Your organic farm in the Eastern Townships
July was an intense month – justification of sorts for our radio silence. It can’t get any busier than July, when crops are still being planted even as harvesting is under way. Added to the demands of crop logistics are those of basket fulfillment, and editorial activities such as these. We are heading into our…
There’s nothing like weeding several rows of carrots to make one realize that carrot weeding is an activity to be undertaken with either zen-like calm or unmitigated enthusiasm…anything in between is guaranteed to result in unbearable frustration. There is no pleasure to be found in weeding carrots. They germinate slowly and weeds have ample time…
You all know a blueberry bush cannot be harvested in the first three years of its life. We’ve told you often enough already – flowers and fruit must be sacrificed for the greater good of the plant and its roots. A field of well-established blueberry bushes should yield tasty fruit for more than 20 years.…
… as it is the busiest time of the year for vegetable growers. Everything needs to get done – field planting, irrigation, weeding, and very soon, harvesting the first vegetables for next week’s baskets. The good news is that we’ve also found time to plant our berries, just in time for them to root well…
Agriculture in northern climes means rushing like crazy to get everything planted in the field before the summer heat. Quebec seasons being what they are, the planting window is narrow indeed. Consider this spring: after an unseasonably hot May, we are now facing an unusually rainy early June. Neither is optimal for farmers looking to…
It’s been more than two weeks since our last post, but many things had to get done to launch our field production…After a chilly start which may have cost us a few cauliflowers, we are now experiencing an early heat wave, and watering freshly planted vegetables and fragile root systems has been an absolute priority.…
We could have planned it better, but the need for a greenhouse of our own has become pressing, so we decided to build one in our “spare” time. Ideally, it would have been best to wait until the end of the summer when everything is planted and we only have a few weeks of basket…
You may be wondering what farmers do in April when they’re not in the greenhouse. While they may be doing seasonal maintenance on farm equipment in preparation for the summer, more likely they are starting work in their fields, provided said fields are dry enough for a tractor or a rotary tiller. Proper soil preparation…
Weed control is an obsession for the organic farmer who is constantly seeking to minimize the time spent weeding (a thankless chore, according to most). Take fall garlic, for instance. Planted in October, it spends winter in a dormant state, but is quick to sprout as soon as spring temperatures beckon. Unfortunately, it does not…
Preparations for the 2010 season are in full swing. We are busy completing our warehouse, the cold storage area and our chicken coop. The warehouse is an old barn which we have converted into an all-purpose building, re-cycling old barn planks from the self-same barn to create a cold storage area, a vegetable work area,…