Your organic farm in the Eastern Townships
We awoke on this April 9 morning in a somber mood, feeling that Mother Nature had overstepped her bounds in teasing us yet again, this time one time too many. Her wintry taunt was spectacular, though, a freshly fallen layer of snow blanketing everything in sight, a marked contrast to the green backdrop for the…
The 2015 season at Arlington Gardens has indeed begun! We’ve completed everything — placed our seed orders, drawn up our field plans, submitted our annual organic certification filings and launched our ‘new and improved’ website. All that remained was to say at your keyboards, ready, set, go! We are now accepting online registrations for the 2015 season.…
Our 2014 season has come to a close. As our fields take a break, so will we. Our farming activities will ramp up again in early March 2015 — we’ll keep you posted. Enjoy your winter, may the snowfall be abundant. We look forward to seeing you again in 2015.
Just to let you know: Environment Canada is forecasting snow on Saturday…As the thought of finishing off the season in muddy, slush-filled fields is not a pleasant one, we are hurrying to get everything done before then: planting garlic, harvesting the last vegetables, and generally battening down the hatches to protect everything from winter squalls…
Everything seems shrouded in mystery at Arlington Gardens, these days. Claire has decided to try to nail down the construction date and the builder of our big red barn, where we’ve already begun to welcome visitors to our Hayloft Adventures rustic accommodations. All it took was a casual comment from a local architect (“…this barn…
Down on the farm, we’re into the final stretch. Only three weeks left before we all go back to our winter habits, including our more frequent visits to our local grocer. The days are cool, the nights cooler — which augurs well for all those fall vegetables just waiting for a cold snap to lock…
This week is off to a great start with a cool sun and a nice drying wind. The wind is the farmer’s best ally at this time of year. It has a cleansing effect, scattering dead leaves to the four corners of the farm, then gathering them up into heaps where they’ll compost naturally. Indeed,…
Nature almost fooled us into thinking it was summer again these past few days, as mid-day temperatures climbed to nearly 30 degrees. We felt like kicking off our workboots…and did, in fact, do so for a bit — although there was still harvesting to be done, as the swedes (rutabagas), fennel and beets beckoned. Yes,…
We realized last week, as the mercury dipped below freezing, that an early frost has certain pluses – like ridding the fields of all the weeds we have spent countless hours combating all season. The list of annual weeds that wilt at the first hint of frost is long (and includes many a farmer’s nemeses,…
If ever confirmation that fall had arrived was needed, this weekend was it. One could be forgiven for thinking we were already in late October, when washing lettuce in cold water at dawn requires mental fortitude and a triple espresso. Even though they are forecasting warmer weather by the end of the week, the sudden…