seeds into the seed starter Saturday, they were up by Sunday night!

I bought a box of tomatoes from SunTech this morning. They are not yet ripe enough to make tomato sauce, so we'll wait until next week to make it.  Their cukes and eggplants are so lovely, I couldn't resist . . . whole wheat pizza  mmmmmmm.

I may be with you on the sprout orders this week.  Two weeks ago, I sprouted so many we had extra.  Due to that, last week I sprouted less and didn't have enough.  We'll keep trying.  Maybe you should pre-order for the next week as well so I know how many to sprout.  The Spring Salad Mix and Alfalfa take from Sunday to Friday.  The Crunchy Bean Mix takes from Tuesday to Friday, so let me know if you can.

The Kemptville Horticultural Society asked me to be a guest speaker at their meeting tonight.  I'm pretty excited about this.  I'll be talking about herbs and edible flowers. They're also having a Seed Exchange that I can take part in.  I'm looking forward to that as well.  

I`ll report in next week.  Have a great every day from now until then.  

Jo

Days are getting longer - email to customers of Feb 11

- this is very promising, the days are definitely warmer - we'll ignore those awfully cccccold nights for now.  

I started hundreds of hot pepper plants this week and some edible flowers.  Just came in from removing lots of snow from the roof of the little old greenhouse, the new Greenhouse has a peaked roof and has a little tiny bit of snow but the sun will take care of that.  

My popped rib is mending but I'm told it'll take another couple of weeks before I can get back to the arm wrestling competitions :-)

I've started the 2015 Garden Planner, now that's exciting.  

Our tomato sauce and salsas have come to an end for now.  I'll pick up more lovely tomatoes from SunTech once available and get back into sauce making whilst dreaming of delicious heirloom and roma tomatoes ripening on the vines outside basking in the sun with their fellow onions, cabbages, carrots, beets, cucumbers, parsnips - oh stop!  Soon. Soon ... must wait.  

I`ll report in next week.  Have a great every day from now until then.  

Jo

oh the sprouts

were very popular last week.  Once I catch up to all of you, then I can try to keep up.  

And it turns out I've popped a rib.  It's a good thing those chickens are so cute and provide us with the loveliest of eggs, because it's hauling the large container of hot water (a gigantic hot water bottle so to speak) for them these cold nights, that did this.  I went to see our local super Natural Doctor (super and natural being two words, I don't think Shawn is supernatural, or maybe he is).  He sent me to the adorable and smartest chiropractor Heather who pressed and poked and jumped on my acheyness and then told  me I need to go back to do this again tomorrow!

So I'm moving slow . . . and disliking it very much but better in January than in May, although if it was May, the chickens wouldn't have needed the warmth and my body would be stronger too.  Don't ya just love winter?

That was last week's email to our customers.  Fast forward to today - it's been active around here. 

Last Friday I received a phone call from Norm at Multi-Shelter.  I think that the customer service at Multi-Shelter (which is the company from where we bought our newest Greenhouse in November) is exemplary.  From their website to the delivery process, then the availability of their staff and now the followup.  Norm was contacted by someone who saw on my blog there was ice on my Greenhouse.  Norm called to help me with that.  I quickly explained that the ice was on the old Greenhouse which I had purchased used (will never do that again) and it was re-constructed in pieces at the time, and not on his Greenhouse.  But isn't that great service?  Thanks Norm and Andrea.  

I also heard from Dominic at Wilf & Ada's Diner in Ottawa.  He and we are connecting again this year for hot peppers.  The entire first Greenhouse will be devoted to hot peppers for his Famous Hot Pepper Sauce.

My son is on his way home tomorrow from Victoria - yippee!  What weather to come home to eh?

Now the seed starting will begin in full force, no turning back, no stopping us.  I've not been able to do much in that respect since I can't lift anything heavy.  Bags of seed starter are heavy.    

In the meantime, I picked up more varieties of sprout seeds at Rainbow Foods this weekend so we'll have a constant supply for all of you sprout lovers.  If you're not on our weekly delivery list (and I can't imagine why you aren't) you can pick up our Sprouts at Heather's Healthy Harvest at the Raina Mall in Kemptville.  She's open Tuesday to Sunday.  She tells me that the Sprouts go from our hand to hers and to her customers' in about 10 minutes.  Poplular?  Ya.  

Have a great week.  

Jo

The Sprouts are . . . sprouting - yippee!

As it turns out, sprouts are actually better for you than any plant you can eat.  All of the nutrition and goodness is in the seed - so let's eat these wonderful little tidbits of crunchiness and deliciousness on everything.  

I can't go a day without sprouts now that we've begun eating them.  

January and February are the months for indoor learning, been watching gardening advice videos which I purchased last year and hadn't had time to look at yet and reading everything I can on seed starting, organic sustainable growing, am planning and will be starting seeds over the next several weeks.  Some will be planted indoors, some in the Greenhouse, which was 12 degrees Celsius yesterday, so nice and lovely warm.  

Since you asked . . . A few of you have asked what sprouts I'm growing.  Just to start, I picked up a Spring Salad mix, which contains seeds of broccoli, radish, red clover and alfalfa.  If you know me at all, I get bored very easily.  So I'll be picking up different varieties this weekend.  I figure in no time I'll be making my own mix but am reluctant to do so until I get the gist of this whole sprouting thing and what works best together.  It's very addictive I must say. 

Remember to let me know if you'd like to be added to our Weekly Delivery List, no obligation up front, but how will you resist once you know what colourful goodness we'll be bringing to your door.    

Jo

Weekly delivery 2015

See how you can be added to our weekly delivery - read November 21 post for details - or call for more info. We currently deliver to North Grenville and Ottawa's West End and Centertown.  We're adding Merrickville this year as our customers are there too.

Joanne Tipler

DAY BRIGHTENERS FARM

Organic Produce, Herbs and Edible Flowers 

805 Slater Road

Kemptville (Heckston), Ontario  

K0G 1J0

613-258-7970

joanne.daybrighteners@gmail.com

c'mon sunshine, warm us up here

Happy 2015!  Happy longer days ahead!   

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and remained healthy.  So many people around had flues or colds.  It's easy to get run down at such a busy time.  So far, so good around here.  

I received some wonderful gardening, cooking from the garden and greenhouse books that I've been reading every minute I can.  

EcoFarmDay, run yearly by Canadian Organic Growers, is also coming up in February, it's always a good learning session and nice to hook up with other local organic farmers.

I'm also reading everything I can about sprouts, will start that once the house gets back to some normality.  That back room which had everything shoved into it that didn't belong in the main part of the house has gotten out of control, again.  The bookkeeping is priority right now.  Once the seed sowing starts, there'll be no turning back.  

The Greenhouse is dark inside, unfortunately the roof is covered with ice that's not coming off in the near future.  Thus, no salad greens for a while.  

We've set up the new Greenhouse with tables, had electricity installed and will be setting up seed trays, heating mats and lights in a few weeks.  

The planning of all of this is stirring around in my head every waking moment, and there are a lot of waking moments with the recent full moon in play.  I'll be applying these ideas to the online garden planner in the next week or so, then let the games begin!

We're presently getting 2 - 3 eggs a day now from our four little silky hens, some days none.  

I've used the last of the frozen garden tomatoes and haven't been out to see if I can buy any local, still have lots of our frozen peppers. 

So, back to the books now and then the planning begins - yippeee!

Christmas is here

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and gets to visit with everyone they hold dear, whether it be personally or by other communication. Enjoy your day and drive safe if you're out there. 
Merry Christmas.

Weekly Delivery 2015

We would be delighted to deliver Excellent Organic Produce, Herbs and Edible Flowers to you next season.  Deliveries usually begin around March, after the "dark months" are done.  

We grow the usual suspects of 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.  We grow various kinds of summer and winter squash, root veggies such as onions, leeks, beets, turnips, parsnips.  We grow fall veggies - cabbage, kale and chard.  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.

 

Do you have a favourite food that you'd like us to grow?  We could add that to our seed order which we'll place in the new year.  

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. 

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

Delivery:  Each customer on the Weekly Delivery List will receive an email on Wednesday setting out what foods and/or plants are available that week.  Customers that are interested in purchasing from this list will order by Thursday afternoon.  Deliveries are made Friday to your home or office.  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:  Most of our customers pay cash at time of delivery, some provide a certain amount every few weeks and whittle away at that until they owe more.  Also, some people 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 area and parts of Ottawa.

Thanks.  

Joanne Tipler, Owner and Farmer

DAY BRIGHTENERS FARM

Organic Produce, Herbs and Edible Flowers (and canned goods too)

805 Slater Road

Kemptville (Heckston), Ontario  

K0G 1J0

613-258-7970

joanne.daybrighteners@gmail.com

one day hot, one day cold, one day ????

What a weather system, who can plan eh?  The guys building the new Greenhouse haven't arrived yet this morning and I think it might be a bit too wet to work with electric tools outside today. 

The herbs here have never been happier, they thrive no matter what the sky provides for them.  We potted up the rosemary plants a month ago and they love living in the Greenhouse (think roasted root vegetables, soups - oh yum).  Regarding our food, we're going to let the Salad Greens grow another week.

If you'd like to be added to our Weekly Delivery List, please email or call for more information.  

Thank you.