I’ve pretty much run out of produce (except for lettuces and radish which we pulled from our own garden this week) and am dreading having to put in a visit to the grocery store to buy their ‘fresh’ product.

I’m not sure why Saturday mornings are becoming difficult (3 kids under 3.5 years old) but we’re having a hard time getting out of the house in time to make the markets.

I think this week we will visit the Eco-market at Hempola farms. We’ve been talking about it for a year, but Friday nights come and go and we always forget!

Ack – a note from the tech side of my personality… Apparently Hempola Farms haven’t updated their site since 2004! The good news is their Eco-Market will be up and running again in the spring of 2005! Doh! I missed it! Come on Hempola, I know farms aren’t always thought of as being part of the most tech-savvy industry, but try to make at least ANNUAL updates to your site if you are going to go to the trouble of having one!

The 2008 garden is a little below 25 X 30 feet, or ~850 square feet.

Biggest pests so far:

• Mosquitos – Installed bat boxes and spray on repellent
• Ants – Don’t know what to do about this menace!

Grown:

We’ve planted the following:

• Corn
• Eggplant
• Various Heritage Tomatoes
• Ground Cherries
• Various Peppers (green, red, orange etc)
• Jalapeño
• Horseradish

• Turnip
• Radish
• Peas
• Beans
• Parsnip
• Various Carrots
• Various Potatoes
• Various Lettuces
• Various Radichios
• Cucumbers
• Various Onions
• Garlic
• Pumpkin
• Cantaloupe
• Broccoli
• Rhubarb
• And not necessarily in that order (I’m probably forgetting something too!)

Unfortunately, and if you followed along last summer you probably know, we live in the city. Not that living in the city is unfortunate, there are plenty of good things about living in the city and at this point in our lives it just makes sense to be close to everything. But, I was raised in the country and would like to find my way back sometime before I retire :)

The unfortunate thing, and likely my least favourite part of city living, is our postage-stamp sized back yard. It’s big enough for a shed, a small deck and a large childrens play center (slide and swings), with just enough grass left over for the dog to do her serious business.

…definitely NOT large enough for a garden.

Community Supported Agriculture

Last year we signed up for a local CSA (a what!? ), which was a great experience. It was a particularly hot and dry year, so the produce occasionally left something to be desired, but on a whole we were very happy to participate and the kids will miss not being able to visit the animals every week (my son is already talking about Flash, the farm horse!)

We’d be signing up again this year too, but the opportunity arose to plant our own garden on a plot of land about 27×35 feet (or just shy of 1000 square feet), and we couldn’t pass it up. My wife’s parents own about 4 acres off of Lake Simcoe and despite the fact that it is a 45 minute drive away, we tilled the land and are ready for a summer of Sundays at the inlaws.

If you can’t grow your own garden and have thought about CSA, or have never even heard of CSA before, you should stop by Heritage Hill Organics, just outside of Barrie, for their open house on May 10th . I think we’ll be making excuses to stop by over the summer a few times still.

The Summer Garden Series

So, long story short, this is the first installment of our ‘Summer Garden’ series. Actually, I have a lot to tell already as I spent a month clearing and double-turning the land last fall, began an epic battle against the ant hordes and started growing veggies in the basement almost a month ago now!

In fact, we put our first vegetables in the garden today: onions, cucumbers, cantaloupe, and garlic. It’s still a bit early, but I’m making some clotches (I think that’s the right spelling) and loaded on the mulch to keep the ground temp. up as much as possible… So we’ll see; this whole summer is going to be an experiment in organic gardening and I wanted to test how early I could get things in the ground (my fingers are x’d against any late frosts).

Wintered Vegetables

Not only did I plant today, I already began the harvest! There are a few things growing that were in the ground still from last summer (in a pre-existing garden) and we picked a pile of onions whose tops were already over 2 feet high! We’re going to use the tops as ‘green onions’ and replant the smallish bulbs!

My goal for the next week is to figure out which vegetables I still need to pick up, whether that will be in seed or plant form and the general layout of the entire garden (got to go in with a plan!). I have to finish the clotches, pick up more peat and mulch and find a hot tub to soak in (Hey! I have a desk job… I’m sore after a day in the garden.)

So much to do… so little time!

We didn’t have enough time to head to the Orillia Farmers Market this week (which is bigger and offers more) as Mrs. Foodie had family visiting from Ottawa, but still managed to pick up enough produce to get us through the week :)

Still VERY dry in the Barrie area lately and most of the local produce is pretty scrawny…

July 7 th —

Here’s what we picked up from the CSA Farm for Week 3 (still only $10 per week!):

Garlic Scapes (only a few, probably the last we’ll see)
1 bag assorted greens
1 bag mustard greens
1 bag bok choy
1 bag of very large peas (different variety this week)
1 bunch small green onions
about 12 baby (golf ball size) potatoes
1 quart strawberries (getting near the end of strawberry season!)
Assorted herbs (basil, chives, thyme, mint, etc)

Still a little light, but the lack of rain is to blame there.

Still hoping for radishes, cucumber, tomatoes, or broccoli etc soon!

I was excited to see purple potatoes in the mix. These were too small to do much with, but they will get bigger. I was introduced to purple (or blue) potatoes in university and can attest that this tasty potato can be quite shocking when served as mashed potatoes (or shepherd’s pie) and makes a great addition (and conversation piece) to any guest dinner!

We made a delicious stir fry using a little bit of everything this week (except the greens and strawberries; which were mixed together and served separately!) I’ve never used bok choy in a stir fry previously but it made a great addition to the dish.

It’s going to to take awhile to populate information for each market, but I will be finishing a few every week.

For now you can use this guide to find the Farmers’ Markets in your area!

You can access the new Ontario Farmers’ Markets Guide from the Food Guides section of our menu (down the right hand side of the screen)

Or click this link now!

I’ve added a new feature called In-Season Produce Guide that will keep you up to date with the freshest fruits and vegetables you can expect to find at your local CSA Farm or Farmers Market as the growing season progresses!

You can access the new In-Season Produce Guide from the Food Guides section of our menu (down the right hand side of the screen)

Or click this link now!

I’m hoping the produce is a little better this week, but it has been SOO dry in the Barrie area for the last month that most of the local produce I’ve seen lately is pretty scrawny…

:(

Still tastes better than store bought of course :)

We’ll take some pictures tomorrow and I let everyone know how it goes.

<Update: sun. July 1 – We forgot the camera :) and today’s Canada day, so I’ll follow up tomorrow!>

Update: July 4 —

This weeks pickup consisted of:

Garlic Scapes
1 bag assorted greens
1 bag mustard greens
1 bag bok choy
1 bag of very large peas (forgot to ask variety)
a few small green onions
Assorted herbs (basil, chives, thyme etc)

Still a little light, but the lack of rain is to blame there.

Hopefully we’ll see radishes, cucumber and tomatoes soon too!

We live on the edge of Barrie so the drive is really only about 10 minutes for us, which is nice.

It’s still early in the season and this week offered slim pickings… We’ve also been hurting for rain so far this summer too, which is affecting crops. You may have noticed this if you’ve gone to pick strawberries yet this season.

Our share works out to $20 per week, and we probably received an equivalent of about $12 – $15 worth of produce (assuming you went to a local grocers to pick it up)

Not that I’m complaining :)

Our $20 got us fresh, organic produce that came out of the ground the day before we picked it up! And I’ll take that any day over chemically-sprayed food shipped from 5000 miles away.

Here’s what we got this week:

• Green Onions (still small, 1 bunch)
• Bag of assorted lettuces
• Bag of Spinach
• Bag of Bok Choy (unfortunately somewhat beetle chewed)
• Garlic tops (I have to look up and see if there is an official name)
• Bag of Peas (I got side tracked before I could ask what kind of peas but will find out next week)
• 1/2 dozen farm fresh eggs

Of course Foodie 1 & 2 were all about the farm animals; spending the majority of their time with the brown & white varieties of chickens, geese, turkeys, and the newly added pigs (presumably all available for your dinner table by the end of the year)

The pigs were interesting, some kind of historic British variety. Black and hairy with very large ears. I’m hardly a pig expert so I hope you excuse my technical language :)

We had a nice organic salad last night to celebrate, and it was delicious. Tonight we’ll have stir fry so we can use up the Bok Choy.

I’ll see what I can do about pictures :)

We spent so long at the farm that we missed the Farmers Market this week, but that’s probably ok. I was busy all weekend jamming all the strawberries we picked up at Barrie Hill Farm last week.

I’m excited because tomorrow I get to go pick up our first round of fresh, farm grown organic vegetables!

In fact, I’m so excited, I’ve created a new column here at the Barrie branch of Canadian Foodies where I will talk about the great opportunities around Barrie, and the country, that make it easy to stop buying chemical-laced, factory-produced, processed goods (mmm… sounds appetizing doesn’t it!?) and eat healthier, better foods!

I will start back tomorrow with some information about local farmers markets, and when we pickup our organics this weekend I’ll be sure to take a few pictures to share!

Until then, have a great Friday!