Scotia Bank Update

Well we are very please to let everyone know that we have been chosen as one of the finalists in the Soctiabank Big Impact Small Business Challenge. This means that from out categorize we are one of five who will be chosen from for the final winner. We were of course very surprised and excited to be included in the top 5! We should hear in the next few weeks who the final winner is. We would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to vote over the past few months. We know it was a long run but we really appreciate the effort everyone put in.
Of course it has been a very busy time over the past week here on the farm. Despite all the rain that we have been having lots has been accomplished. Yesterday we completed the sheep fence and got them out to pasture (the fence has been a long haul but it is permanent and very nice). We also moved the goslings and chickens around to provide them with fresh grass.
We have also done a small amount of planting, which has included a nice new herb section to our garden. I am going to through out a bunch of pictures bellow so you can see how everything has been going!The Sheep happily eating fresh grass

The Gosling having a drink

Lucy Hanging Out in the van

Ryan hard at work pulling our weeds

Chives about to flower

Its a long day

This being a crazy time of year for us we have been having pretty long working days. Luckily the nice weather has allowed most of that work to be outside so far this week. For the past two days Ann and I have been working on putting up electric fencing for our chickens and the sheep. The chicken fence is complete but despite repeat attempts the chickens seem to not be bothered by the electric fence. They are smart and get a good run at it and just shoot right through. So despite many hours of work the fence will again be getting more work in the next day or two.
The fence for the sheep has been underway for a while now. Last week we started by drilling some holes in the ground (with the tractor) and setting posts in the ground. Now this week finally all the wire is up and the fence is ready to be tightened into place. The fence for the sheep is a perminent fence that has different sections so that they can rotated to different place.
We also have done a small amount of planting so far which includes, kale, leeks, peas, radishes, and lettuce. Hopefully the weather will remain warm and we can get things growing.
I almost forgot we also got a few more chicks yesterday and they are very cute. They are only a day old and very small but they will grow quickly and soon be outside. The goslings are growing very quickly as well and were just moved outside on Monday where they are in one of our moveable shelters.
I think that's all for now, off to another long day!!

I also wanted to mention that we will be at our first two markets of the season this coming Saturday. One is the Hand Made Market. You can get all the information of that little side panel. We will be also starting at the St.Catharines Market where we will be found for the month of May.

At both of these places we will be offering a great selection of herbs and early produce.

We are also selling a great selection of Heirloom tomatoes.
Get them early for the best selection (don't plant early though)

Stay tuned to see us in Niagara on the Lake on May 21st with all your vegetable garden plants on hand.

Rain Rain Go Away

Freshly Hoed Garlic rows

Well it seems like a long time since we have seen any sun but just last week we had a few beautiful days here on the farms where we were able to get some outside work done. The above picture is of some hoeing Ann and I did late last week in the garlic, kale and brussel sprouts. It took us about three hours to hoe these three rows plus one more toward the front of the card. There are not currently very many weeds but it is one of those things that if you leave it for an extended period of time it quickly goes out of control. This picture doesn't show it very well but the garlic is coming along nicely so far. This is our first time growing garlic and we have eight varieties on the go. This years varieties are: Music, Susan Delafield, Leningrad, Ukrainian Mavnic, Asian Tempest, Fiona and Fish Lake. We are really excited to see how all the different varieties compaire. Last year we enjoyed Asian Tempest quite. It is a small garlic but has loads of punch!
Last week also brought some very strong winds to our region and although didn't sustain any damage lots of people around had trees fall. Which of course led to an all day power outage. The tree in this picture fell just in front of our barn. It has a partner just on the other side of the lane way that held strong despite the fact that the wind was gusting at up to 100 km an hour.
These are our new goslings!! They are very cute and are growing at a very rapid pace. The picture is not facing the correct direction due to my lack of technical skills, although Ryan may straighten it out. Currently they are living in the barn in a little enclosure that Ann made with some plywood. They have two heat lambs and enjoy loads of water and food. They are not too friendly yet but we hope with lots of interaction they will be very sociable as they get older.

What's wrong with the way we eat?

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

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

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!

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.