Your organic farm in the Eastern Townships
Just a short note on corn. For several years now, a neighbouring (non-organic) farmer has been harvesting his sweet corn earlier and earlier every summer. This year, he beat all previous records (mid-July!) and is doggoned proud of it. No one’s to blame except the relentless progress of bio-technology yielding doctored plants and super precocious…
Week 9 is looking a lot like Week 8. August is undeniably ‘Nightshade Month’ – with its abundance of eggplants, peppers and tomatoes, all leading representatives of the Solanaceae family of plants. These are complemented by fresh onions and our third corn harvest of the season – the traditional yellow variety, this time. This…
The average worker just got a little older at the farm this week, as we lost our CEGEP students – a trio of strapping young men, a tad too laid-back at times, but generally hardworking. They’ve left the farm behind, heeding the worldly call of higher education and self-edification, but seemingly satisfied with the experience…
It’s early August, and we are beginning to enjoy bounteous harvests of our favourite summer vegetables : eggplants, peppers and, of course, tomatoes. That said, we would be remiss not to mention that we harvested all the garlic in our fields last week. Although we lost more of it than we wanted to winter frost, this…
This week we’ve hit the vegetable jackpot: early tomatoes AND corn-on-the-cob…it is not often that the stars align so nicely. Despite the reputation of both as high summer fare, tomatoes and corn usually start (and peak) at different times during the summer – although not this year, with tomatoes running a couple of weeks…
The troops were restless in the heat last week, but Environment Canada’s forecast for cooler temperatures is helping us keep everyone in line. Pickers of zucchini and blueberries, both time-consuming vegetables to harvest, are relieved. Our blueberry harvest is in full swing – we hope to have some blue fruit until early August. Tomato harvesting…
After much ado about whether or not summer had arrived – we can assure you that it has indeed, with a vengeance. The current heat wave has made our solanaceas particularly happy: our tomatoes have begun to blush and our squash are looking content. They’re finally getting the attention they deserve. The rest of us…
A rainy start to the week (it rained through the night of Sunday to Monday) saved us from the choreographed dance of field irrigation. That’s one less thing to worry about on our long to-do list this week. We suckered and staked tomatoes again this weekend, under our caterpillar tunnel and in the field. Despite…
Our first week has come and gone, with much harvesting and some planting. We’re still wondering if it’s really summer, as cooler weather has been the order of the day. Don’t get us wrong – we’re not complaining: fieldwork at 23 degrees is much more enjoyable than fieldwork at 32. We’ve had to catch up…
Already June 24th: our first week of vegetables will be a leafy one, with all shades, and kinds, of ‘greens,’ starting with the emerald green leaves of spinach – spinach which has benefited from the best of growing conditions. We’ll also have red frilly lettuce, oak leaf lettuce and even crisp, slightly bitter escarole, that holds…