Exciting times

Well one of the most exciting things just arrived in the mail! It is of course our seed order. Our kind post man just delivered it right to the door.  We still have a few more seeds to get but we are going to pick those up from William Dam seeds in person. 

We are also branching out this year to a small amount of fruit. We obviously won't have any this year but hopefully in years to come!

What fruit you ask? Well we are going to be putting in some apple trees, rhubarb and strawberries. The strawberries are just going to be kind of a trial run this year. We are really looking forward to having some apples as this is something people often ask us about. We will be planting four varieties of apples: pristine, liberty, goldrush and freedom. 

Cold and Busy

Due to the snow that has suddenly started to fly we have had a busy few days on the farm. What has kept us busy you ask? Well on Friday night (yes night in the dark) we put plastic up on two of our unheated winter hoop houses. We use these houses to store greens for the winter. All of the varieties that we grow are frost hardy they however do not like to be repeatedly snowed upon.

Below I will most some mostly undistinguished photos (its was really dark and I was using my cellphone).

This is inside the hoop house after we just got the plastic on.
The light in the distance is Ryan hard at work

We are also keeping busy with Winter CSA which is actually a lot of fun when you are not freezing your fingers off!

Here are a few pictures of harvesting and what was in our baskets last week.

Carrots that had to be dug out of the frozen ground

Mmmm brussel sprouts. Don't knock them if you have not
tried them!

Fresh Onions

Ryan hard at work!

Butternut Squash

Well the recent neglect of our blog (although not a new problem) is due largely in fact that we are run off our feet trying to stay on top of all the farm work. What you may ask keeps two young farmers busy in the winter season? Well let me tell you.

First we are as usual running our winter CSA program and are already heading into our 4th week. So far the weather has been great which means it has not been too bad harvesting up to this point. Once we really start getting into the cold weather I tend to experience very cold hands on picking days. This is due to the fact that wearing gloves just is really not possible for a lot of the harvesting process. Could you imagine trying to pick leaves of lettuce with a bulky pair of gloves?

You may also be asking yourself what goes into a winter CSA. Well despite the fact that many people think all they are going to get is a bunch of squash and potatoes we offer a good variety of veggies.

For example this week a full share CSA included the following:

Bunch Carrots, 2 quarts of potatoes, bunch onions, garlic,pie pumpkin, baby rainbow chard and mixed greens.

Not too bad for the middle of November if I can say so.

15 Baskets heading out for delivery!

Number two and three can really blend together so I'll just write about them at the same time. The first part would be that we now are selling veggies at the farm Tues-Sat  in our new sales shed. You can find almost everything you might need to make a tasty diner. We stock all our own veggies including: squash, potatoes, fresh greens, garlic, onions, kale, carrots and more! 

The on farm sales Shed

Along with this we are also now selling veggies at Upper Canada Cheese in Jordan. We are there every Saturday from Noon-4:00. We stock all the same items as on the farm and are there selling in our veggies van. 

The inside of the veggie truck

Needless to say all of this is keeping us very busy but we are loving it. Come out and enjoy some winter veggies we would love to see you.

Amanda

As usual it has been far too long since we have posted anything on the blog. I will blame this on our enthusiastic plan for the up coming winter season which has kept us very busy here on the farm. As usual we are running our winter CSA program (see previous post for more info). We are also however expanding with the addition of a sales shed that will be opening this Saturday (October 19th). We have lots of beautiful fresh produce that will be available and the shop will be open Mon-Sat every week until we sell out for the season. What else do we have on the go? Well Ryan in between putting the final touches on the shed is working hard to get our new sales van up and running. It has been nicknamed the blue potato and will be popping up around Niagara with our veggies inside (locations TBA).

All of our winter crops are doing really well and we are excited to start the winter harvest soon.
We are obviously also due for some photo updates but I have misplaced my phone (just in the house) so I don't have photos on hand to upload.

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'Winter CSA brought to you by Creek Shore Farms This is just a reminder that registration for Winter CSA is still open. If you are interested in signing up please let us know as soon as you can. Registration forms can be found on the website at http://www.creekshorefarms.ca/csa.html. Also to answer a few common question about Winter CSA. NO you are not only going to get squash and potatoes. Yes we do grow squash and potatoes however we also have a wide selection of fresh greens ALL winter long. What else do we have?? The selection this season includes: leeks, onions, garlic, carrots, beets and more! If you have further questions please feel free to contact me via emial at: amanda@creekshorefarms.ca P.S. If you have already signed up please disregard this message.

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Week Nine

It's week nine of our summer CSA program here on the farm. Wow how time is flying we only have seven weeks left before we wrap up. Of course wrapping up is all relative a we will be heading into a busier season with winter CSA. 

Our customers are literally about to show up for this weeks great veggie selection. What comes at the end of July? Well this week the basket include: kale, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, summer squash and corn.  A pretty tasted line up if I do say so. Check out the picture below to see how our CSA table looks. 

Updated Scape Recipe

Below you will find the original scape pesto that we shared with you last year. If you have tried both why not let us know what you think!

Ingredients

• 6 garlic scapes, chopped
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup pecans
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place the garlic scapes, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and pecans in the bowl of a food processor. Drizzle the olive oil over the mixture. Blend until the pesto is a brilliant green color and smooth in texture. Season with salt and pepper.