Deck the Halls!

I have been very bad about blog posts the last month; my apologies.
We had our first snow storm of the season a few weeks ago. I stumbled through snow drifts continuously repeating under my breath "Ew, ew, ew." . Yes, I was a little turned off about the weather. But now the situation has changed! Texas has snow, and we have 60 F weather.
We are still harvesting carrots and leeks out of the garden. And the deer are eating the cabbage, and the leek tops (something I never thought they would do).
The Fall/Winter CSA has started, and is so far going well.
Fall/Winter CSA list:
carrots
apples
turnips
beets
garlic
onions
eggs
meat
squash
greens (HKSB, kale, etc.)
leeks
dried herbs
pesto
granola
honey
cider
potatoes
dried hot peppers

All the animals are doing well. The calves have been weaned from their mothers.

Our Wreath 

The Windsor Farmers' Market is still going. We have two more markets left; December 10, and December 17.  Also, with the holiday season we have been attending a few Christmas markets too.

  

But The Cold Still Remains...

This weekend we got a small storm, escorted by wind, rain, hail and biting cold. I hope all you kids are wearing long johns under your Hallowe'en costume!
The CSA is over, last week was the final week. It was a wonderful experience, and we plan to do it again next year.
We planted our garlic a couple weeks ago. And the only thing really still growing in the gardens is greens; lettuce, mustard greens, kale, swiss chard and Health Kick Salad Blend. And cabbage and carrots for storage still need to be harvested.

Garlic for planting

All the animals are doing well, and are getting a taste of the end of season pasture. The chicks are nearly large enough to be moved into the chicken coop with the other chickens.  Also, in spirit of the holiday, we slaughtered 9 of our ducks, and we have one cow hanging in the slaughter house.
Happy Hallowe'en!

Winter Squash

Red Hot Chile Peppers

It has been a busy two weeks on the farm since I last blogged. Last week the rain fell, wind blew and hail pounded down on all the crops. We were left with flaccid beans, lettuce with wind burn, and flattened spinach. I'm laughing as I write this, but it wasn't all that funny.
Most of our winter squash has been harvested, and is now curing in the greenhouse. And on the weekend we pulled most of our onions. The bean pole tipis have been dismantled, along with most of the tomato trellis.  
I have started stringing up our hot peppers in the drying room; hence "Red hot Hot Chile Peppers".
The Saturday markets are going well; come down this Saturday morning!
On Thanksgiving I did a demonstration on how to make Kale Chips and Kale Smoothies at the Maritime Fall Fair; check out http://inthekitchenwithfrancesca.blogspot.com for those recipes.

CSA week 18 (!)/Market
lettuce heads
potatoes
peppers, sweet
peppers, hot
eggplant
kale
carrots
cabbage
garlic
onions
winter squash
broccoli
cauliflower
tomatoes

This autumn morning

Windsor Farmers' Market day and time change. Don't forget that the WFM will be changing back to Saturday mornings as of October 1st. We are open from 9am-1pm, hope to see you there!




Our first week of fall has been a beautiful one. All the haying is done, now it just needs to be stacked in the barns. What little is left in the garden, we are trying to keep as weedless as possible.  In a few weeks time we will be harvesting more peas and string beans.

Vegetable list/CSA, week 16:
lettuce, head (red bibb, leaf, oakleaf, romain)
peppers, sweet
peppers, hot
carrots
potatoes
zucchini
beans, pole

Squash plant growing on a bale of hay

tomatoes
onions
garlic
peppermint
basil
beet greens
kale
Swiss chard
lettuce, mix
HKSB (Health Kick Salad Blend)

All the animals are enjoying the year's last lush grass.

Chief 

Billi

Mulie

Hay days

Finishing up our haying this week. The beautiful September weather is making it much easier!
The farm is busy as usual, but the gardens are winding down a bit. The animals are enjoying the less humid weather (though it was pretty warm yesterday), and are spending more time during the day out grazing.
We are also organizing our Fall/Winter CSA share program.

Vegetables on the farm this week are:
carrots
tomatoes
kale
peppers, sweet
pole beans (Garden of Eden, Fortex, and Scarlet Runner)
zucchini
potatoes
lettuce heads (yay!)
onions
cucumbers
pickling cukes
garlic
lettuce mix
Health Kick Salad Blend (spicy mix)

Everyone, meet Buddy!

It's that time of year again

Yes, September. All the children are back in school (except the lucky homeschooled ones!), leaves are beginning to change, and harvest season is underway.  In the last week and a half we have begun our haying (which should have been done over a month ago). And we also got in one hundred square bales of straw, that have all been neatly stacked in the pig barn. On the farm we have a diverse selection of vegetables to offer our CSA shareholders and to take to the Farmers' Market. This past week we have also started harvesting our yellow storage onions
Vegetables available on our farm this week:
lettuce mix
cucumbers
zucchini
eggplant
peppers
carrots
potatoes
green beans
yellow beans
fortex beans (pole bean)
Garden of Eden beans (pole bean)
Scarlet runner beans (pole Bean)
tomatoes
garlic
onions
broccoli
kale
Swiss chard
bok choy
Chinese cabbage (Napa cabbage)

Windsor Farmers' Market day and time change

 The Windsor Farmers' Market will be changing back to Saturday mornings starting October 1st 2011, from 9am-1pm. 

Work, work, and...did I mention work?

Yes, life on the farm has been busy the last few weeks. And today we are expecting some bad weather from hurricane Irene, hopefully she will be nice to us!
Not too much has really changed on the farm. Gardens still need to be weeded, plants need to be planted, seeds need to be seeded, animals need to be fed, etc. Though (and I just remembered this) we have some new chicks. They are quite cute, they live in one of the horse stalls in the same barn that Epona and Roscoe occupy.
The CSA is more than half over, it seems like it just started (but I feel that way about summer too, like it's almost September; aghh!)
But we have a nice diverse selection of food coming out of the gardens, including:
tomatoes
onions (red and yellow)
garlic
swiss chard
kale
lettuce
green peppers
eggplants
zucchini
early cabbage
pickling cukes
cucumbers
carrots
beets
beans
peas (sugar and shelling)
basil
peppermint, and
thyme

Farm tours, gardening, CSA, rain...

Hi! I have been too busy to write recently, but finally I have made the time for it.

Last weekend we hosted a Farm Tour, put together by ACORN (Atlantic Canada Organic Regional Network). It was a lot of fun, and according to ACORN (and, well, us too!) a huge success. If you are interested pictures and more information, visit www.acornorganic.org . The farm looked very nice, and (somewhat) weed free. The farms involved were asked to make food samples; I made Deviled Eggs and Strawberry-Kale smoothies (visit my other blog, In the kitchen with Francesca, for those recipes).

In the gardens...
Well, everything is soggy, due to thundershowers on Sunday and rain all day Monday. Most things are growing pretty well (this includes weeds), though it has been a bit of a slow year. Our zucchini isn't really doing anything, which is odd because usually we have an abundance of it this time of year. Our tomatoes just don't seem to be ripening. Our beans are doing beautifully though! Another row of sugar snap peas are starting to produce now. This is also our first week of carrots; yay! A lot of cauliflower too...

CSA week nine: (almost halfway through)
Lettuce mix
Onions
Radish
Cauliflower
Beets
Kale
Swiss Chard
Beans
Carrots
New Potatoes
Cucumber
Bok Choy , and
Peas

Wow, that's quite a list.

The animals...
The little kitten, after numerous names (including: Boci, Sprout, Super Rat, Nefertiti, and many more), she has finally acquired the name "Phoebe".  Some people ask me if we only have one cat after reading this blog; to clear this up, no, we have four cats: Chubby Checkers, Corin, Beow, and Phoebe.

And, while we're at it; we also have six horses: Mulie, Billi, Buddy, Chief, Roscoe and Epona.  
  


                                                   This is Corin.

CSA week 7

Today is the pick up day for week seven of the Farms' CSA. Next week we might have some tomatoes and carrots to add to shareholders bags/baskets! We will be hopeful!

This week shareholders can expect some of these items.
Health Kick Salad Blend (a spicy mix)
Lettuce mix
Cucumber
Beans
Broccoli
Dill
Radish
Basil
Kale
Swiss Chard
Bok Choy
Green Onions, and
Beet Greens

Last weekend we harvested one of our beds of garlic. We have it hanging in our drying room. Vampires beware!

* the Health Kick Salad Blend can be eaten either, braised, or fresh (like any other salad). If you find it too spicy, it might be best for you to braise it.

CSA, week six

We have reached our sixth week of Oakmanor Farms' CSA.   Some of the vegetables shareholders should be expecting are:
lettuce mix
green onions
bok choy
Chinese cabbage
currants
dill
cilantro
radish
kale
green beens
garlic scapes
Swiss chard, and
peas

The gardens are drying up after all the rain we got. Not hard when it's 27 Celsius out!  But, over all, the gardens are looking weeded and well maintained.  Our garlic will be ready to harvest soon; exciting!

The kitten is growing. She is still unnamed, but has a lot of nick-names (not all of them nice).  The ducklings are growing so quickly! They are starting to resemble their parents more every day.

Finally got that rain we needed...And then some

It rained first on Saturday; I could have kissed every last drop!  Then it started raining today, or showers as the weatherman predicted: well, I can tell you, it wasn't a shower. The gardens are starting to get squishy again (please lettuce, don't drown again!).
Anyhow, enough about H2O.
The decorative corn is planted, along with more bok choy, chinese cabbage, basil, lettuce and radish.
And gardens are in need of a desperate weeding.
The animals are all doing well, except some of the male ducklings that are getting attacked by their father.
And the little cat is still unnamed, I was thinking an Italian name would nice.  Fumoso, Avana, Viva, Favilla, Roma, Bellina, Caro.

Rain, rain, come this way...

Well, as my title has hinted at, we could use some rain for the gardens! First it is too much rain, then not enough; someday, we will reach the happy medium.
The gardens are starting to really come together nicely; the eggplants, leeks, peppers, and carrots have all been planted!  And the bean-pole tipis have gone up, next to go up is the tomato trellis.
And we have also been enjoying all the fresh produce from our garden: lots of salads; and I have completely fallen in love with kale smoothies, I experiment with a new variation every day!
Not much has changed with animals, except for the fact that I have a new kitten! She doesn't have a name yet, so feel free to help me chose a name!
I was thinking along the lines of...
Echo
Claudia
Phoebe
Boci
any more ideas?

 Happy Canada Day!

Farming, blogging, and...more farming!

Well, we had our first CSA, and everything seems to have gone well. I thoroughly enjoyed making up everyone's bag of produce!
A lot of work has been done in the gardens in the past week, including planting the peppers, eggplants, and (most of) the leeks and onions. And a lot of rain has fallen in the last few days (including right now), along with some hail.
Not too much has changed on the animal side of things.
We had nice market on Friday, in Windsor. It was a beautiful day for a market!


This is a row of onions in one of our gardens.

new blog

I have started a new blog about cooking with seasonal ingredients. Visit it at inthekitchenwithfrancesca.blogspot.com .

Farm news:
We have planted all of our cabbage plants in the last two days (some 12 hundred plants) !
And we also have more new ducklings!

CSA News:
No broccoli this week (sigh), but next week hopefully!

Going head first into week 1 of CSA

The first week of CSA has sprung upon us! This is a new milestone for Oakmanor Farm.
This week we will have mostly greens; lettuce, spinach, kale and swiss chard. Though we will also have rhubarb (remember to chop up and freeze some to have for pies and such during the off season), onions and plenty of herbs, and also (maybe) some broccoli! If no broccoli this week, then some next week.

And to the barn animals (or should I say pasture animals?):
Nothing too new with the cows, other than the fact that they love being out on pasture. all the horses are together now to enjoy a field grass. The pigs...nothing new.  The ducks though do have a new surprise; we have five new ducklings!

I know in this picture there appears to be six ducklings, but one went missing.




And about the gardens...

All the tomatoes have been planted -- yay! Along with the summer squash (zucchini), and herbs, flowers, chinese cabbage and bok choy. Also our little patch of strawberries is doing well. Within a few weeks they should grow to full size and turn red.

Busy time of year

Spending more time outside now, with plants to plant, and lawns to mow. Oh, and Market to attend!
This week was the second market. Many people were surprised to see that we had lettuce and spinach already. The radish's were beautiful--if I do say so myself-- along with, my favorite, romaine lettuce and, of course, kale. We also had a lot of transplants at the market, next week we will only bring herb and tomato transplants. A lot of the transplants left over from market have been planted into the garden, so I hope no one at the market wanted swiss chard, broccoli or lettuce transplants!

In the past few days, we have planted onions, flowers, swiss chard, cilantro, parsley, radish, beets, mesclun mix, spicy greens mix, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower.  And last week we planted potatoes and strawberries.

And the weather here has been very nice, not too warm, or rainy! Though the other night we did have an incredible thunder and lightning storm.

And our CSA should start in about a week and a half.
These are a few of the products that we will have at the time of our first CSA week:
kale
lettuce
swiss chard
cilantro
peppermint
thyme
oregano
and probably many more things, but we will have to wait and see on June 15th!

May showers, bring June...?

One week ago every farmer I knew was making half-hearted jokes that we needed to host a workshop on 'farming in the mud'; I couldn't not agree with them.  The harsh rain of a week ago is still affecting us. We are unable to ready many of our gardens for planting, and many of the plants that were already in the gardens have received too much water.  The peas that we planted almost one month ago are only two inches high, the beets will likely not survive, and we have many transplants that need to planted out in the gardens, but none of the gardens are prepared to be planted in. But we did get to plant cauliflower out this week.  But, on a good note, the bok choy, swiss chard, broccoli, garlic and lettuce look great!  And Thursday and Friday were beautiful, lots of sun!

To the barns...
After some extensive fencing (and, no, not the kind with faux swords), the cattle have been let out to pasture.     The latest addition to the herd, is a male calf named Yuri.
All the horses are out in paddocks and look a lot less shaggy.  Grass is also cut daily and fed to Isabelle and Frisco, the pigs.  Two of the ducks are sitting on nests.    And the chickens are laying well and go out daily and scratch around, occasionally making a mess in the gardens.

Luna also had another surgery yesterday. This time for a graft that has been sewn onto the area that the tumour was removed from. In order for the graft to take, Luna must do as little as possible. She whines, not only in pain, but for the chance to be let outside. Fingers crossed for her!

getting back into the swing of things

I haven't written in almost a month, and since then a lot has happened here at the farm. A new calf has been born, her name is Yolanda.

We now have numerous things planted in the garden, such as: beets, radish, kale, lettuce, Swiss chard, broccoli, lettuce mix, spinach, beans, and peas.  Some of this will be ready for the Windsor Farmers' Market opening day on May 27, 2011.

The pasture has grown enough to let all the horses back on it. They are enjoying their time frolicking and getting fat, paired two-by-two in separate paddocks.  Soon the cows will be let out to pasture.  Gardens are in need of harrowing and rock and grass-clump removing. 

Also, the farm dog, Luna, is recovering from a soft tissue removal surgery. She is still happy and active, but doesn't enjoy all the time she spends in the house.  

  

Spring weather

This weekend has been beautiful. We put up our greenhouse, and started a bunch of flower transplants in it today. And yesterday I planted radish and beets in one of the gardens.  We also have some more additions to our bovine family: Lizzy and Yuki. Yuki was born yesterday, and Lizzy was born the day before.  I was thinking that it would be funny if we had twin male/female calves, and name the male Yang and the female Yin.                                                  
                                    This is Lizzy.

Community Supported Agriculture

This year on our farm we are starting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
What is CSA?         
In it's most basic form the CSA farm produces vegetables for a group of farm members or subscribers who pay in advance for their share of harvest.  Farm members receive the shares once a week, either coming to the farm to pick up their  share or picking it up a a central delivery point.

I will use an example CSA: my example CSA runs for 20 weeks, there are 15 shareholders, the farmers names are Burt and Beatrice, and it is pickup day at their farm.
How CSA works:
Burt and Beatrice have harvested all their crops for this weeks CSA members. They put the vegetables in baskets, a basket for each member.
Previous weeks' basket:
Beet greens
Beans
cabbage head
carrots
cucumber
cauliflower
eggplant
head of romaine lettuce
Kale
baby onions
potatoes
radish
tomatoes
zucchini
cilantro
                                                
 This weeks' basket:
beans
broccoli
carrots
cucumber
fennel
swiss chard
lettuce mix
onions
peas
peppers
spinach
tomatoes
corn
turnip
parsley

(The point is that there is approximately $20-$25 worth of food in each basket. And that this weeks basket differs from the last.)

Now Burt and Beatrice load 6 of the baskets into the car. They drive 35 minutes to a central delivery point. Within 25 minutes the 6 baskets  have been picked up the farm members.  Now Burt and Beatrice go home to greet the other nine members picking up their shares.  Between 5:30PM-7:30PM the other nine members come and pick up their shares at the farm.  While the members are at the farm, Beatrice gives them a tour of the animal barns.  One of the members, Shelly, instead of paying for her basket she works on the farm during the week. This pays for her share, and helps Burt and Beatrice.

CSAs have become extremely popular. Many people not only want to know where their food comes from, but also want to get to know their farmer. Some people even want to get to experience the farming and gardening process (like Shelly).

Spring is here!

 I can't believe I have not written on this blog in exactly one month.
Spring has made its debut, but the weather is still a little nippy. Valentino and Xanthipe are still the only calves that have been born this year. And the plants in the greenhouse are doing excellently. I never knew how much you could miss the sight of baby swiss chard!  Not that the baby kale or lettuce is ugly, it's just not as colourful. I like pretty, colourful things. But as John Ruskin once said, "Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for example."  But alas, I can not entirely agree. Are trees not beautiful? They are very useful.
But lilies...not so much. And can you eat peacocks?  That is why farming is so nice, we usually have an abundance of useful things - beautiful or not. Like cows, they give us meat and fertilizer, and keep our pastures trimmed. And hey! They aren't that ugly.





This is Xanthipe. This was taken when she was still very young.










And this is baby swiss chard. The stalks are already starting colour.

New additions to our family

We have two new Calves on our farm. Their names are Valentino and Xanthipe.  Valentino is a male, and Xanthipe is a female.  Valentino looks a bit like his father Joseph (our bull).  Xanthipe is all brown.  They are both very cute, and Valentino is very friendly.
Profile of Joseph the bull:
Joseph is a brown and white large bull. He has sired many calves in his life. And is quite friendly, but he will head butt, and can be very dangerous when he does this. And he is very protective over his herd.

We are also getting ready to start plants in our greenhouse. Soon we will be extremely busy with onset of spring weather. But for right now, the ground is still snow covered.

February, not much gardening

Hi! I'm Francesca

I live on a farm. The farm I live on is called Oakmanor Farm. This year we are starting a CSA (community supported agriculture) we and I have spent a lot of time making posters and stuff. Wow, I can't believe I'm staring a blog!!  So back to the farming stuff, here, in Nova Scotia, there is a lot of snow right now. The poor animals (cows,horses,cats,dog,chickens) have to wade through two feet of snow! And (cringe) we are supposed to get more snow tonight. If you live in the city won't understand why I don't want a lot of snow (but maybe you will). The reason is because I have to shovel and remove snow. Not fun!! It's OK the first few storms of the year, but now it's getting kinda boring. I would much rather be listening to music, learning Latin, or reading Anne Rice novels.   I know I'm jumping around all over the place.  So am I boring you yet?  Wouldn't surprise me.  So...I'll tell you a little about me: I love horses; I love listening to the radio; yes, my name is Italian; and my fave  colour is lime green; oh, and right now I'm listening to Enrique Iglesias.   Well time to go start chores.    Francesca :)  

P.S. does any one know how to post pics on a blog? I can't figure out how to this.