Your organic farm in the Eastern Townships
It has been a while since we’ve had forecasts calling forso much grey and rainy weather.Although Meteomedia – the most pathologically optimistic weather service I have ever come across – was recently forecasting a warm and sun-filled fall, this week has sent us careening into fall colours and dank, chilly temperatures. These rains are far removed from…
A market customer asked me yesterday if market farmers eat betterthan most during the long winter months.Unfortunately, I had to admit that we too despair in winter, particularly when our supplies run out and even we have to trudge off to the grocery store for our weekly provisions. I exaggerate, but only a bit. Most…
There’s nothing better than a cool, grey Monday to slip into Fall.We seized the opportunity to harvest half of our winter squash and to fill several bins with onions of all kinds. It was high time to bring in the onions, which had spent the past week curing in the fields, under a bit of…
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…
In vegetable farming, rain days or days after are so many opportunitiesto catch up on all the to-do items left undone, precisely unless favourable or unfavourable weather leaves us no other option than actually getting them done. Today has been a case in point – i.e. a rainy night followed by an equally rainy day filled with overcast…
There was a time when news of our garlic harvest was broadcast with a drumrolland elicited applause.A sign of the times, perhaps, this year’s harvest – while still important – was sandwiched between pressing field work and more pressing still seedling transplanting. Not to worry, though: our garlic was indeed harvested over the weekend and…
This week’s newsletter went out on Tuesday instead of Monday.A slight, but non-trivial, delay that can be explained by both a heavy first weekend at the markets and a forecast of imminent (and abundant) rainfall. First, we were reacquainted with the markets and our farm stands this weekend.The weather was beautiful, and the crowds surprisingly relaxed, a…
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…
This week is a seasonal tipping point where we have to work twice as hardto ensure completion of the most important structuring activities before our market farm stands open July 1st. While the term structuring may sound a bit pretentious, they really are fundamental to the long-term success of our seasonal production. These include completing the setting-up of our…
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…