This 20 min video clip was forwarded to me by my cousin Allison. It has a really great perspective on why it is so important to consume real food. If you have a few moments to check it out it shows how our idea of food as a society has changed so greatly over the past years.
http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html
Also check out Thiessen farms blog for a comparison of the growing season from 2010 to 2011.
http://thiessenfarms.blogspot.com/2011/04/spring-yet.html
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
And I'm Back
Well despite the fact that lots of stuff has been going on around the farm no one has been blogging. One reason being that I have been away and Ryan has been super busy finishing our new house. So over the past two weeks the greenhouse has exploded into a world of large plants in desperate need of a 4" pot. Today my dad (David), Anne (who is our new and fabulous employee) and myself worked for a number of hours just up potting and making sure everything was in good order in the green house.
In the morning we did some yard tidy (before the weekly downpour started) we ripped up the old row cover from last and took out the irrigation line from underneath. We did not get this job completed but there are only two of ten rows left to do so it is not really too big of a job now.
Today Tuesday it is another pouring rain day so we will likely work in the green house most of the day, well at least Anne will as my father and I are going to pick up a bunch of baby geese. Ryan is the one who ordered the geese and I though maybe he would order like 5 or 10 but noooo he got a discount if he ordered a bunch so now we are getting 18 geese ( i am actually picking up 30 but someone else is taking 12 of them)
tomatoes going into 4" cow pots
An herb planter with basil, chives, rosemary, thyme and oregano
Tomatoes waiting to be transplanted
In the morning we did some yard tidy (before the weekly downpour started) we ripped up the old row cover from last and took out the irrigation line from underneath. We did not get this job completed but there are only two of ten rows left to do so it is not really too big of a job now.
Today Tuesday it is another pouring rain day so we will likely work in the green house most of the day, well at least Anne will as my father and I are going to pick up a bunch of baby geese. Ryan is the one who ordered the geese and I though maybe he would order like 5 or 10 but noooo he got a discount if he ordered a bunch so now we are getting 18 geese ( i am actually picking up 30 but someone else is taking 12 of them)
tomatoes going into 4" cow pots
An herb planter with basil, chives, rosemary, thyme and oregano
Tomatoes waiting to be transplantedThursday, April 7, 2011
Grow, grow, grow
It is that wonderful time of year when everything starst to grow. Flowers are popping out of the ground and the grass is starting to grow. The greenhouse is also starting to look very spring like. We have lots of trays planting and we are actually starting to to run out of room. 
The greenhouse bench. It is actually has even more trays on it now!
The greenhouse bench. It is actually has even more trays on it now!Things are all growing really well again this year. We are excited to have expanded our selection of both herbs and vegetables. Some new herbs for us this year include summer savory, white sage, greek oregano and magical Michael basil. We are also going to have a bigger selection of vegetable plants for sale this year. One new vegetable that we will be offering is salad bush cucumbers. These cucumbers are smaller and grow on a bush that you can grow on in a pot. Great for anyone who just has a patio or does not want to invest in a large garden. They of course can be grown in the ground as well.
Chives growing like crazy!We are also excited to have left the world of plastic pots behind us. This year we are planting all of our 4" items in cow poo pots. These are great little pots that are of course made of cow poo. One of the many great things about them is that they are completely compostable and you leave the plant in the pot when you plant them in the ground. This makes the transplanting very easy for home gardeners who then don't have loads of plastic pots that have to be disposed of or returned.
Some tomatoes in the new cow pots.
The cow pots.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Farmers Market
Although we are still enjoying the snowfall from a few days ago summer is on my mind all the time. One of my favorite parts of summer is going to the farmers market. Last year we were privileged to be part of the Niagara on the Lake farmers market. This market is fairly small but the community there is very supportive and the vendors are all fantastic. Last year we had a great time there and are going to be back again this year. I just update our profile on their web page and thought I would post it here to see if anyone thought we should add anything.
Last year we did nothing except write a mildly sad little blurb about ourselves and put up a cute picture of Ryan holding a lamb. So I took things to next level!
Check our our blurb here:
http://www.farmersmarketatthevillage.ca/VendorDetails.cfm?uVendorID=21.
Don't forget to take a moment to look around and see the great vendors who are there. And if you feel like a drive one sunny Saturday morning this might be a great destination for it :)
Last year we did nothing except write a mildly sad little blurb about ourselves and put up a cute picture of Ryan holding a lamb. So I took things to next level!
Check our our blurb here:
http://www.farmersmarketatthevillage.ca/VendorDetails.cfm?uVendorID=21.
Don't forget to take a moment to look around and see the great vendors who are there. And if you feel like a drive one sunny Saturday morning this might be a great destination for it :)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
There Was Frost This Morning
Well Amanda and I went outside this morning to feed the animals before taking off and what did we discover but yet another and final addition to the family.
Lambaroo finally had a lamb. We were never sure if she would lamb this year or not as she was quite young in the fall last year, but here we have one healthy new lamb to join the flock. Given the strange weather conditions we have found ourselves in over the last day we named her: Frost. Congratulations to Muncher (Lambaroo's mother) on becoming a grandmother.
Well the little seedlings continue to grow in the greenhouse and you can now see radishes, peas and spinach all poking out of the ground. While Amanda is busy with the last few weeks of the CSA and starting more seedlings in the greenhouse, I have been busy with other things, getting equipment ready for summer...
This is one of our 3 running Farmall A tractors I inherited from my grandfather and the first one I have finally finished prepping for summer. Being 60 years old it is understandable why most of the bolts and the like were seized on the cultivation equipment making it hard to adjust last summer on the fly. But now they are getting new life breathed into them and I can finally easily adjust everything I need to with little effort. Someday I hope to restore these old tractors, but for now some new oil, grease and a bit of love will take them well through the summer to another round of winter maintenance.
So that makes 7...er 6 healthy lambs we have running around the pen now. You will remember a few posts back we talked about Jeff the lamb (Mutt's twin) and his struggle with illness. Well after a week of getting better and showing lots of energy, Jeff tanked, and one sad morning he passed away, while we held him in our arms trying to keep him comfortable. That was a 2 and half weeks ago, I guess nobody had the heart to write about it till now...
Jeff with a happy milk grin on his face during the recovery process, while being held by his favourite, Amanda.
Lambaroo finally had a lamb. We were never sure if she would lamb this year or not as she was quite young in the fall last year, but here we have one healthy new lamb to join the flock. Given the strange weather conditions we have found ourselves in over the last day we named her: Frost. Congratulations to Muncher (Lambaroo's mother) on becoming a grandmother.Well the little seedlings continue to grow in the greenhouse and you can now see radishes, peas and spinach all poking out of the ground. While Amanda is busy with the last few weeks of the CSA and starting more seedlings in the greenhouse, I have been busy with other things, getting equipment ready for summer...
This is one of our 3 running Farmall A tractors I inherited from my grandfather and the first one I have finally finished prepping for summer. Being 60 years old it is understandable why most of the bolts and the like were seized on the cultivation equipment making it hard to adjust last summer on the fly. But now they are getting new life breathed into them and I can finally easily adjust everything I need to with little effort. Someday I hope to restore these old tractors, but for now some new oil, grease and a bit of love will take them well through the summer to another round of winter maintenance.So that makes 7...er 6 healthy lambs we have running around the pen now. You will remember a few posts back we talked about Jeff the lamb (Mutt's twin) and his struggle with illness. Well after a week of getting better and showing lots of energy, Jeff tanked, and one sad morning he passed away, while we held him in our arms trying to keep him comfortable. That was a 2 and half weeks ago, I guess nobody had the heart to write about it till now...
Jeff with a happy milk grin on his face during the recovery process, while being held by his favourite, Amanda.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Oh Baby it snowed outside
It appears that the forces of nature have struck again and we get to enjoy the snow that comes with that. I have not been out yet but looking out the window the fresh covering of snow does make it seem very peaceful outside.
I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone for all the voting they have been doing for us in The Small Business Big Impact Challenge. As of right now we are at 1159 votes. Thank you also to everyone who wrote lovely comments on our page.
If you have not seen our entry yet you can check it our here : http://www.scotiachallenge.projects.fm/entry/4086203-Creek%20Shore%20Farms?sort=&commentSort=&offset=0&page=0#topEntry
Voting is open until the end of April so don't forget to keep voting!
I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone for all the voting they have been doing for us in The Small Business Big Impact Challenge. As of right now we are at 1159 votes. Thank you also to everyone who wrote lovely comments on our page.
If you have not seen our entry yet you can check it our here : http://www.scotiachallenge.projects.fm/entry/4086203-Creek%20Shore%20Farms?sort=&commentSort=&offset=0&page=0#topEntry
Voting is open until the end of April so don't forget to keep voting!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Why You Can't Find Good Eggs in Toronto
Amanda recently posted this on her facebook and I thought it bore repeating here on our blog:
Why You Can't Find Good Eggs in Toronto
For us, the closest grading station is over 40minutes away, making it very difficult, if not expensive to get our eggs graded. It is funny how it is okay for people to be able to come to the farm to buy eggs, but it is illegal due to "health reasons" to sell eggs off the farm when ungraded, whether people know they are or not.
This same rule prevents us from donating eggs when we have too many to organizations such as Community Care. While it would be so beneficial for them to be able to receive fresh eggs the Health Department will not allow ungraded eggs to be donated to them.
Equally as difficult is what we face when we try to market our meat poultry. The law states that this must be done in a government inspected facility, and cannot be done on our own farm. Not to dissuade people from purchasing from us, but I have several issues with this:
1. When we take our poultry to a place like this (the closest is currently in Smithville) we have no guarantee that we are getting back what we took. While they make the claim that we do, historical evidence across a wide range of growers would suggest otherwise. In our own experience on one occasion we took 21 ducks to be butchered and were given 22 back. The operator insisted that we had brought 22, which was wrong, and one of the 22 had some black feathers left on, clearly not a member of our pure white Muscovy flock.
2. The classic argument is that this helps control the safety of the meat you, the consumer are getting, so that you know it has not been contaminated. This is absolute bull sh!&.(I apologize for this, but I have a lot of passion for this issue, and it really bothers me) For anyone who has ever been to certain slaughterhouses, I have no idea how they are considered sanitary. Joel Salatin, a prominent American farmer who has a loud voice for the kind of farmers we want to be, slaughters all his own poultry. Several years ago the government attempted to shut him down, but they failed when he was able to prove that the amount of e-coli contamination in his chicken was far less than that found in the grocery store that came from the slaughterhouse. At Creek Shore Farms we raise a premium product and that demands a premium processing of the poultry, which just cannot happen when you have no control over it.
3. I noticed that our local slaughterhouse was recently listed for sale as the owners are retired. If they were to not be repurchased we would no longer be able to market fresh poultry to our customers as the closest chicken processing facility would be an hour away and the closest duck and goose facility over an hour and a half making it no longer economically feasible for us to raise and sell the meat.
These rules directly prevent us from being able to sell a high quality product that our consumers demand and subject many people to the low quality, factory farmed food that is forced on us by marketing boards at the grocery store. I am deeply saddened by the difficulties we face in trying to help our consumers eat in healthy ways, while at the same time supporting the type of agriculture that will help sustain our environment for years to come.
The rules may someday change, but we can't do it alone.
Why You Can't Find Good Eggs in Toronto
For us, the closest grading station is over 40minutes away, making it very difficult, if not expensive to get our eggs graded. It is funny how it is okay for people to be able to come to the farm to buy eggs, but it is illegal due to "health reasons" to sell eggs off the farm when ungraded, whether people know they are or not.
This same rule prevents us from donating eggs when we have too many to organizations such as Community Care. While it would be so beneficial for them to be able to receive fresh eggs the Health Department will not allow ungraded eggs to be donated to them.
Equally as difficult is what we face when we try to market our meat poultry. The law states that this must be done in a government inspected facility, and cannot be done on our own farm. Not to dissuade people from purchasing from us, but I have several issues with this:
1. When we take our poultry to a place like this (the closest is currently in Smithville) we have no guarantee that we are getting back what we took. While they make the claim that we do, historical evidence across a wide range of growers would suggest otherwise. In our own experience on one occasion we took 21 ducks to be butchered and were given 22 back. The operator insisted that we had brought 22, which was wrong, and one of the 22 had some black feathers left on, clearly not a member of our pure white Muscovy flock.
2. The classic argument is that this helps control the safety of the meat you, the consumer are getting, so that you know it has not been contaminated. This is absolute bull sh!&.(I apologize for this, but I have a lot of passion for this issue, and it really bothers me) For anyone who has ever been to certain slaughterhouses, I have no idea how they are considered sanitary. Joel Salatin, a prominent American farmer who has a loud voice for the kind of farmers we want to be, slaughters all his own poultry. Several years ago the government attempted to shut him down, but they failed when he was able to prove that the amount of e-coli contamination in his chicken was far less than that found in the grocery store that came from the slaughterhouse. At Creek Shore Farms we raise a premium product and that demands a premium processing of the poultry, which just cannot happen when you have no control over it.
3. I noticed that our local slaughterhouse was recently listed for sale as the owners are retired. If they were to not be repurchased we would no longer be able to market fresh poultry to our customers as the closest chicken processing facility would be an hour away and the closest duck and goose facility over an hour and a half making it no longer economically feasible for us to raise and sell the meat.
These rules directly prevent us from being able to sell a high quality product that our consumers demand and subject many people to the low quality, factory farmed food that is forced on us by marketing boards at the grocery store. I am deeply saddened by the difficulties we face in trying to help our consumers eat in healthy ways, while at the same time supporting the type of agriculture that will help sustain our environment for years to come.
The rules may someday change, but we can't do it alone.
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