Disaster

We have not really had any terrible farm disasters this year which is great. However this morning I was carrying a box full of mason jars ( which I acquired from kijiji) and the tape from the box let go. See photo below for the results.

Yes that is what 20 broken jars looked liked. After a thorough clean up the barn floor is clear of glass. 

On a happier note we did get a row of onion weeded this morning they are small but they are going to be inside a hoop house which will provide with much more warmth and an opportunity to grow. 

       A weedy mess of onions

      A fresh ready to grow row of onions 

The rest of the day will be busy as we get ready to hand out the majority if ours winter veggie shares. 

Visit our new Facebook page to see more about the farm.

https://www.facebook.com/creekshorefarms/?pnref=lhc

First Winter CSA

It seems so fast but we are already back at CSA. We have started a week earlier than we were planning, there were just so many great things ready that we needed to pass them out. This weeks basket includes a pie pumpkin( and a squash for full shares), potatoes ( also sweet potatoes for full shares), shallots,  arugula ( plus spicy greens for fulls), radishes, cabbage, Swiss chard and a watermelon for full shares. It's looking to be a great season! 

Pigs enjoying some of the squash and peppers that don't make it!

Final CSA

Well we are completing our CSA today and people seem eager. It's been busy and we have only been open for pick up for 17 min. 

The two above pictures show how it looked at 4:00 when we started and already I've consolidated everything onto two tables. 

We have a lots to give out this week. Basic shares are getting: squash, tomatoes , potatoes, broccoli or cabbage, 4 turnips, 2 kohlrabi, kale or chard and 3 sweet peppers. 

Full shares are also getting tomatillos lettuce more tomatoes kale and chard as well as an extra turnip. 

Thanks everyone for a great season!!

Good food

Well it seems my phone likes to eat blog posts. Last week I wrote up a nice post buys its just gone into cyber space. 

This is now our second last week of csa and things look good still. This week we are giving out squash, tomatillos, green peppers, tomatoes, kohlrabi, turnips, kale and lettuce. 

Not bad for coming to the end of the summer season! 

     This weeks veggie spread!

Market day!!

Despite the rainy start to the day things are shapping up beautifully today. Come and visit us to grab all your weekky veggie needs. We have awsome tomatoes, spaghetti squash, lettuce and so much more.

Coming This Winter

The field might be a bit weedy, but growing they are. This winter we will be debuting sweet potatoes as part of our CSA. They are looking great, have some growing to do, but the taste so far is amazing. 

Who's Hungry

It's has been a very busy week here on the farm but we are starting to see some nice crop growth!  Ryan is busy hoeing and weeding all the crops that we have put in over the last couple of weeks. With just the two of us on the farm now we are pretty much busy sunrise to sunset six days a week. 

Our new crops including lettuce, beans, peas, summer squash and I'm sure more that my brain is just not currently remembering. 

Today CSA which included a spaghetti squash, summer squash, cucumbers, sweet pepper, potatoes, tomatillos, tomatoes ( some real beauties!), cabbages (or kohlrabi) an Swiss chard. 

If your interested I'm picking up some our tastes goods come and visit us as Grimsby farmers market tomorrow from 3-7. Rain or shine we will be there with everything you need for a delicious supper!

How early morning looks at our rented land off of 4th ave. 

BBQ

It is a nice day here at the market. We have a great selection of items to grill up. A nice grilled vegetable mix on the bbq of kohlrabi, summer summer squash, onion, swiss chard topped with some feta cheese. Sounds like a pretty good saturday night to me!

Rainy Weather

Well it's the second week in a row that we have been harvesting in the rain. I don't really mind working in the rain as long as its not too cold. I will say the most important thing is a good pair of rain boots. If your feet get wet it's all down hill from there. 

It's CSA day and I thought I was all prepared but I popes over to our other farm quickly and saw that beans were ready so I spent an hour harvesting. I picked about 15 liters of beans but they are just starting so I think we will be having an excellent crop of beans this year. 

Check out the photos below to see what our shares looked like this week. 

Shares included: 

Beets

Turnips

Summer Squash

New Potatoes

Kohlrabi

Peas

Beans

Broccoli

Lettuce

And we had a few bunches of flowers. 

                       Full Share

                      Basic Share

Grimsby Market

Well The market has only just opened and we are already very busy. Check out some photos below and stop by and get some fresh veggies for your weekend bbq.

Week five

We are just completing week for if our CSA today and we are really happy with the product we have so far. Top favorites seem to be beets, cabbage and our buttercrunch lettuce. 

We look forward to adding more veggies to the mix as the season goes on coming up soon will be beans, tomatoes, tomatillos, and so much more. 

This weeks csa all set up for the people who pick up at the farm. We also offer home delivery which goes out Thursday through Saturday depending in where people live. 

The above photo shows our full share for this week. Included was kale , cabbage, lettuce, beets, snap peas, summer squash, mizuna, vitiman green, rainbow chard, radishes and green garlic. 

Happy Canada Day

It's turning out to be a pretty nice day here at the farm. We are just about finished setting up for CSA ( we are early this week so people can enjoy the festivities being held across the city)

We hope that everyone enjoys this weeks basket as it is packed full with delicious vegetables. 

The table looks a little empty but we are not putting everything out to keep things as fresh as possible as people stop by the farm throughout the afternoon. 

If read the previous post this week about what might be going out this week I am pleased to say that it was all harvestable. We even harvested the first of the broccoli. 

I am planning on making a delicious cabbage , broccoli and radish slaw for supper tonight. Hopefully you all get to enjoy some delicious food as well!

Rain Rain

Its seems that after the dry start to the season we are now making up for it with literal buckets full of rain. Syd has a kids pool in the backyard and after our weekend of rain it is literally full to the top with rain water. She of course played in it right away with her muddy boots on so now it is a big muddy water pool.

Despite the rain everything is growing  really well and we are blessed to have sandy soil so that most of the water drains fairly quickly. Of course we are also having an explosion of weeds on the farm. This morning Liliana and I were out in the muck weeding our peppers which are blooming and some even have tiny peppers on them.

This week for CSA we will be having the following items:

Available This Week:

Kale
Snap Peas
Cabbage
Broccoli
Lettuce
Spinach
Summer Squash
Radishes (try us roasted or fried!)

Possibly:
Beets
Kholrabi

Our rainy day set up at Welland market, and boy did it rain!

Another CSA

Well we are heading into the end I our third week of CSA here on the farm and we have been hearing great feedback (thanks everyone!). A top favorite this year has been our buttercrunch lettuce. It's a very hardy variety and has great flavour and texture.

This week we had a delicious selection of lettuce, snap peas, pea shoots, radishes, garlic scapes, kale and Swiss chard. Oh and we also had some kombuchi on offer to sample. 

                            

                                             CSA goodies all ready to be picked up

                            

                            

                                                   You can see some easter egg radishes

                                                     waiting to find a home behind the 

                                                                     garlic scapes. 

If you are interested in picking up some of our produce come and check us out tomorrow at the Grimsby farmers market from 3-7. 

  

CSA underway

We have just finished up the second week of our summer CSA program. We are really pleased that we have had a great selection of greens to start off the season. So far we have had Swiss chard, spinach, buttercrunch lettuce, pea shoots, kale, and a small selection I turnips and radishes. 

Next week we are hoping to start the harvest on our snow peas. Our summer squash are also starting to show signs of small fruit. Almost every week now we will see something new popping up in the garden. 

                   Week One CSA

Below you will see a dreadfully weedy picture of our hoop house. Despite the heat Lilliana and I weeded the entire thing   We did the work at 9 am but it was already well over 30 degrees. The hoop house will now be moved so the eggplant can finish their growing outside. 

              Eggplant before Weeding 

                    After Weeding

Mucha Kombucha

As my fellow intern Tessa mentioned before, I've been working on brewing kombucha and since it turned out well, I'm going for my second batch.

For those who don't know what it is, you are not the only ones! Kombucha is a fermented tea that helps the digestive system. Basically, you put in a jar the Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast (SCOBY) on green, black or oolong tea with a bit of sugar, which is the food for the Kombucha mushroom and leave it in the shade at a warm temperature.

I decided to start this project because is pretty neat to see the fermentation process happen just in a couple days and despite its funny name and vinegary smell, it's very refreshing and tasty. It is one of those unknown longevity elixirs.

I'll be brewing this "living tea" during my stay at the farm and looking for some victims to try it! If you feel curious about it, don't hesitate. The next time you visit us, try some!

                                                                                                                                         L

Rainy Days

Well after the dry start to the summer we are not complaining about the rain we are currently getting. I feel pretty certain our Swiss Chard has grown since this morning! With the rain of course the weeds are also growing. We are working hard to keep up with them but its three people versus millions of weeds.
Yesterday was a busy day here Ryan and I drove an hour from the farm to pick up sweet potato shoots. We followed this with a couple of hours putting them all in the ground. We the assistance of our family not only for planting but child care and supper we made in through. The rain is a huge reason that we planted in a hurry sweet potatoes would not fair well in dry soil.
Last week we also put in about 8 row of onion sets. Sydney was actually helpful with this job and planted onions down the row from her little basket for some time. Eventually she was just hanging out in the dirt but whatever keeps her happy makes everyone happy!

Don't forget to come and check us out the Grimsby market 3-7 pm Every other Thursday (June 11 we will be there)
Also we are at Welland market every Saturday 6-12 (yes am!)

Sweet Potato Fields

              

Apples starting to grow

Planting Onions

Tasty

When your farm is growing lettuce, spinach, kale, swiss chard and other greens sometimes it can be a little overwhelming to try and eat them all.

One of our favorite things to do with a fresh head of lettuce is to make a chicken caesar salad ( also delicious with chick peas and black beans for a veggie version). Below you will find our very handy homemade caesar dressing that is dairy and gluten free. I will also include a quick diy crouton instructions.

Caesar Dressing:

1 clove of Ontario garlic
1 tsp of lemon juice
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (omit for dairy free)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 turns fresh ground black pepper

Simply put all the ingredients in a lidded jar or container and shake vigorously. Store any leftovers in the fridge. Also makes a great veggie dip!

Crouton:

4 cups of cubed bread
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Basil

Cube stale bread (any kind will do), toss lightly with olive and herbs. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 400f for about 8 min or until bread has crisped.

Enjoy!

Rain day continued

Today started as I hoped it would. I woke up to the sound of heavy rain outside. And although we've had rain a couple times already a constant rain like this will absorb into the soil better compared to a fast heavy rain fall. 

Since it's raining we planted 6 trays of seeds of tomatoes, gourds, squash and spearmint. The rest of the trays in the picture above are all plants that will be ready for fall and winter :) 

We will continue planting more seeds and if there is a break in the rain today we will be out in the fields pulling more weeds and getting ready for the first CSA day. 

Until next time,

Tessa 

Project Mondays

During our internship at the farm we are given a day to work on any subject we would like to embark on while we are here. It could be from making products to building something for use right on the farm.

So far me and Liliana have worked on a few things since we started. We have three projects on the go now that we are moderating. We are currently trying to growing shiitake mushrooms. We are trying two different methods seeing what works better. This is a project we are working on together. Our indivudal projects are: kombucha brewing and dandelion fertilizer which both are going well.

Until next time,

Tessa 

Another beautiful day

It looks like it will be another beautiful day here at the wetland market. We are here u till noon today. Come out off a visit and pick up some beautiful lettuce or plants for your garden.

Grimsby Market

Come see us at Grimsby market. Runs until 7pm. Things are hopping. Live music and lots of good buys

Happy Intern, Happy Farm

I've been here almost a month now. And when I first came to Creek Shore Farms I was determined to write a blog post daily or at the very least weekly. But as you could imagine the farm is a busy place to work and writing would always be forgotten about when frost warnings and no rain issues to work through and planting row upon row of CSA vegetables ! are more of a priority.

Part of being an intern through the C.R.A.F.T program we have to pick a project throughout our time on the farm. As Amanda said this summer will be all about experimentation! 

So far I have made a dandelion tea (which will become a fertilizer for the farm) and my fellow intern is working on making kombucha which she will post about at a later date. Also just as I arrived to the farm Amanda started to make her own cleaner for household use. And we are thinking of making a fresh herb cleaner from farm grown herbs. Which will be an exciting process  I'm sure! 

You will be hearing more from me from now on about what is happening on the farm from the intern perspective ! 

Until next time,

Tessa

P.s. Wish for rain ☔

Rise and Shine

Well good morning if anyone is out of bed yet accept us. Why are we up and about so early? It is our first week at the Wetland farmers market. Due to the dry and cold we have been experiencing we are selling a lovely selection of herbs and garden plants. We will be at the market for the rest of the season ask come check us out. We are currently at thud back of the two buildings.