More Pictures

We have been eager to get on the fields. Today the garden that will have mostly greens and some root veggies is being tilled and hilled. Hopefully we will be sowing this particular garden today or tomorrow with crops that don't mind the still chilly temperatures. (spinach, lettuce, green onions etc). The drip irrigation has been placed the in the greenhouse. We invested in the drip irrigation last year and it has proved to be invaluable. We were taking too much time hand watering the previous year. We used drip irrigation on the outside gardens too last year and we are hoping to put more down this year.

We are very pleased that our garlic survived the winter. There was some damage from deer traffic through the field this winter. Most of the damage was the garlic being uprooted by the deer walking through. The garlic is now almost four inches tall.

A New Season.

I thought it was about time I updated our blog considering that the 2009 season is about to start. We have been seeding leeks, celery, green onions and bulbing onions. We are keeping the trays under growing lights in our hallway and in the basement. This is our first year mixing our own potting soil. We have started to prepare the greenhouse for spring planting. We will be planting the greenhouse the first of April.

Our parsnips are still in the ground from last season. We hope that the mice and deer didn't find them during the winter. We will putting up crop protection from the deer this spring. We have never seen deer as we have this winter. There has been alot of damage done to the apple trees and cedars.

We have been corresponding with our CSA members from last year and the response has been great for the upcoming season. We are happy to be adding more spaces for this season's CSA.

The seed orders have been placed and now we wait for them to be delivered. We will be trying some new varieties of fruit and veggies this year. Ex. melons, squash, onions, tomatoes and garlic. We are excited to see if the garlic we planted last fall has survived the winter season. There was plenty of snow cover and we mulched it well so everything should be good.

Week 18

This week was number 17 for the CSA boxes. This week we had beets, carrots, potatoes, parsley, green cabbage, leeks, broccoli, kale, bulb onions and parsnips.

Today was a big day for us. We got our windmill up today. It went up really easy.

Autumn Leaves

We are putting out a request for autumn leaves. We need leaves for mulching the greenhouse and our newly planted garlic beds. The leaves need to be from yards with lawns that have not been treated with herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers. So, if you annually rake your lawn or have them raked for you, you can either email us or give us a call and we will come and get them. All of our contact information is on our website. http://www.chestnutacreslimited.com/

Harvest Season.

There are only four more weeks of CSA deliveries. We are now taking it one week at a time hoping that the weather co-operates with us. Winter came early last year. The deer have been really hard on us this year. They seem to have figured out how to move the row covers to the side to get at the vegetables that are left in the garden. One of the fields we will be using next year will be closer to the house, maybe that will help some with that problem. But then there is always the option of more electric fencing.

This week in our CSA boxes (bags) contained red potatoes, carrots, fennel, parsley, green cabbage, buttercup squash, green onions and a bag of apples. We are not sure what kind of tree that these apples grow on. This tree was planted before we bought the farm eight years ago. They almost taste like a red delicious , they are crispy like a red delicious but they don't have the size or the bumps of the bottom of the apple. Bugs do not seem to bother this tree. We have been trying to nurture this tree so we will have it for a long time yet. We have had a few of our fruit trees included in our annual certification process. We are hoping to improve our apple quality so we can include more apples in our CSA program.

The past couple of weeks have been focused on harvesting produce, preparing the greenhouse for spring, firewood, and getting the second half of the barn ready for a new concrete floor. You can't put a price on our barns. They could never be replaced.

Our girls brought their pumpkins to the Kingston Farmer's Market on Oct 4th for the annual pumpkin contest. They were thrilled with the whole process of weighing and the giving out prizes. We gave the girls each a container with pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in June and let them plant them in their own spot. We had a bumper crop of sunflowers and 14 pumpkins.

JG

Week 12

This weeks box share contained twelve items. Celery, Parsley, Basil, Green Onions, Patty Pan Squash, Cabbage or Cauliflower, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Red Pontiac Potatoes and Carrots.

Deliveries all went well it was nice to see some of our members that we haven't seen for a couple of weeks.

JG

Sorry for the lack of posts.

Everything has been going good here on the farm. Sorry for the lack of posts. Since out last post there has been camping, fairs, first days of school, VBS at both Baptist and Anglican churches, play dates, swimming lessons and it goes on and on. Anyone who has children knows that there is always something going on.

We had a small problem with the well pump yesterday but that was fixed prompty. The headgasket blew on our Massey Ferguson but is now repaired.

We have had a lot of problems with the deer this year. But that is okay. This is just our second year and we are learning. We are already thinking of prevention methods next year. We are given these problems to learn from. There will always be issues every year and we just need to take them as they come.

The CSA boxes (bags) are going great. We are gradually becoming more efficient at the packing and harvesting. Sometimes there are issues but everyone has been very understanding and helpful.

Brucshetta (?) pizza. Pizza dough with Italian salad dressing spread all over the dough. Then I put peppers basil and tomatoes grated mozza and parmesan cheese. Bake at 400F for approx 15 minutes.

I will post again later. The girls have to get up for school.

JG