Your organic farm in the Eastern Townships
How does the season end at Arlington Gardens?Invariably in a race to the finish line…As I write these lines, though, the sun is shining, the breeze is refreshing and the light is exquisite. Although it rained hard last night, marching orders are to harvest any and every thing edible – the last root vegetables, leafy…
There is a palpable end-of-season vibe at the farmwhich is manifest in our collective nostalgia for a summer that has truly ended, leaving way to an autumn that is now firmly ensconced. We smell it in the air we breathe in as we traipse through our empty fields and walk along the few remaining scattered…
It’s (kind of) like the (Stanley) Cup, to this farmer at least:the season’s almost over – only two to three weeks left to harvest our last vegetables, clean the warehouse and bid 2022 farewell. At this point, what has not grown will not grow, beds with no ground cover will remain uncovered and we will…
Had someone told me that I would be able to serve up tomatoes in the third week of October, I would have smirked, guffawed, or perhaps both,in a manifestation of total disbelief.In truth, no tomato plant can go unprotected this long in the fields, particularly if it has been subjected to three hard frosts and…
We could not have asked for a more magnificent day for our 2022 Potluck.A good numer of you came for a farm visit cum harvest celebration, sharing a medley of salads, side dishes, main courses and desserts, all tantalizing and delicious. That said, the jury is still out on whether mid-October is the best time to host…
They were calling for a hard frost,and the forecast did not disappoint.While Thursday’s frost was light, just barely below zero, the frost that hit in the night between Sunday and Monday was bona fide hoarfrost, the feathery frost that forms on clear, cold nights, leaving plants covered with weird and wonderful crystalline spikes. Our nightshades were hit…
To be taken with a grain of salt, always, but the latest forecast is calling fora first frost in our area this week– a mere -1ºC, not yet cold enough to slay the weeds in our fields, but nonetheless deadly enough to fell our current crop of nightshades (solanaceas). Decades of local statistics show an…
It has been a while since we’ve had forecasts calling forso much grey and rainy weather.Although Meteomedia – the most pathologically optimistic weather service I have ever come across – was recently forecasting a warm and sun-filled fall, this week has sent us careening into fall colours and dank, chilly temperatures. These rains are far removed from…
A market customer asked me yesterday if market farmers eat betterthan most during the long winter months.Unfortunately, I had to admit that we too despair in winter, particularly when our supplies run out and even we have to trudge off to the grocery store for our weekly provisions. I exaggerate, but only a bit. Most…
There’s nothing better than a cool, grey Monday to slip into Fall.We seized the opportunity to harvest half of our winter squash and to fill several bins with onions of all kinds. It was high time to bring in the onions, which had spent the past week curing in the fields, under a bit of…