End of the Growing Season....

Everyone enjoys the fountain each summer!

Yesterday, we could park our truck in the garage, for the first time in probably four months!  It means the season is just about finished here in Manitoba.  During growing season, the garage is 'action central', where we gather the harvest, clean, package and sort into CSA boxes or crates for Farmers Markets.  One side of the double garage is always for processing: a couple of long tables with our scales, bags, accessories and space to put down crates of to-be-weighed-and-packaged veggies.  The other side gets tables set up all around, where we lay out all the crates; on Tuesdays and Thursdays for our CSA families, Fridays and Saturdays for The Global Market.  In September, in particular, the garage is crammed with crates and crates of potatoes, onions and garlic drying and curing before being sold or stored, then it's floor is covered with all the Winter Squash we've harvested.  It's hard to walk around let alone park a vehicle!  So, when the truck can finally go back into the garage - we know things are almost finished.

There hasn't been a blog post in a while: the last CSA delivery, the last Global Market all bring a sense of 'end' to us, and we take a little break from writing and, well, talking to people.  We've hardly left the farm for a couple of weeks, just the occasional grocery shop or feed store run!  We're still busy, though, very, very busy!  Farmer Man is still doing clean up/close up.  All the potatoes have been moved to the root cellar, all the Winter Squash is in the sun room.  Anything that can be dug, plucked or pulled has been.  It has largely all been dealt with too; there are just soup beans, Jacob's Cattle, that still need to be shelled, cleaned and stored.  Farmer Man has started some tilling, to clean up some growing beds and he's been cleaning the shop, the garage, the green house and the barn.  He's gathered tomato cages and stakes, picked up hoses, organized tools and a myriad of other small chores.  Work has already started, in a small way, on winterizing the barns, cleaning and updating goat pens and chicken coops.  Those, however, are chores that can wait until the first snow fall forces him off the land.  Me, I've been cooking, baking and making soap - hoping to be ready to do some craft shows this Holiday Season!

One of our final chores, just before freezing weather sets in, is to dismantle the fountain by our patio.  It's a work of art every year - stacked stones, a deep basin of water and a pond pump.  Everyone enjoys it: not only do we enjoy it as we sit on the patio but dogs, cats, chickens, assorted wild birds and even bees and wasps stop in for a drink.  When the fountain is taken down it means that Winter is looming right around the corner.  Farmer Man has threatened a couple of times to take it apart, but I always look at the long range forecast and tell him to leave it a few more days....

More Than Just Frost....

Another bucket load to unload at the garage!

With just a touch of Mother Nature's hand, the growing season is largely done for us!  Friday night was not just frost, or even hard frost: Friday's night's temperatures went well below the freezing mark.  Our thermometer read -7 C (about 18 F) at 6 AM Saturday morning.  Vegetables are done growing for this year!  There had been hope for the summer squash and cucumbers after the touch of frost last week: the tops had been touched but the inner plant was okay and they had started to flower again and had some new growth.  Now, all hope is gone and the plants are all blackened, collapsed heaps, almost unrecognizable.

We had some warning in the weather forecast - although it did get even colder than predicted!  Thursday was CSA day for us so we were busy harvesting for our families, but taking a little extra of everything when we could.  Friday was all-out last-chance harvesting.  Where do you start when it might be your last chance to harvest?  Well, first you prioritize:  anything in the ground like potatoes and beets will be fine.  Then you look at the economic value of our products and those products in demand.  For us, priorities were winter squash and tomatoes.  Everyone is tired of summer squash: they've sauteed, muffined, loaved and frozen to the max!  Winter squash, from pumpkins to Kabocha to Delicata, that's what customers and CSA families are looking for now.  And tomatoes - well, you can never have enough!  Lots of customers are still looking for good paste or plum tomatoes for canning sauces and salsas!

The tomato plants are just crispy now!

So, Friday morning right after milking, the harvesting frenzy began.  I set to work on tomatoes, Farmer Man to winter squash.  Farmer Man definitely had the harder task (as is also so!), because he was cutting squash, filling the tractor bucket, unloading at the garage and doing it all again.  That included twenty pound carving pumpkins, fifteen pound Marina di Chioggia, heavy Australian Blue pumpkins, ten pound Red Kuri and numerous five to ten pounders of everything else.  We briefly considered not attending the Global Market, to get in as much as we could.  We decided we could get enough done, and still be there to sell as expected - just a wee bit more disorganized then usually.  I set to work in the tomatoes, starting with the Romas, Margeritas and Opalkas, using a three bucket system: ripe, almost ripe and green.  We both left lots of small, under ripe product in the field - just not worth our time and space!

Fortunately, Henry and Derrick came to help and got right to work in the tomatoes with me.  We worked feverishly all morning.  About 1:30 we stopped to prepare for the market.  Fortunately, much was at hand and we knew how much we needed to prepare.  Potatoes were already curing in the garage, getting ready for winter storage in the root cellar.  Farmer Man bagged potatoes, I portioned tomatoes, we both weighed and labelled winter squash.  Off to Global Market for me, Farmer Man returned to the farm to keep harvesting!

Basil in the hoop house is largely okay,
except for a little patch right by the wall.

I must admit, even with the knowledge I had, I was not fully prepared for the temperature drop at the market Friday night.  I was freezing, just freezing by the time Farmer Man came to pick me up!  I had big plans to keep harvesting, but after milking the goats, I was assured that there was not much more to do except cover excess squash that was on tables outside the garage.  Up early Saturday morning to prepare for market and we could see the damage had been done!  Prepping for the Global Market Saturday morning was quite easy because everything was right at hand!  A peak in the hoop house, and everything there seemed largely okay!

Even though the 'growing' season may be finished, the work is not done by any means.  There are still potatoes and beets to take up.  Garlic still has to be planted.  Stakes and cages have to be removed from tomatoes, assorted other tags, fencing and such has to be picked up.  We'll leave a lot of plants in the ground, as is, for winter, to help capture snow and decrease soil erosion.  And maybe, just maybe, our late planting of lettuce will still grow and we'll have a fresh salad in a couple of weeks!

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.

Goats Like Squash, Too!

Yes, our obsession with growing winter squash seems to have rubbed off on our animals.  I make part of the food the dogs eat: a big 'boil-up' of rice, ground pork or beef, oil, garlic and a vegetable.  They've had winter squash in the mixture with no objections.  The house cat has had a little spoonful of the same mixture with similar results (Blondie has been known to carefully eat around every single pea).  Chickens go absolutely nuts for the seeds of any winter squash and will peck at the flesh.  So why not goats?

 We had some of the bigger Hubbard squash damaged on a very cold night earlier in the week.  They were outside, under tarps but still developed some water-soaked spots on the skin - totally edible but not so pretty.  So, Farmer Man decided to roll a big thirty pounder into the goat pen; if nothing else they might play with it a bit.  We have, through the summer, offered the goats some summer squash and once they got the hang of it, they liked it.  Goats only have teeth on the bottom of their mouth, the top is a plate all about grinding leaves and twigs.  It seemed difficult for the goats to take a bite of a zucchini unless we broke it apart for some rough edges.  The large Hubbard proved an instant attraction; fortunately it had gotten dinged getting in place and one, Goldie of course, started to nibble.  Her interest led to the full attention of the other two goatlings and soon they were all gnawing heartily!  They love the skin, chomped through the meat and nibbled delicately at the seeds!  The nice thing is it amused them the whole afternoon, and saved us from the increasingly fruitless search for leafy twigs.  Having a stash of squash will be good for everyone this winter!

CSA Bonus Day!

Last time, this year, that we meet our CSA families.  Always a rather sad day, and another reminder that Fall is here!  Thank you, to all our families, for a great year.  Thank you for sharing recipes and tips, for asking great questions and for enjoying the food!  Thanks to Cathy for all the great baking we were able to sample and a special, great BIG Thank You to Sharon, who made us both a gorgeous afghan!  That was the most awesome thing, Sharon, hugs and kisses to you!

Last week we met and, actually, exceeded (by a little bit) our obligations to our CSA families.  Today, is our gift to you, a chance to share in the harvest those things that have done really well for us!  Potatoes, 'Aunt Ruby's German Green' tomatoes, carrots and winter squash are what we're bringing for everyone!  We've organized some potato favorites, we've got three kinds of winter squash that will store well, and Nantes Coreless carrots.  We were hoping to do onions, but the first dig sold well at the Farmers Markets and the second dig was extremely disappointing - mostly small sizes good only for replanting in the Spring.

We'd like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to a Farm Open House on Sunday, October 2nd from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM.  We're going to make some soup, roast a few winter squash for sampling and have a sale on winter squash, if anybody wants to stock up for the winter!  Come see where it all happens, meet the goats, pet a chicken and see the little kittens in the barn!  Drop by anytime during the afternoon and say hi!  Families and friends are welcome!  Hope to see you all then!

Christmas in November?

My Christmas cactus is, once again, a little ahead of schedule. It has done this ever since we moved to Manitoba. I believe I understand why: a zycocactus is triggered to bloom by short days and cool temperatures. Here in the North, in Canada, our days get short early in the fall so there is one trigger. Second, I keep this little cactus in the sun room, which is not very well insulated. We had some very cool, frosty nights early in September and the sun room is always cooler than the rest of the house. So, voila! Full bloom by the middle of November. I'm not really complaining - it's gorgeous any time of year. And if I was really uptight about it I could move the plant into the main house and keep it a little warmer a little longer. As is, we carry on and enjoy it whenever it does it's thing. And we know, we'll probably be able to enjoy a second set of blooms sometime in March!

Finally......Sweet Peas

I can't explain it, can't rationalize it no matter how hard my little horticultural brain tries. Finally, at the middle of October, my sweet peas have started to bloom. Around us, all the signs of fall are very evident! The garden renters have largely cleaned their plots and no longer come. The leaves are falling off the trees, we've had at least a few frosts - but my sweet peas are starting to bloom. The seeds were planted at the usual time - first week of June. They were planted in three spots: an arbor in the front border, a trellis for tromboncino squash in the garden and in a pot at the front door. None have bloomed until now, all have buds! The pot at the front door probably had the most attention, and everything else in the pot, including a tomato, herbs and nasturtium have done quite well. The tromboncino squash did okay, probably planted a little too close to the willow windbreak. And the arbor in the front border got quite a bit of attention because my 'Blue Moon' wisteria is planted on the same side of the arbor and I've remembered to baby it a bit all summer. We had consistent rain, good but not too hot temperatures. There's just no explaining what Mother Nature does, some times! But, I'm certainly enjoying my little bouquet!

The Girls Say It's Fall For Sure!

Finally, The Girls and Rocky are going to bed before us! It's kind of embarrassing when your chickens want to stay up later than you do. However, as the days get shorter, and cooler ( high of 7 Celsius today!!!), The Girls and Rocky are sleeping in a little later and going to bed a little earlier. They have also started to molt - a nice array of feathers decorates the coop every morning. And, egg production is down - way down. Now, commercial poultry people augment the light their chickens get to keep up production. They 'fool' the chickens into thinking it's still summer. We're letting ours go the natural way - although once it gets really cold we will put in a heat lamp, which will increase production somewhat. We've also noticed that the Leghorns (the white chickens) are laying smaller and smaller eggs. Now, we've always gotten the occasional tiny egg; we figured it was from Funky Butt, a chicken with a crooked tail. But all of a sudden, we've gotten two tiny eggs a day for a couple of days. We hope - and our loyal customers hope - that it's not the wave of the future!

Hummingbird Farewells?

I suppose because there has been so much rain, we've been hanging around the house a bit more than usual. Among other things, it's given us the opportunity to view our hummingbird feeder more frequently. In the last few days, it's suddenly been very busy at the feeder. Of course, we have no good way to tell if this is activity is all one hummingbird or different hummingbirds. But, it has definitely been a pleasure. The little guy in the picture hang around for a couple of hours in the rain. He'd rest in the ninebark shrub, have a good, long drink and then return to the shrub. We've never witnessed such a thing before! He even chased off another little hummingbird a couple of times! Although it's a joy to watch, it's rather sad, too. It means to us that the hummingbirds are getting ready to head south. They always leave early - and who can blame them, a small bird like that probably can't take too much frost, and frost could come at any time now.

An Odd Fall!

Pictured is a Viburnum, 'Bailey's Compact' Cranberry to be exact. (This has nothing to do with the cranberries served with turkey - different group of plants going by the same common name.) This plant usually has gorgeous orange/red leaves this time of year, highlighted by the bright red berries. In this odd fall, the leaves got frozen by our early winter storm, and now persist, half green and half brown, looking sad. It's like that with many plants, sort of caught in time. Here in Manitoba, the majority of plants have yellow fall colour, so the red of the cranberry is sorely missed.

The Last CSA of the Season!

It's always a sad/happy day when we arrive at the last share for our CSA families. Sad because we enjoy harvesting and bringing the food to our families each week, and it truly means the season is wrapping up when we hit the last share. Happy because it is hard work and it means our days get a little easier now, our backs get a bit of a break and we don't have to get up as early! (Although Rocky the rooster won't really let us sleep in much).

It certainly was feeling 'fallish' as we started our day today. The last two week's weather has been splendid, but as we arrive at the official start of fall it got right chilly last night. Down to 4 C (about a mere 40 F), chilly in the house this morning, chilly and dewy out in the vegetables. By noon, is was lovely again, already up to 15 C (62 F). The part that makes this last harvest seem slightly surreal is that there is so many summer vegetables in the shares. Usually, by this time in Manitoba, we would already have had at least one frost. Tender vegetables in the field such as peppers, summer squash and tomatoes would be done, finished, kaput. In this odd growing year, they are all still going strong, even just starting. So it's an odd mix of fresh, ripe summer stuff and the usual winter keepers that populate the last share.

So, for the EVERYONE this week: 10 lbs Norland red potatoes, 5 lbs Russet white (the great baking potato), 5 winter squash: two hybrid Kabocha ('Confection' blue pumpkin and the orange 'Winter Sunshine'), 'Sweet Dumpling' and 'Celebration' hybrid acorn squash and a spaghetti squash, one summer squash, a bundle of carrots, 1 lb mixed yellow wax and purple beans (don't forget they will cook up dark green), 6 onions, cucumbers, green peppers, sweet banana peppers, 2 lbs mixed tomatoes (some very green for frying or allowing to ripen on the kitchen counter) and a mix of slicers, grapes and cherry tomatoes.

We'd like to take this space to thank all our shareholders for joining in and trusting us to grow your food! It is, as always, an honor and a pleasure to bring you our harvest every week. Many thanks to Linda Boys, Menno and Evelyn Isaac, Mike Waddell and the Trelkas for all your help and support! And a special BIG THANK YOU to all the members who helped support the Samaritan House shares!

Feel free to contact us this winter for potatoes, winter squash and eggs. We should have a good supply of potatoes in the root cellar all winter, squash at least until Christmas. Eggs - well, we're not sure how they will lay when it's dark and cold but we'll have some eggs!

Eat well and be happy!