Your organic farm in the Eastern Townships
Last Friday we witnessed a diluvian downpour,the likes of which we had not seen in a long time. In a few hours, all our fields were flooded, and our spring-fed pond and field drainage-replenished pond was likewise filled to the brim. A nice problem to have, those who suffer from chronic water deficits – our friends…
Go-with-the-flow is the watchwordwhich best captures the farmer’s stoic acceptance that it is Mother Nature who decides how one’s days are spent. This week is a case in point, as we compulsively await every Environment Canada weather update to plan our day, our week and our day of rest. The upcoming week is looking to be…
This entry marks the launch of our 2023 CSA basket deliveries!We’ve been busy over the last month, and what a month it has been! Four real frosts, some pretty chilly weather AND our first heat wave of the season…We did what we had to do, but it demanded an extraordinary expenditure of energy installing protective…
One month since our last newsletter and the pace is really picking up. Seedling production is going full tilt, so much so that our seedling greenhouse extension is bursting at the seams. One of our big cold greenhouses is already full (with spinach, lettuce, beets and coriander…), the other two will be filled this week.…
The opening of our seedling greenhouse is something of a ritual,a familiar routine that one cannot circumvent, a to-do list that one repeats year after year, albeit always with some apprehension: will the furnace fire up as it should – or not? Will there water flow – or not? Fortunately, the furnace started; but sure…
Although another winter chill is in the offing this weekend, it is high time for us to shift gears, to imagine for a moment that Spring is upon us, and to launch the 14th growing season at Arlington Gardens with great fanfare. We have already received most of our seeds (a source of endless delight),…
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…