Topic — Farming

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll start growing the majority of seedlings for transplanting in May. That begins with broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, lettuce, and a first set of tomatoes. Most of our indoor seed starting is done in plug sheets, which are resuable from year to year. We took them out of storage today, a stack 5-1/2′ high! A quick clean-up and they’ll be ready to go again!

Here are the first onion seedlings in their temporary home under the lights. With our relatively short southern Ontario growing season, starting plants indoors in the late winter and early spring is a must to get as a long a fresh veggie harvest as possible. These onions are early, seed starting really gets going in March!

The snow cover was no match for the two days of rain a couple of days ago—you can see ground! The ridges left by the moldboard plowing last fall are frozen solid, convenient for a bit of wandering around (much better than sinking into mud). We still have a few weeks wait until real outdoor work begins, but it’s good to see that the garden is still there!

The first onions emerged today—for us here on the farm, that means the new growing season has officially begun! In February and March, we grow many veggie seedlings indoors, for transplanting into the garden when the weather warms up. Onions and leek take the longest and go out the earliest, so they’re started first. Eventually, there will be tomatoes and peppers, broccoli and cauliflower, eggplant, melons, and more, all growing in plug sheets and pots under lights. It’s the first taste of spring!

This garden is good for walking, and that’s about it, as long as it’s frozen solid and buried in snow! Today is the winter solstice, shortest day of the year. From here, the days get longer, the sun gets stronger—spring is on its way. Meanwhile, winter farming action is indoors, as we ready the seedling room for seed starting in January…

‘Tis the season to order some seed! This is when the annual seed catalogs arrive, and it’s time to tackle the big puzzle of putting together the new garden production plan… [Read more →]

Today, we turned over the hay fields, the first step on the way to a field-sized veggie garden. It’s quite exciting to watch a big tractor and moldboard plow slice the ground into strips and literally turn over the top layer of soil. [Read more →]