Chickens

Well it has come to be that our chickens are far more free range than we had anticipated when we first got them. They have a very large pen with an indoor shed to lay there eggs and hang out in. However the chickens seem to think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. This has led to mass escapes of the chickens into our yard and into our neighbours yards (who have all been very patient). Well over the past couple of days I have been working to fill in all the holes that they have been digging. Yes chickens can dig and they seem very proficient at it. Currently I can see a spot where they have a very large hole underway, it must be a multi-chicken job. So having believed that all the holes were filled in I came home yesterday to find a load of chickens milling about in the duck pen, which is right next to the chicken pen. So i dutifully put all of the chickens back and went about my afternoon. Well come around six o'clock I head out to feed the animals only to find the chickens all crowding in to the duck pen again. Well I was not pleased and went on the search to find there entry point. The best that I can figure is that they all press against the fence until they make and gap and then they squeeze underneath. Well I piled more straw around the bottom of the fence and so far it seems to be holding. I will see later if my hard work has held the chickens in or if I will be back on the search for more holes tomorrow!

Its been a Corny day

I have been told that I need to write more blogs so this again is me trying to start to write more blog entries!!
Someone asked me last week at CSA pick up if there were any new products coming out for the rest of the season. Well i can firmly say that indeed there are going to be a number of new things to come still. What do these new things include you ask?? Well we are going to have corn, melons, cabbages, carrots, leeks, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes (19 varieties), sweet potatoes, garlic, tomatillos and I am sure there are more things that I have left out. And we will have even more new stuff in the fall for our winter CSA.
The two things that I am currently most looking forward to are corn and melons. The corn is very close to ready and today I pulled a cob off to see. It looked beautiful but the kernels are still white and a little small. I did try eating it and it tasted pretty good which I believe is a good sign.
The melons are also starting to be seen out in the field. I look forward to eating there deliciousness soon.

Unripe peaches and cream corn (Yes the real PC)

Minnesota Midget melon

In the midst of all this fresh food that we have been enjoying we have of course also been enjoying a large amount of fresh fruit. Just yesterday we went and picked up some strawberries, plums, black berries, blueberries and peaches. Now of course we both enjoying eating all of these things fresh but after a long hot day our favorite way to eat fruit is in a smoothy.

Fruit getting ready to go in the freezer

We have found after some trail and error that one Ryan is the one skilled in smoothy making and two frozen fruit is required to get an ice cream like consistency (note a good quality blender is required to do all that icy chopping). Should you know feel spurred to creat a smoothy of your own we recommend the use of water to help ease your blenders hard work and Ryan likes to add yogurt. Ah yes and the secret ingredient a spoonful of concentrated orange juice.

Wishing everyone a chilly evening,
Amanda

Farm Security

Name: Lucy
Species: Chicken
Location: Creek Shore Farms
Job: Head Chicken in charge of farm security and egg production

Hello good readers my name is Lucy and I will be your guide to life on the farm. I will provide you with a chicken's eye view of what is going on around here. I have a patrol of chickens that keep an eye on things and report to me on a daily basis. We will be providing you with photographic evidence of all weird and wonderful things that happen here on our farm.

My link of the day is for all those young folks out there: http://www.foodland.gov.on.ca/english/kids.html

Next Generation Farmers

It has been said that we are the next generation of farmer. We are young innovative and in a small minority of people who pick farming as a life style in the 21st century. People seem to love to come and visit our farm, hear our story and see what kind of crazy things we are up to. Of course I like to remain in the loop http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifabout what is going on the farming world. So upon doing a little reading on the Internet this evening I came across Lufa farms in Montreal https://lufa.com/en. It is a very interesting operation. It is a 31'000 square foot greenhouse on a rooftop. They run what appears to be a large CSA which consists of 25 variates of veggies that they grow year round (they do also have an option to add root veggies from other local farmers).
I will admit I don't know how I feel about growing veggies in a greenhouse. In a way I feel like it is a modern contraption that says its okay to continue loosing our farmland because we can just grow everything inside. On the other hand I feel like this team has a great innovation in saying that hey we can grow good healthy organic food anywhere. It doesn't matter if you live in a city you can eat well. I wonder if in the long run this kind of farming would actually hurt rural farmer, many of who rely on big cities to support there farm. Many farmers drive into urban areas to sell there goods, where do they sell if roof top farms pop up everywhere. I know a bit unrealistic that suddenly there are going to roof top farms everywhere but down the road say 50 or 100 years maybe this will be a concern.
I will finish up my rant there but you should really check out there website it is pretty cool what they are doing.
You may ask how are there next generation farmers doing?? Well great so far. We feel that we are much more organized this year and we don't have tree high weeds encroaching upon us. There are definitely weeds but nothing like last. Things are starting to get dry around the farm and little rain would not be appreciated, the forecast however does not make this look promising. We have lots of new items coming out including: broccoli, tomatoes, summer squash, eggplant and hopefully carrots in the next week or two.
Everyone is feeling pretty tired this week. With the hot heat we have been starting work at 6am, working until 12 noon then back to work at six for a few hours. As tired as we are at least no one is dropping dead from the heat.
On a cheerful note our first duckling was born last week we named him (or her) cheepy. I will post a picture.

Potato Time

It is another beautiful Monday morning and we are just about to get things rolling along for another warm one. The weekend was a busy time for us here on the farm because we planted our fall potato crop. It took almost the whole day to cut and plant the potatoes but it sure is a nice feeling to have it all done. We have a great selection of potatoes this year including: fingerlings, blue, red, russet, white and more. It was fun cutting up the seed potatoes and seeing the fun colours that were inside. Planting them was pretty easy and went fairly quickly with four people planting. Needless to say we were all tired on Friday evening.
Saturday we attend both Niagara on the Lake and Beamsville farmers markets it was a beautiful day and lots of people were through the market. On Saturday afternoon Ryan and I watered the potatoes and went to pick up some hay. It was just a short drive to the hay place about 20 min or so. It was a fun little afternoon side trip as the hay place has a dairy cows and there were a bunch of young cows who were very friendly.
Today promises to be another busy day as we work on weeding in what looks like another warm day!

Another Rain Day

It has been another rainy day here on the farm. So due to the fact that I have been unable to go work outside I have been doing some reading about sweet potatoes, which we are growing for the first time. We got our sweet potato shoots from Round Plains Plantation and they had this video posted on about a project a young girl did on growing sweet potato shoots. I am going to post it here so that you can take a look if you want.


I am pretty excited to see the potatoes growing a few leaves. Ryan was pretty sure that they had all died after I planted and lovingly watered them. But to my delight my tlc paid off and we are starting to see some new growth. We probably won't have a huge amount this year but I will be excited to put them out in our CSA baskets in the fall.
I am off the enjoy a rainy day lunch, more to come soon.

Photos from around the farm!!

Our first cucumber

A tinny pepper

Taking care of the animals

Chicken nesting some duck eggs

Next generation farmer hoeing