Weird...but true!

Cloves of garlic getting tucked in.

It is so weird: It's May 18th and we are just starting to plant!  Even weirder: We're starting with garlic!  Most years we would be almost done with seeding the gardens.  This year, between the Winter-that-wouldn't-go-away and the Spring-that-wouldn't-come we've just barely started.  It took seemingly forever for the gardens to dry out and warm up, then we had a cold, rainy spell.  If you follow our Facebook page, you know last week we had a day when tractors got stuck in the field a couple of times.

And garlic!  We usually plant garlic in the Fall, but last Fall we were a little distracted by jobs, life, harvest, breeding goats, etcetera and missed our opportunity to purchase seed bulbs.  The last few seasons we had saved our own garlic to replant, but a poor harvest and disease left nothing.  Fortunately, we were able to purchase some lovely garlic through Lindenberg Seeds this Spring.  I spent an afternoon two days ago breaking up the heads into the cloves on ten pounds of garlic!  When Farmer Man finally managed to get most of the cultivation done, we were waiting for a decent day (like today), when both of us were home and we got busy!

We and our CSA members can all breath a sigh of relief now that the garlic is in.  We, personally, love garlic and the taste of naturally grown, farm fresh garlic is head-and-shoulders above the store bought stuff!  CSA members have come to love garlic scapes, too!  Have you had them?  The scapes are the flowering stems of garlic; raw, they have a lovely mild, green garlic taste.  Cooked they taste something like asparagus.  We think they are best raw and make an awesome pesto, a great addition to salads or a delightful topping on pizza or pasta.  And they are in the ground, with more rain in the forecast.

Some peas, chard, some beets, some carrots, some onions and some lettuces are also in the ground as of today.  So, a good start has been made!  Rain tomorrow, then we're going to spend a day planting potatoes.  Shortly, we'll get back to successive plantings of many of the vegetables.  Corn and many of the winter squash will go in when the soil is just a little warmer.  Beans and summer squash can go in anytime now.  In the meantime, the sun room is bursting with seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, ground cherry and tomatillos.  They will go into the ground in June - we're never in any hurry because we can easily still have frosts for the next two to three weeks.

It feels good to get a start made!  Were you working in the garden this May long weekend?

Finally...Spring, Maybe?

Saturday was a gorgeous Spring day - we've been waiting for this for so long!  Temperatures near normal, with a high of about 14C (about 60F) and just a light breeze.  Sunday is suppose to be even nicer.  Ahhhhhhh.......

The nice weather of the last few days has chased the snow away quickly.  The lawn is starting to look a tint of green.  It's still very wet in the fields; there were places I had to skirt because it was just too muddy.  Buds do not seem to be swelling in any big way yet - which is what the goats are waiting for.  Goats are browsers - they love best leaves and fresh young twigs.  So far they are still on a diet of (dusty) hay and their wee grain ration.
The chickens are faring a bit better; they are fighting over the first fe, dopey bugs that are starting to appear and are happy with every little green grass blade!

A couple of good things found on my walk: the garlic is up!  Yeah!  Sporadic in the rows - but it's coming.  We sooooo love our garlic so much that it is always encouraging when it peeks out.  No sign of the rhubarb yet.  And the other piece of good news is that the dug out is full to the brim, and even looks like it spilled over a bit!  It still has ice floating in it, but it's full!  Always nice to start the growing season with a good supply of water!

It seems like it has been a long hibernation this year.  Finally feeling a bit like coming out of my cocoon and stretching my 'wings'!  Gardening is in my near future - that's invigorating!

Spring To-Do List

As we're out walking the dogs and goats, or gathering firewood, or just strolling we're taking a good look around the farm.  Now is the time that our Spring list of chores is formulated!  This is a list separate from the on-going daily and weekly chores like feeding and watering critters, cleaning pens and coops, collecting eggs.  These are 'special' chores that, largely, fate has brought us.  It's different every spring, always full of surprises!

We notices, as seen in the picture on the left, that the hoop house has sustained some damage this year.  We love our hoop house!  It was so successful last year in supplying a steady supply of tomatoes to our CSA families, with some extra for Farmers' Markets!  We also had a much nicer crop of basil and peppers in the hoop house than what came from outside beds.  We won't know until we get a ladder out and have a good look just how big this chore will be.  Hopefully, it's just a repair and won't require replacing the entire covering of plastic: a much more expensive and time consuming event!  We are also putting on the to-do list the building of a second hoop house - they are wonderful for earlier and later harvests and protecting from damage.  Both of these are chores we'd like to have done in April, once we start planting in May, everything is about the growing!  Farmer Man is also putting some cold frames on the list - great mini, in-ground greenhouses which can ease some of the over-crowding that happens every April and May in our sun room and greenhouse as the seedlings start to take over!

Late last growing season a garden renter accidentally ran over one of the hose bibs for the rental gardens.  We were in the middle of potato harvest, still doing October Farmers Markets and just didn't get to the repair before the ground froze up.  So, that repair is on the to-do list.  We'll have to dig up the area and find the break, repair it, let it set and then re-bury the main line.  I say 'we' but Farmer Man will be doing most of the work,  I'm not a very efficient digger.  Also, in the rental gardens, as more and more people get interested in growing their food and our plots expand, we've got to build and place a couple more compost receptacles.  We make these from used wooden pallets, and some of the time involved will be cruising back alleys and commercial zones looking for the pallets!

Dealing with compost is another big to-do!  Compost is pretty much the only fertilizer we use.  For the seedlings and containers, we're using a kelp seaweed liquid fertilizer, but once things are planted in the garden we rely on the nutrition in the soil.  We purchased a load of compost last year and although the product was very nice, it was full of stones!  A number as big as a man's fist and lots of pebbles of various sizes.  We have to create a more efficient screening process to clean it before we apply it.  This chore also needs to be completed in April, so we can apply compost before planting.  We also have to turn an awesome pile of chicken coop and goat pen bedding.  Through the winter, as we remove it to clean the coop or stalls, it goes outside and largely freezes right away.  We'll need to mix it, pile it and leave it to compost this year!

We'll have Berkshire piglets coming in April or May so we've got to create new pasture.  We like to rotate the pasture around, so there is fresh grass, a clean area and no chance of passing on any parasites or disease.  It's like rotating your plantings - you don't want to keep animals in the same area year after year.  The pigs, goats and chickens really 'eat up' any pasture so the previous pasture needs a chance to re-grow.  We'll also need a nice area for Randie, our buck goat.  When we, fingers crossed, have baby goats in late Spring, we need him separate so that he doesn't hurt any babies and, later in the season, doesn't try to breed with any of his children.  Fencing is never a good time, but a chore that needs doing!

We've got to get some pruning on the list!  Our raspberries need pruning every Spring to take out old, spent canes.  We could also use some maintenance pruning on the fruit trees - they were somewhat neglected last Spring as we were distracted by flooding and other unusual events.  Good pruning will keep fruit trees producing much better!  I've also been offered some mature grape plants, so we've got to find an area for them and create some sturdy trellising before we go dig them up and transplant them!

Oh, the to-do list just keeps getting longer and longer.  The more I think of it, the more things that come to mind, and not all garden or critter related.  The house could really use painting, we've got a back patio half made (a project that has gone on a couple of seasons already!), we'd love to create a veggies washing area, Farmer Man wants to build a chicken tractor a la Joel Salatin, the two 'Blue Boy' clematis in front of the house could use cutting back, some of the iris in the front border need dividing......it just keeps going!  Have you started a Spring to-do list?

At Least Someone is Enjoying All the Water!

It's becoming a Spring tradition.  Blaze's first swim in the dugout.  I guess the water has to warm to a certain temperature before he'll take a dip because the water has been fully available for a while.  I don't mind this Spring rite of passage because the water is fairly fresh, with none of that green slime that appears in the Summer.  That means Blaze is wet and rather dirty, but he doesn't smell bad!

Holy Smokes! The Parsley is Alive!

Over-winter parsley.

Greek Oregano

Thyme, coming back!

Self-seeded spinach.

In between showers (! yes, Manitoba is flooding and now it is raining!) I took a walk through our gardens. The eastern part of our fields was just about ready to till; the western part, particularly the slope that leads to the dugout and around the dugout is still very wet and mucky.  Now there is rain forecast for a couple of days, so tilling will be delayed again.  The dogs needed a good walk and because our road has become a major thoroughfare due to other road closures in the area, it was better to stay on the Farm.  We have thirty acres to stroll around so a good workout can be had, albeit many muddy paws were made!  Some delightful surprises awaited me.  The Parsley is alive and flourishing.  Walking through what was the herb section last year, I was quite surprised to find Thyme, Greek Oregano and the Parsley looking very good.  The Mint (no big surprise there) and the Comfrey have also come back nicely.  These have all come through a long cold winter with no mulching or fussing.  We love that!  Admittedly all the herbs are on the north side of a substantial row of raspberries, so snow was probably trapped and held there.  Also a welcome sight: spinach that has self-seeded and will be ready to eat quite shortly!  Sometimes it pays to not be to quick to clean up beds after harvest is finished!  Our trees haven't quite leafed out yet, so fresh spinach will be delight!

Water, Water Everywhere!

The difference in the landscape around Brandon, just in the last few days, is stunning.  Simply stunning.  What was good farm land is now lake.  At Optimist Park (!), the local soccer field, the goal posts have disappeared.  Eleanor Kidd Park's lovely pergola is almost completely submerged.  You know how tall a goal post is - that's how high the water is sitting in the soccer park!  The City of Brandon issued a warning yesterday that those by the river must now prepare to evacuate.  We'd all hoped it would never come to that, but I'm afraid we're now dealing with a 'worst case' scenario.  I've posted about the flood here and here.  The second link has a photo taken in the same place as the bottom photo here; you can see the difference in level on the signs for our local park.  Thing is, apparently some mistakes in calculations were made in Saskatchewan so a lot more water is coming our way than was previously thought.  The crest is still five or six days away.  Already the dikes on 1st and 18th Street are leaking, Veteran's Way may be swallowed up and many homes and businesses are threatened.  We got a message yesterday afternoon that our neighbours at Evergreen Valley Nursery were in trouble.  Water was rising at a rate of an inch per hour!  Unfortunately, our neighbors at Grand Valley Strawberry were over run and and the water was working it's way to Evergreen, including their home.  Grand Valley Strawberry's road was gone so there was really nothing that could be done to help them as water swirled around their home and buildings.  We spend some time yesterday helping to fill sandbags that were then being ferried to Evergreen Valley, where another group was placing them.  If you are in the Brandon area and can help - they'll be filling sandbags at the RM of Cornwallis office, two minutes east of Brandon on Veteran's Way.  As well there's a call out for volunteers to help sandbag at Donnie Ditchfields' and Dave Barnes' at the East end of Rosser.  Apparently you can park at the Green Spot Garden Centre.  Check eBrandon, which has been great at posting updates and having up-to-the-minute info on where help is needed!  If you've got any time to help, your neighbors would really appreciate it!  

Come Swimming in Our Local Park?

Manitoba's Spring Flood Watch continues.  We are completely safe here at Aagaard Farms; it doesn't look like an unusual Spring at all around the Farm.  Thanks for the emails and calls (Hi, Verlene!)  Some of our neighbours are not quite so lucky.  Pictured is our local park 'Cornwallis Park', in the RM of Cornwallis, along Veteran's Way, just outside of Brandon.  It is a lovely little park, usually along the riverbank.  At this time, it is one big lake, almost up to the highway.  Grand Valley Strawberries, the upick strawberry farm, is in the trees to the left of the picture and is sandbagged and seeping!  Around Westman, I am of the understanding that officials believe we have crested and the water will not get any higher, barring big rains.  Other areas of Manitoba are still waiting for the crest.  Thing about flooding of this magnitude is that the repercussions will be felt for years.  Farmers will not be able to get on their land to plant, the crop may never be finished this year, the farmers will have no money to shop for anything so businesses in the area will see a drop in business and may have to lay off employees.  Effects are far reaching, because we're all inter-connected!  Let's hope it dries up quickly!

Making Manitoba Maple Syrup, Part 2

Let the cooking begin!  Managed to check in with Amanda and Ed this afternoon.  The sap flow is slowing (it's about a two week window of opportunity Ed figures), but they have buckets and buckets of sap so it's time to start making syrup.  Now, everybody has heard of the sugar shack, right?  I asked why all the cooking is done outside and Amanda told me that it's not only because you're boiling off most of a five gallon bucket of water.  The humidity from that alone would be a little wild in the house but the bigger problem is that the moisture produced is heavy with residue; the sugar shack's roof close to the boiling pots already felt a little 'slimey'.  Amanda told me that even cooking outside, she will feel the residue in her hair and on her face tonight!  One certainly wouldn't want that in the house!

Amanda and Ed's sugar shack is a pretty easy A-frame of wood and metal siding.  It's really just about cutting the wind and keeping snow, rain and debris from getting into the work area.  Inside, they've repurposed a wood stove that used to be in the house.  They also have a little propane camp stove going on the side.  Apparently, the camp stove is a bit more efficient; it brings the pots to a boil faster and keeps them boiling easier.  The wood stove is more cost-effective because they're using wood from their own lot, which they cut each year for their indoor heating.  Beyond that it's really a matter of scraping together all the old pots, pans, roasters and anything else that will hold liquid and heat up!  The length of time the sap is boiled varies widely: it not only depends on the sap itself, but the temperature of the stove, the temperature outside and such variables.  It is possible to boil the sap too long, and end up with something more like taffy or even, if you're really not paying attention, hard candy!  Amanda will largely be monitoring the 'boil' all the time!

I still find it rather incredible that a five gallon pail of clear sap will boil down to one little pint of golden syrup.  Amanda and Ed will pour the syrup hot into canning jars and the jars will seal themselves.  They don't filter their syrup, so they sometimes end up with a little bit of sediment on the bottom of the jar.  The jars are not put into a water bath canner or anything like that.  Amanda and Ed know they stay good for, well, almost a year is about all they've ever been around!  They've usually run out before it's time to tap again!  After opening a jar, it should be kept in the fridge!  Makes it all seem rather easy, doesn't it?  

Forcing Blooms Indoors!

I've blogged about forcing blooms before.  It's one of those awesome things those of us in snowy climates can do to make it through the looooong end of winter/beginning of Spring.  Any woody shrub that blooms early in Spring made the flower buds last fall.  The buds are sitting there, waiting for warm weather.  If you prune them and bring them inside - they will bloom for you!  I quite often do this in March; I am a little late this year but our heavy snow fall made it hard to get into the garden.  Kathy, over a Cold Climate Gardening, usually does hers in what she calls 'mud season'.  She's got an excellent post about pruning her forsythia here, for gorgeous golden blooms.  I've pruned my double flowered plum (Prunus triloba 'Multiplex'), and in about five or six days I'll have gorgeous, frilly pink blooms in my vase.  As you can see from my photo, with a back drop of snow, the bare branches are still quite dormant.  Good pruning rules apply - cut side branches back to the branch where they join, or cut just above a node where leaves will come out:  don't leave big, ugly stubs.  This will work on plums, eating and ornamental apples and crab apples, almonds, pears.  I've had mixed success with lilacs: the flowers are often stunted but have decent fragrance.  Give it a try for a beautiful, free bouquet!

Where'd The Soil Go?

A Spring storm, forecasting up to 10 cm of snow (about 4 inches).  It is heavy, sticky stuff and should melt quite quickly.  But the enthusiasm of finding bare soil yesterday has been, well, quenched.  And have we got some messy Bears!

I See Soil!

It's true - Spring is coming.  In the last few days, we've gotten just a wee bit above the freezing mark!  We're starting to see results.  Top photo is last this afternoon, bottom photo is yesterday morning.  Look how much that patch of soil has grown - very encouraging!  The photos are of the walkway up to the barn and, beyond that, the chicken coop.  It's a gravel walkway, which makes it impossible to use a snow blower and hard to even shovel.  We tend to just trek out after a snowfall, and the pathway slowly becomes packed down.  A slow melt would be best for us here in Manitoba, considering our flood forecast.  But it's been such a long, long winter.  Everyone around here just wants the snow gone, we want our bare feet in sandals and we want to sit outside and feel the sun on some part of our bodies other than our faces!  However, the forecast tonight:  a mix of freezing rain and snow!

Flood Warning!

It could be an interesting Spring here in Manitoba.  Flood warnings have been issued by the provincial and city governments for some time now.  Flood preparation is in full swing.  Seven years we've been in Manitoba, and we've never seen anything like this;  this could be serious.  Now, here at Aagaard Farms, we're quite safe.  We're up on the North Hill, east of town, and look down onto the river valley.  Our dugout may over flow, and it's possible the east end of our raspberries and asparagus may drown, but that's a worst case scenario for us.  Our neighbors, at the bottom of the hill, like Grand Valley Strawberries, could be in for a much rougher ride.  The City is preparing by moving in large soil 'bags'; these things are almost five feet tall and three feet wide!  They've also been building up berms in different areas around the river.  This has been brought on by heavy rains in 2010 and a big snow pack this year.  Two years ago the experts were talking drought - may how things can change!  

Getting a Little Sun

Even though it's not that warm, the Garage Kitties are looking for a little sun! I guess on the roof, on the dark shingles, it can get a little cozy. On the right, Big Orange, in the middle Bob and peeking over from the left of the photo is Fluffy. It's just -10 C (about 12 F) so it's not exactly mild outside. But the sun holds the promise of Spring and they do have their fur coats on!

Ah, Spring On The Prairies!

Well, we didn't get the big dump of snow that was forecast, at least not here in Brandon. We got 4-5 cm ( a couple of inches, maybe) of slushy, wet stuff. What we did get today was high winds, causing extreme drifts along the country road to our house. A knock on the door sent Farmer Man out to help some people stuck not far from the house. Good neighbour Mr. Robson, Babes' owner, stopped to help on his way home. The ironic part of this whole adventure is that the people were on their way out to see us about renting a garden plot this summer.

It's Dangerous Out There!

This time of year is very hard for Manitoba gardeners who like to surf the Web. Bloggers almost everywhere but here are enjoying the first signs of Spring; they're posting awesome pictures of snowdrops and tulips coming up, buds swelling, birds returning. Here in Manitoba, on March 21st, we have a weather warning: the forecast calls for a storm that could dump more than 15 cm (about a foot!) of snow over the next 48 hours. Oh, good! It's already weird here, we've had a little nice weather, then more snow. It's melted, gotten icy, then gotten more snow on top of the ice. The picture is our barn, the door and window on the left are in Farmer Man's shop, the door on the right leads to our little greenhouse. Looming overhead: the snow and ice slowly creeping down the roof. One good slam of the door and one of us, or a little Bear, could be buried. It's not cold, at least. Well, still below freezing, but not by much, which is nice by Manitoba standards. The only things greening up around here are the seedlings in our sun room!

Coop Cleaning...and A Bath!

It has been a beautiful day; it's gotten warm enough that it's dripping off the roof of the house, garage and barn! Rather like Spring! Farmer Man had been watching the weather forecast and had picked today for a little spring cleaning in the chicken coop. He went out yesterday to stock up on not only food, but fresh wood chips as well. It's not an easy task to clean a coop: chickens poop, drop food, splash water and then walk all over it to pack it all down! Farmer Man was able to direct all The Hens and Rocky outside, shovelled the whole thing out, swept and then laid down fresh wood chips. Smells and looks fresh!

In the meantime, I had refreshed the dust bath. We've got a big bale of Sunshine Mix #3 here for seeding and I mixed about another third of diatomaceous earth in with it and put it outside where The Hens were congregating. Instant hit - we had a line up! Bath and a clean bed - it's been a good day for The Hens!

Thinking Spring!

This week our mail box has been full of not presents and holiday cards but seed catalogues! For us, it's rather like receiving presents, except they'll cost us money! We love getting the new catalogues, although we're a little busy to deal with them now. After Christmas, we'll curl up by the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and make our plans for the coming Spring. A few of our favorites are here already: Johnny's Selected Seeds, who are really geared for the market gardener, with lots of organic selections. West Coast Seeds, with lots of organics and heirlooms, but we've got to be careful with our selections because they are rather focused on the cooler, moister climate of the West Coast. Veseys Seeds is here, a Canadian company with lots of selections and breeding for commercial growers - some great tools and growing aids as well (really craving some of their 'Snap & Grow' greenhouses!). We've also got Stokes, William Dam and T & T, a Winnipeg company with lots of great selections for short season gardeners. Still missing in action are Heritage Harvest Seeds, a great little Manitoba company preserving heirloom varieties. Prairie Garden Seeds, a Saskatchewan company also preserving heirloom seeds and looking for interesting stuff including grains. We got a lot of our basic seed from Brandon's own Lindenberg Seeds, who have really improved their selection of organic seed in the last few years. And we always look forward to Terra Edibles, with the most amazing lists of heirloom tomatoes and beans!

Patience is the Key on the Prairies

The Barberry is alive!! Many a Prairie gardener would have pulled this little bush out a month ago. I, however, always give everything the utmost chance. I saw a few buds down at soil level, and I waited, patiently. It's coming fabulously! Granted, it was two feet high last year and it is currently six inches - and that's being generous. But, it survived, it has obviously rooted well and it will be a foot high again in a month or six weeks. It's a 'Rosy Glow' barberry, with burgundy leaves mottled with pink on the new growth. It's adorable, and well worth the wait! This fall I will endeavor to protect it a little better with a good mulch. I know the damage was either done in December, when we were cold without much snow cover, or in March, when we had lost the snow cover, got really warm and then got really cold. There's not much I can do to combat the whims of Mother Nature here on the Prairies, but I'll do what I can. And then wait, patiently......

Rain, Beautiful Rain!

It's been raining/drizzling/snowing off and on for a few days now. Boy, could we use it! We have had low precipitation averages since last September - yes, that's last September! As Farmer Man found when he tried to disk the fields last week, it's like powder eight or nine inches down. As you can see from the photo, we're just at bud-break here, so rain will really help all the awakening trees and shrubs! Some days, it is hard to be cruising The Web; I read that the Pacific Northwest is harvesting asparagus, California is eating the first strawberries of the year. Problem for us, is that our temperatures are rather low - frost is still a huge possibility. But the rain has come at a good time for another reason: Farmer Man has put his back out - waaaaay out- and can hardly walk! A rainy period is a good time for down time!

The Garlic IS Alive!

We fall plant garlic for bigger, better bulbs earlier.  We have to order it online in the fall because it is impossible to find in any garden centre or store around here.  We love the selection at Botanus and the value of Vesey's - and have used both as our fall source.  Garlic overwinters quite beautifully here, even in our extremely harsh climate.  We don't do anything to winter protect it, and we've planted it quite late - middle of October one year!  The earlier it comes up the better - we're always a little worried that Farmer Man will plow it under in his spring cultivation cycle if it's not showing.  No worries this year - Farmer Man can spot it no problem!  Can hardly wait for fresh garlic.......