Cool Nights

Have you noticed them lately?The first cool nights of August,an infallible sign that summer has reached its point of inflection, an impossible-to-ignore indication that – despite the many beautiful days still to come – we are slowly but surely entering into autumn. For all the plants in our fields, the cool nights are an open…

Summertime!

Following a few false starts, summer has finally arrived –its presence was timid at first, but has become brash and unapologetic over the past weekend. It was about time : solanaceas and cucurbits are not philosolic for philosolia’s sake. Indeed there exists a long list of vegetables that need a double dose of heat – tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and…

The Why of Rye

From the long list of tasks performed over the past week,I would like to highlight the mowing of two fields of rye.Rye is my go-to last-recourse cover crop, i.e. what I use when nothing else can/will do. The toughest of the tough, rye keeps on growing when all other green manures stop. That’s why I…

Alea jacta est

The weather forecast is looking a bit iffy, but no matter, alea jacta est –in other words, come what may, our CSA basket deliveries begin this week on June 8-9 and 10, the first of 22 weeks for our neighbourhood drop-off locations and at the farm. Deliveries at our market farm stands will run 19 weeks beginning…

Sweet May

May has made us forget one of the coolest and rainiest Aprilswe have experienced since we started the farm.Creatures of habit, we have become accustomed to the milder winters, and drier and warmer springs, that have become the norm. This year has proven such an exception to the new rule that it was only at…

April Showers

It’s mid-April already, and we’re dealing with the fall-out of a wet spring. Soaked fields, muddy roads and overcast skies. It seems that’s what it is for now, we’re still searching for a certain Justin’s ’sunnier ways’…Not that all this matters much, as our season prep continues, and the arrival of the first members of…

Firing Up

Just as Spring was springing, I opened our seedling greenhouse. It is always with the same excitement, the same sequence of events, that I reconnect the pump of our artesian well, fire up the furnaces, and check that everything is in working order…It is only once the water is running and the heat is flowing…

Season Launch

Even as Environment Canada is in winter storm warning mode for the umpteenth time in this middle of February, we think it is high time to shake the snow off our boots and launch our 2022 season! We are pleased to announce we are ready to take your registrations for our CSA baskets via this…

The End (2021)

Thus ends our 2021 season :an apotheosis, according to Environment Canada and their forecast for sunny skies, albeit accompanied with a bit of a chill. I won’t complain, as the fields are soaked from weekend rains and we still have to harvest the contents of your last basket. Another summer growing seasonhas come and gone, true to form,i.e.…

Ebbing Daylight

Each year, as the days shorten and we move into October, I pick up my well-thumbed copy of Verlaine. I always flip to the same poem, a few stanzas thrown on a page, simply written but so evocatively capturing the essence of what we all feel as autumn begins. The poem is Chanson d’automne (Autumn Song), an ode…