Posted June 17, 2021
It ist urning into a very dry year here at Wye View. Watering is now taking 4 hours out of every day in an attempt to keep vegetables growing.
Posted May 19, 2021
So another season has started with beans, peas, beets ans carrots planted. The next week will be busy with ongoing work for the completion of the high hoop that we will be erecting and the setting out of our transplants, peppers, tomatoes and melons and the planting of the eleven varieties of squash that we will be growing this year.
As was the case last year, we will be concentrating our off farm activities at the Barrie Farmers Market.
Posted June 21, 2018
Garlic Scape harvest started 2 days ago. Welcome to summer grilling season!
Posted May 30, 2017
In spite of the damp weather we have managed to get more planted. On Sunday we planted green onions, red onions, yellow onions, sweet corn, red beets, golden beets, cylindrical beets, green kale, carrots, red romaine, red head lettuce, basil, celebration squash, peppermint Swiss chard and ruby red Swiss chard. The planting will continue once it gets dry enough again, in the mean time, I have posted a recipe for Rhubarb Punch on the recipes page, it is pretty darn good, give it a try, you will see! That’s the news for this week. Later…
Posted May 26, 2017
It has been a frustratingly cool and damp spring, with 210 mm of rain from April 4th to May 6th, 72 mm of that falling from May 1st to May 6th, things are now running three to 4 weeks behind normal schedules. As a matter of interest the 30 year average precipitation for May in this area is 77 mm, we got 94% of our May average in the first 6 days of May, and with the rainfall up until this morning we are now at 142% of our thirty year average (110 mm) for May. The precipitation has made the fields too soft and wet to get the ground worked in preparation for planting.
The first opportunity I had of working the garden plot was May 12th, with the first seeds going in the ground on May 14th. Currently we have peas, spinach, kale, onions, romaine lettuce and potatoes planted. The garlic and strawberries appear to coming along nicely.
At market in Coldwater this week we will be selling bread, croutons, fresh chives, sage and oregano, rhubarb, apples and green garlic.
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Posted April 20, 2017
Well another growing season is upon us. I harvested the first offering of spring from my garden yesterday, fresh chives. Sadly it was supposed to be carrots and red kale, but a marauding herd of Bambi’s friends finished off a 450 foot row of carrots and a row of the kale in about 4 days, There is a picture in the gallery of the damage they did the first day, before I went and chased them away. After the fourth day they had cleaned everything up, even digging out the carrots that they had only chewed the tops off. I have only ever seen 3 or 4 deer at any given time up to now, but there were over 20 deer when they were into the carrots. Notice has been served, the electric fence will be operating as soon as the snow is gone from this point on.
This year we will be piloting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program for our farm. As a pilot program we are going to limit it this year to 5 subscribers, to enable us to work out the logistics before we jump in with both feet. For a better understanding of what a CSA is and how they work please go to csafarms.ca. The full share price will be $600.00 and a half share price will be $350.00. The fee will be due in two installments with half being due Mar 31st and the balance due July 1st. The first box will be available for pickup on June 20th with the final pickup being Oct 31st. If you would be interested please contact me via the contact page.
The box will consist of products listed on the Products for 2017 page with the addition of a loaf of fresh baked bread each week, new baby potatoes in season, a 1 kg jar of unpasturized honey per month (500 g for a ½ share) and apples pears and plums from a Collingwood area orchard in season. With the cooperation of Mother Nature, over the season you could expect to receive a total of 175 to 200 lbs of fresh produce and goods. Extras (i.e. beets for pickling, a bushel of apples) would be available at a discount from regular prices.
Getting back to the fresh chives, at my farmers’ markets this weekend, I will be sampling Sour Cream and Chives dip, recipe below, with Croutons from Sharon’s kitchen.
I love spring!
Sour Cream & Chives Dip
1 cup of sour cream
¾ cup of fresh chopped chives
2 tablespoons lemon juice (optional)
¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
Refrigerate for ½ hour before serving
Posted December 15, 2016
Well, another year just about done! A few Christmas markets left, and" drum roll please" a new winter market kicking off in town, off which I am pleased to be the Market Manager. After this weekend it will become a Friday market taking place every Friday from Dec 23rd through to May 26th, We still have a bit of garlic left, which Sharon eyes nervously, as she is concerned I will sell leaving us in the position of having to buy elsewhere for our own consumption. It is funny (amusing) in that, the first two years she refused to use our own carrots, garlic etc. and insisted on purchasing from the local supermarket for our household use. How times have changed, as soon as we run out of our own produce, the running commentary is "I can't wait until we have our own (garlic, carrots, beets, eggplant... insert word of choice here), and I couldn't agree more! Time is now in a mad rush to Christmas, so to all of our customers and friends, have a very Merry Christmas!
Posted October 13, 2016
Two nights of frost earlier this week has pretty much concluded the 2016 gardening season. Tuesday we will be planting approximately 12,000 garlic for next year, then all that is left before putting it to bed for the winter is harvesting about an acre of Kidney beans and a 500 foot row of Roma beans. The farmgate market is still open daylight hours until freezing weather sets in featuring kale (occasionally), red cabbage, jalapeno peppers, celebration squash, spaghetti squash, mc intosh apples, Cortland apples, plums, and Bosc pears.
Cheers,
David
posted June 2016
I just finished the most exquisite meal. Red skin potatoes, grilled on the BBQ, from Black's on Hwy 124, pork chops with my own apple butter or hot bbq sauce from Crazy Bitch (www.crazybitch.ca), grilled Wye View Farms garlic scapes, available at the farm gate, or the Foodland stores in Elmvale, Coldwater and Midland, and fresh from the oven whole wheat bread, a speciality of my better half, and a kale salad. sadly not made with my own kale due to the lack of rain. Topped off with a glass of red wine, it was fit for royality.
Cheers, and a fantastic long weekend to you,
David