Hail to the Hen(s)

They’re heading off to greenerpastures, our hens,the very ones whose eggs have graced your plates, whether poached, scrambled or boiled (hard- or soft-). It’s our usual routine every October, as the days grow shorter and the hens yearn for a more hospitable laying environment. So it is that we go to great lengths to find…

Farm Cleaning Time

It’s (farm) cleaning time.We’ve been talking about it for weeks now, but the dithering has to end, it’s time to get down to brass tacks…As our honeymoon with the vestiges of summer comes to an end, we run the risk of getting stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place – namely, diluvial fall…

Deceleration

Following its August apex, the season continues to decelerate, trailing with it a number of pluses and a few minuses. On the plus side, who would have thought we’d see such clement weather given a Farmer’s Almanac average first frost date of September 18 in Quebec? We certainly won’t complain, nor will a number of vegetables in our…

Stewards of the Land

You can look for them high and low, but you won’t find them anymore : our young farm employees have left in pursuit of more studious occupations. Colleges and universities beckon, and the call of the classroom has won out…you may still catch a glimpse of them from time to time at our market stands, but they…

Between Summer and Fall

I like to say that the harvest season still has a long way to go and that summer still has a few spectacular days left, but these are risky – or at the very least, incomplete – statements. Harvests are but one of the many things that keep us busy at the farm these days. Field…

A Big Week

We have a big week in store at Arlington Gardens. The vagaries of the season are such that we find ourselves having to rush to harvest our winter squash which have all ripened at once as we also hasten to dry out our conservation onions a bit more in one of our greenhouses before bagging them…

Tipping Point

August is already drawing to a close and as I write these lines, we are sowing the last trays of the season, a series of leafy greens that will tickle your taste buds in October. To think that we opened our seedling greenhouse in mid-March …and that it has been operating non-stop since, week after week, yielding…

Out of the Frying Pan…

And into the fire… or so it seems, as we exit a heat wave and they are forecasting another cloudless week for vacationers’ pleasure. For this market farmer, today has been an all-hands-on-deck day to ensure a good drenching of all the seedlings scheduled for planting over the next few days as well as seedlings transplanted…

August

August is upon us and your farmer knows he’s heading into the final stretch. August is a perilous month, one of heavy humidity, blazing suns and late greenhouse seedlings that still require our full attention. Summer’s end plays itself out in the fields, as harvested plots need to be quickly harrowed and just as quickly sown…

July Notes

As we near the start of the regal month of August, allow me to share a few thoughts on the month of July which is drawing to a close. Greyer, cooler and more humid than usual, it has clearly affected the growth and productivity of many plants. In the normal course, July is hot and dry;…