First CSA Share of 2014 - Not Much in the Basket!

We're sorry - the spinach didn't make it!

The first CSA share of the season! Later than most years due to odd, very odd, weather!  And not a big share, at that.  This year has seemed more of a struggle then any other.  After a long cold winter, a long cold spring has made gardening challenging.  In the last month, a few weird storms have set us back even more.  At least we're not flooding, like some of our neighbours!

Veggies struggled early on.  We basically lost the spinach: it was tiny and yellowed and much died in cold, wet soil.  As the temperatures have improved, some has come back but only to go straight to seed!  I've never seen spinach two inches high with four poor leaves flowering.  It's a goner!  Some of our winter squash was washed out, as well as some of the beets and carrots.  We've replanted all, but it's rather amusing to see Delicata squash coming up eight feet down the hill from where it was planted!  The early planting of radishes have cracked from too much rain and have baby bugs tunnelling in them, so they're getting plowed under.

There's not a lot to say about today's harvest so I figured we'd start with some basics.  Here's a great link to storing and keeping your fresh vegetables and fruits: http://www.thekitchn.com/the-kitchns-guide-to-storing-fruits-and-vegetables-tip-roundup-176308.  This one is worth bookmarking: it has basic tips as well as links for specific vegetables and fruits.  We bring our vegetables as 'fresh from the field' as we can, with a basic rinse but I wouldn't consider them well washed.  We recommend getting everything out of plastic as soon as you can.  Here's a good link for vegetable 'washes', very useful for store-bought veggies which are more likely to have waxes, pesticide residues and such.  Our veggies are just...somewhat dirty but the washes are helpful to keep them fresh longer.  Since this first few weeks will be all about greens here's a great link for DIY salad dressings.  Homemade salad dressings can be made free of extra sugar and additives, and can be made fresh in small quantities.

The rejected lettuce will make excellent goat food!

So today is simple: Everyone gets a bag of Grand Rapids lettuce, a bright green, frilly lettuce perfect for salads or sandwiches.  Everyone gets a bag of Red Sails lettuce, pretty in a salad.  There are winter onions, in the ground since last fall.  Some are starting to go to seed, so if the stem is very hard it cannot be used, otherwise all parts will be very tasty in salads or cooking.  Everyone is getting Swiss Chard, a variety called Rainbow Lights with bright coloured stems.  Chard can be eaten raw or cooked like spinach: braised, sauteed or simply steamed.  We've used it in a quiche and it was very good!



So, a slow start to our CSA, but it's all fresh and chemical-free!  Just FYI...the raspberries and the beans are coming very well.......

Worrisome!

I just wrote a little piece for Dig In Manitoba about what farmers are doing in February.  Some of us are already growing our seedlings.  Almost all of us, whether we grow veggies on twenty acres, raise dairy cows or beef, or sow miles and miles of grain - we're all planning....and worrying.  Worrying goes hand-in-hand with farming it seems.

The picture at right was taken today.  We should have at least a couple of feet of snow.  The ground should be white as far as the eye can see.  Now, this winter has been very mild and quite enjoyable.  It's soooo much nicer to have chickens and goats when there is little risk of them freezing to death over night!  We and the dogs have gotten more walks this winter, we've been able to re-stock our firewood quite easily and our electricity bills are quite reasonable without our baseboard heaters running full tilt!

However, all this nice, mild weather is a worry.  To the right of the picture, if the field of view was extended, is our dug-out (a deep pond, essentially).  We use the dug-out to water our vegetables all summer long.  The land is graded so that the spring run off goes directly to the pond.  No spring run off, no water in the dug-out!  We're also wondering about perennial vegetables like asparagus and fall-planted bulbs like garlic.  Snow is a great layer of insulation in really cold weather so some of those items may have suffered some damage during our cold snap.

Hard to believe that last year was 'the flood of the century' around here and this year forecasters are already taking drought!  What will happen?  Well, we could still get a big snowstorm or two - not that convenient.  We could be really rainy in April and May.  The soil moisture, after last years' super high level, may be enough.  Nobody knows for sure, but it's a little something to worry about in our spare time!

A Reprieve in the Weather

A couple of the barn cats grab some sun!

The Chickens grabbing some rays and a dust bath!

The Goatlings get out and about.

We've had a nasty cold snap for November: the kind of temperatures we'd accept in January just seem so wrong right now.  All the animals, and us, have been huddled in our respect homes for a few days but yesterday turned into a beautiful day.  Winnipeg set a record high and Brandon

I thought the sunflower heads were for the birds but...

came close!  Time to get out and enjoy, and get some of those last chores crossed of the 'to do' list.  Farmer Man still has firewood to collect and is still gathering wood for fence posts from our shelter belt.  A good time to let the goats do a little free-ranging while he could keep an eye on them!  Everyone soaked up a few rays and enjoyed it immensely.

Water Is Not Really Our Friend This Year!

Manitoba has experienced an over-abundance of water this year - the 'Flood of the Century' and such has been an interesting experience.  Things are slowly returning to normal in Brandon, some dikes have come down, levels are receding.  Farmer Man has, just in the last two weeks, finally managed to plow most of the land we've been unable to use this year.  We went, rather quickly, from cool, rainy and waterlogged to record setting heat and humidity the past week.  In the 'Careful What You Wish For' category, we were saying a nice little storm would be good: cool things down, settle the dust, give the gardens a little drink.  So, what did we get this morning?  A rumbly thunderstorm that dropped about four inches of water in an hour!  The pathway from the barn to the house partially washed out, a field of beans just recently planted partially washed out, young plants battered to the ground including all the corn and leaking in the sun room!  Just talked to some friends in town who said Brandon's 10th street was a lake, water was up over the grass in front of the store front and water was coming over the door sill in the back of their shop!  Well, everything did get a drink, though.....

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!  

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!

Ohhhhhhhh, Good.........

After a beautiful day yesterday - blizzard today. Now, I know that there are places in the world where the weather is truly outrageous - our thoughts go out to the people of Japan, and we've been worried all day about friends in Japan and tsunami prone areas like Hawaii, the Pacific Coast and Los Cabos. But, but, it's almost mid-March. And we're having a white-out! What melted yesterday is now a layer of ice under, at this time, four or five inches of new snow. It's going to be very interesting getting around the next few days. Of course, not all of us seem to mind as much: Blaze is enjoying himself immensely!

First Snow!

We've been away for a wee bit, and returned home last night to the first snow of the season! The drive from the Winnipeg Airport home to Brandon seemed to get more, ummmm, interesting with every passing mile. What started as a few wet flakes turned into a bit of a blowing, snowing mess! Now, this isn't an unusual time for the first snow; I'm not sure statistically when we get it but folks around here always think it's a good thing if it's not snowy for Halloween. Because we've been away, there are still a few things undone - like carrots and beets still in the field. They need to come out and go into proper storage before it freezes solid and there's three feet of snow covering them. Fortunately, the forecast looks pretty good the next few days and this snow should melt away and we'll have a window of three or four days to dig them! Everything else is pretty much done - except getting the pigs off to 'Disneyland', as blogger Bill Stearman would say over at 'Word...from Willow Gardens'. That's a chore that will probably be accomplished next week.

The Last Thursday Night Farmers Market!

This is the final weekend of outdoor markets, and with the weather the last little while - I can hardly wait for it to be over! Don't get me wrong; Farmer Man and I really love 'growing good food for our neighbours'. But I'm tired of getting rained on, frozen and blown over to the next province! I mean, really! The weather in September has been less than pleasant. And the perfect topper was the final Thursday night market at Riverbank Discovery Centre. It has been cloudy, cool and rainy for a few days, about noon it began to rain quite steadily. We proceeded undeterred: it has to be really awful for us to cancel a market. Besides, most of the time the weather clears before the market starts. But not Thursday! We went to Riverbank Discovery Centre to find we were the only ones who bothered to show up! Tent up first to protect from the rain, we set up and at start time, had a few of our hardy regulars and a couple of people just leaving some event at the Discovery Centre. And then nothing......for almost forty minutes! So, just before 7:00 PM we shut her down. I must confess we stopped to pick up the makings of a cocktail on our way back to the farm - for a wee celebration and to warm us up! Fortunately, the forecast is much better for the final Friday Night Farmers Market at Shoppers Mall and for the final Saturday Morning Market at Riverbank Discovery Centre! Hopefully, the work gloves have dried out as we get back to harvest and prep.........

Golden August

In many parts of the world, summer is the time of verdant greenery, lush foliage and bright flowers. Here on the Canadian Prairies, we're waiting for everything to go yellow - more a colour associated with autumn. But, here on the Prairies, we grow grain. Lots of grain! Grains that get shipped virtually every place on this Earth. We are the bread basket of Canada! Wheat, rye, oats, barley - we grow it all. It's a major part of the Prairie economy. And grain's time is now - it must ripen now, be harvested and stored before the rains of autumn. Farmers are anxiously watching their fields, watching the weather and praying that there is no hail. Grasshoppers would be really bad right now, too. Fortunately, they don't seem to be much of a problem this year. Within the next few weeks, Aagaard Farms will be surrounded by miles and miles of gold. And then, chaos will set in. Weather permitting, the farmers will be busy like little bees. Swathers and combines and large trucks full of grain will be up and down our dusty gravel road. They will go from before first light until well after dark; day after day without a break, as long as the weather holds. Farmers' wives and families will be taking care of the other chores around the farm, and packing large lunches and dinners to drive out to the fields. And then, there is almost a palpable sigh of relief, a bit of serenity descends on the Prairies. And the farmers start thinking about upcoming curling bonspiels and Hockey Night in Canada!

But, There's Thunder Out There....

Some of the residents of Aagaard Farms just don't like thunder. Some seem oblivious. There's nothing like a ninety pound Border Collie trying to get into your lap! (Good dog, Blaze!) Some, however, deal with it by lots of whining, following around Farmer Man, and eventually, hiding.....

'Blue Moon' Wisteria: The Great Hope

Ahhh, wisteria. This time of year, garden blogs and magazines are featuring pictures of wisteria in all it's glory! And it just doesn't want to grow here - until now! 'Blue Moon' wisteria has been bred and selected to be hardy; depending on which source one reads, hardy enough for Zone 3 or 4. So, of course I had to plant one! If it IS Zone 3 hardy, that would be delightful. My hope is, even if it is Zone 4 hardy, if I can protect the roots, a wisteria is rampant enough to still get to six or eight feet high, even if it gets killed back to the ground. So, I'll add it to the list, along with the barberry, to mulch well in fall, and I'll try to shovel some extra snow onto it as the winter season progresses. Fingers crossed!

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......

More Aftermath.....

The effects of the weekends' storm are still being felt! All things considered, we were very fortunate here at Aagaard Farms. Parts of Manitoba experienced flooding, road wash-outs and large trees down on cars and buildings. The biggest thing here, of late, is Farmer Man has had to use the tractor twice to pull out renters who tried to drive down to their garden plots. It kind of falls under the category 'what were they thinking', but who am I to say anything? I made an appointment for a meeting right after dropping The Bears off at the groomers. Went into my meeting with paw prints on my trousers! Both the gardeners who got stuck are new renters this year, and they may not have realized they were driving into the lowest part of the land, right beside the dugout, where all the water drains......Now, a picnic table is across the road, to keep any one else from trying to make the drive for the next couple of days!

It's So Hard to Garden Here...

We're on the Canadian Prairies, Zone 2B officially. We like to think of ourselves as Zone 3 - it makes us feel slightly better. Farmer Man and I moved here from Vancouver, BC, Zone 8, where you can hardly kill anything unless you let it drown over the rainy winter. So, gardening here in Brandon has been full of disappointments and frustrations. Things die for no apparent reason (well, I can often deduce reasons, but it doesn't make me feel any better!) Pictured is my Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa), a Zone 4 plant (OK, OK, it was always a risk), which has been thriving in a sheltered spot for four years. This year: all dead except for a little branch at the very bottom that has leafed out. It doesn't show too well in the photo, but behind it is an Amur Cherry tree, quite hardy, in the ground five years and doing well. This spring, one of the three main branches is dead and gone. As well, I have extensive die back on hardy roses, spirea and barberry. I've given them all plenty of time, so now it's down to the pruning and the pulling out. It's soooooooo hard to be a Prairie gardener!

The Aftermath....

Just had a Sunday morning walk-about. Quite a day at Aagaard Farms! First, on checking The Hens, heard some noises behind the trees; thought somebody was trying to steal our friends' Joe and Calla's boat. Took a peak: it's some of our neighbours cattle, perhaps scared across the road to the shelter of our tree belt during yesterdays' storm. Walking toward them seemed to head them home and they took off trotting for their own pasture. Some very large trees are down at the east end of the property. It's willow shelter belt - not too surprising. A major river coursed through the field yesterday, washing out some of Farmer Man's planting. We may have corn four feet south of where he intended! More bad news: big branches down in the asparagus patch, with some loses of lovely new asparagus! Farmer Man spoke last night to our neighbour Mike Waddell, half a mile south of us. Mike had a funnel or mini tornado go through and has a number of big trees down and quite a mess around his yard. I guess things could have been worse!

The good news: some of the potatoes are up, even in this cool weather! And the dugout level is much higher than it was ten days ago! More good news: spotted an oriole and some swallows! Swallows have nested around our garage every year - their arrival means summer is close by! We have to make sure the garage is closed up or they might nest in there. They tried that a few years ago, it got too hot and some of the babies died. We love to sit and watch the swallows on a summers' eve - they are so beautiful in motion, and eat lots of bugs as they are soaring around!

A Wild Day - And Then There Were 33

Awoke early Saturday morning to find an 'Active Weather' warning on the Weather Network. High winds, thunder and lightening and heavy rain forecast. Within half an hour of reading this, it got dark - very, very dark. Suddenly, about 6:30 AM the wind came up ferociously, thunder started to roll, and lightening flashed across the sky. For about fifteen minutes it rained so hard, we couldn't see to the end of our driveway! The power started to flicker, and continued to flicker on and off for about fifteen minutes. It was very weird; some of the electronics would buzz or beep as the power came and went. Just before 7:00 AM the power went out. The thunder, lightening and rain continued for quite a while - shaking the house at points.

Farmer Man went out to check the chickens when the storm abated somewhat, and found one poor Leghorn dead on the floor of the coop. We have to assume the thunder scared her to death, poor thing. Everyone else seemed fine, the coop seemed in good shape. We had to go into town; Saturday is currently the only day our dump is open and we were over-due for a visit. We were hearing stories everywhere about power outages in town, huge trees down and the Golden Arches of McDonalds, on the highway just a couple of miles from us, hit by lightening.

We returned to the farm a little after 10:00 AM, still no power. The storm had abated but it was still raining. What do you do in a power outage? We went for a nap! On waking, still no power. We watched some old John Wayne movies on the laptop until the power started to go, moved a table into the sun room and played some cards in the best light we had. Being without power for such a length of time became an issue: we couldn't cook or make coffee. We were worried about all our lovely Berkshire pork in the freezer, we were trying not to open the fridge to increase the temperature. The situation made us realize just how tied to the grid we are: couldn't get online, our phone didn't work, couldn't recharge the computer or the camera, couldn't cook. Because we're on a well, run with an electric pump, we even had to be careful of water use - using a bucket of rain water to refill the toilet as the day went on. We finally went out for coffee and some fast food about 4:00 PM. Thunder, lightening and rain had started up again. Just as the light started to fade, the power finally came back on! One of the first orders of business: looking into purchasing a generator!!

Wild Winds

The last three days have been very windy, but Sunday and Tuesday were, well, dangerously windy! Freakish gusts, prolonged intense winds. It has just been weird. In the aftermath last night, we had a little walk around. The row cover, or horticultural fleece, has survived - thanks to Natalia and Vartan for doing such a good job of putting it down! (I noticed Vartan has used it in his little rental plot - we're rubbing off on him!). Tree branches, some big, are everywhere! Brother-in-law Murray's camper took a dive and the hoop house now has air conditioning. One of the bird feeders went flying and assorted pots and crates got blown all over. I've never seen the crates we use levitating like that - it was unsettling! But this morning seems fairly calm, and the chores of a market garden carry right on!