And We’re Off !

It’s official, we’ve launched our 2014 season at Arlington Gardens! If you’re anything like us, we assume you’re chomping at the bit and eager to partake in another year of farm bounty.  Although we like winter, there comes a time in February when our organic clock starts ticking and moves us to action, i.e. to…

It’s Over…

Yet another season at the farm has come to an end. We enjoyed sharing nature’s bounties with you in 2013. We look forward to a respite, punctuated by the usual winter activities, and we promise to let you know as soon as we see the first signs of spring. Meanwhile, we wish you all a…

Break

  There’s nothing like a week’s break to put the spring back in a vegetable farmer’s step, particularly if the week in question was sunny from start to finish. We harvested carrots, sowed green manure, spread manure of the other kind for next year and watched our rutabagas grow. Our baskets this week include Brussels…

Learning to Expect the Unexpected

  It’s always when you least expect it that it happens: the brief heat spell we’ve been enjoying is exactly what the vegetable doctor ordered for our rutabagas, our turnips and our lettuce. The weather has indeed been spectacular – the only thing missing is a light rain, just enough to irrigate everything nicely. But…

One Last Hurrah

Notes from September 23: The countryside is humming again: farmers are greasing their tractors and sharpening their blades. The summer was a good one in our neck of the woods, so to speak, and producers are looking forward to a bountiful end of season, beginning with the year’s third haying, a contemporaneous soy harvest and, last…

Sunny Cold

Many of you braved the sunny cold on Sunday to join us for our annual méchoui. The event was a great success (pictures, please), and we thank all of you who took the time to prepare savoury dishes to complement our roasts, and desserts to round out the feast. The night before had begun with…

Slipping Out of Summer

Our winter squash harvest is a harbinger of fall. Following last week’s spaghetti squash, which we’ll be serving up again this week, we’ll soon be harvesting delicata, butternut and acorn squash, as well as pumpkins. Of these all, spaghetti squash is the only one that needs to be consumed quickly – it cannot sit on…

Cob Competition

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…

Mid-Season

  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…

Thorns and Thistles

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…