Nobody asked for it, but here it is, our market farm update for the week of May 19th to 25th.

For the last week or so, Jon has been busy building beds in our finally ploughed field!

He wanted to rototill the tarped portion, which has been on for a couple of weeks to help kill the hay and weeds, over the weekend.

However, that did not exactly pan out since we needed to rent a rototiller and perhaps waited a bit too late to try to procure one.

Who knew that by Thursday of the May long weekend they would all be rented?

Only everybody!

WHOOPS!

So with that plan out the window, Jon put a shout-out on Facebook to see if he could borrow one.

Come on Facebook, do your thing!

Well, it didn’t.

BUT…

A family friend had a rototiller that had not been used in about 100 years, ok I’m exaggerating, but not by much! 

It hadn’t been running in about 30 years.

Let me tell ya, it’s a beast of a machine for sure!

With some mechanical help from my dad and a new spark plug (and probably other things that I don’t know of), the beast got running and Jon was actually able to till our fields on the holiday Monday! YAY!

Unfortunately, that feat was overshadowed by what happened while transporting the rototiller to the field.

We may have had a little ‘oopsie’.

Let me tell you about it.

While loading the tiller into our van, the tiller shifted and when we closed the back door, the handles went through the back window.

Needless to say, I was less than impressed, especially since the van is MY primary mode of transportation!

This little mishap delayed tilling a day since Jon had the lovely task of cleaning up all the glass and installing a delightful recycling bag back window.

Just another day, eh?

The good thing was that when Jon transported the tiller to the field on Monday, the window was already broken so it was a much easier task!

Don’t you just love silver linings?

Anyways, bottom line is that we are making more progress on the field, and driving my van is even more embarrassing than normal! 

Sidenote: The window should be fixed this week…..sometime!

Alright, now an update on our plants.

The tomato and pepper seedlings are growing well in the nursery, and if all goes well this week, we should be direct seeding into our newly rototilled and built beds this weekend.

Fingers crossed!

A rather new development on the farm is that I am taking on the microgreen side of things and am amping up production!

After experimenting with growing a couple of trays of microgreens, I have realized that I really love growing them.

Not only that, but they are super healthy and delicious. Heck, even our kids will eat them as a snack!

So I was busy this week ordering more trays, seeds, and growing medium.

I was able to pick up more trays from Canadian Tire, and growing medium from Rona (I had a great experience at the Rona in Campbellford, FYI).

And as luck would have it, our seeds arrived on May 25 and 26, so I was able to start 4 trays of pea shoots on the 26th. 

I am starting off slowly so I don’t get overwhelmed, and will ramp up production as I get more experience and as demand grows.

We are taking this week off from farmers’ markets, as we don’t have a whole lot of products to sell, and our microgreens will be ready for next week, so we will be bringing those to the markets at least!

Our goal for next year is to be at every single market. So I am taking notes on how we can accomplish this goal and avoid any absences in the future.

Well, that’s the farm update for this week!

Stay tuned for next week’s update where Jon builds beds, moves tarps, and DOESN’T break any windows!

Stay Local,

Kathy & Jon

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Growers