Work Bee

I love our holiday Monday work parties. I spent much of last week obsessively checking the weather, worried that this one would be thunderstormed out. But the rain gods were smiling down on us (or maybe just momentarily distracted) and we managed to escape the entire work day entire dry (we won't talk about the deluge in the evening that left big puddles in the newly-planted shallots and pounded the bejeebers out of the wee carrots...).

We are for a brief moment entirely caught up with our planting! This feels awesome after weeks of being held up due to too much wet weather. Here's what we did.

Planted all the zukes & cukes & tucked them under row cover, safe from the nasty striped cucumber beetle:

Trellised the peas:

Planted flowers, shallots & celeriac:

Seeded tatsoi, chinese broccoli and radishes:

Spread compost on many beds planted prior to my neighbour being free to broadcast it with his manure spreader:

And hoed the swiss chard:

What an awesome day. Huge thanks to the stoic volunteers who braved the predicted storms to spend a day in the fields. You're all superstars. I wouldn't have handled the evening's downpour nearly so graciously without you!

Seedling Sale Madness

It really was a crazy morning - HUGE thanks to all those who came out in support of local seedling vendors and gardening! Cheers to a great season of eating. I'll let the pictures more or less speak for themselves... what a fantastic day.

Taa, Sidney & Sarah setting up.

Little City Farm set-up.

Baking tent.

The line-up at 8:45.

The madness.

Slowing down a little.

And finally...a few of last year's seedlings late summer. Let this be an inspiration to you!! Dan measured them at 14'!! (Note the "little" eggplant still crowning Charlotte's head in the understory...)

We still have a few tomato seedlings left - be in touch if you're interested!

9th Annual Seedling Sale!

Don't miss our 9th annual seedling sale on the Saturday of the Victoria Day Weekend: May 21st, 9-12:00.

Lots of organically-grown seedlings for your garden, including:
heirloom tomatoes
peppers
eggplant
kale
cucumbers
lettuce
tomatillos & ground cherries
broccoli
raspberry canes

Lots of herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, sage, mint & others)
Some perennials, annual flowers and more!

This year we will have 4 vendors: Fertile Ground CSA, Little City Farm, Sarah's Kitchen Gardens, and Tracie Seedhouse. More vendors means more seedlings - we should be almost doubling our supply this year so hopefully we won't sell out by 10am!

Karin will be baking delicious organic pies, wholegrain breads and other treats. There will also be a willow furniture making demonstration.

Payment by cash only.
Please bring your own box/tray to take seedlings home.
For more info, email info@littlecityfarm.ca or info@fertilegroundcsa.com

Welcome Interns!

This was the 1st full field week of the year - inspired in equal parts by the arrival of the sun, and the arrival of interns Sarah and Sidney! I've been getting increasingly antsy to get things in the ground, but the rain has just kept coming. Finally got a couple days for things to dry out last week & started planting. We're still behind...but well on our way at least.

Sarah & Sidney planting the chard - 1st transplants of the season!

Sidney sowing the spring turnips.

Field full of brassicas - Sarah & Kata adding more.

And now...back to napping for me... I can hardly believe how much this 1st week wiped me out!

Field Sproutage

Did a field walk today & guess what I found?

That is one of the 1st wee beet babies to have popped up!

Peas are sprouting too, but I forgot to take a picture of those.

Also - garlic is looking awesome & sturdy:

And speaking of garlic, Johnny took me on a walk through Victoria Park today where he showed me some patches of wild garlic and nettle! They're going in the soup pot tonight with some re-sprouted green onions from last fall, a handful of sorrel and a wrinkled potato or 2 from the dregs of the storage bins. CAN'T WAIT!

"Real Farmers, Real Local"

So the Kitchener Farmers Market is adopting the Farmers Markets Ontario VERIFIED Farmers' Market Vendor system. Under this process, truly local producers selling only their own products can become "Verified Local" vendors & be identified as such so it is clearer to customers what they are buying.

According to the program backgrounder, "Farmers were being literally squeezed out of existing markets by resellers who continued to glut the market with food terminal sell-offs and, in some cases, told there was no room for them to sell at market.... FMO [Farmers Markets Ontario] is hopeful that we will start a trend where only real farmers with their own products will be found at markets across Ontario."

Awesome!

There will be annual inspections of "Verified Local" farms to make sure no one's cheating (the application form was quite involved!), and best of all the Kitchener Market & FMO are paying for the process so it's no extra cost to farmers. Watch for this designation when you're shopping this summer!!

Only 2 months until we start showing up for market again - hooray!

Ruby's Out!

After a field walk last night, I decided I could try a little ground prep today - got on the tractor for the 1st time this spring! Had to boost her off the car (with a CD case jammed onto the car's gas pedal to give a little extra juice while I tried to get Ruby's engine to turn over) but the whole ordeal was pretty quick & painless hooray!

Hooked up the discs & took her for a spin.

Hoping to plant the peas and carrots in the freshly prepped area by the end of the week! Here's how it looks:

Pretty exciting....

Oh - and speaking of exciting - here's how the garlic is looking now:

And the greenhouse:

Feeling pretty high on sunshine & veggie potential right now. Bring on the season!!