Finally Some Veggies!

Last year I had so much to harvest I went a little crackers....This year I planted less and now I'm paying - wishing for last year. We had a long cool spring which slowed everything down. These are my first zukes....

My squash plants last year looked like a jungle and we just finished the last few. The chickens and pigs had some, my friends had some and the compost pile had some - It's hard to finish more than 350 squash in one winter!!!! They are starting to come this year, but it will not be as bountiful as last year!

My eggplants have barely grown since I planted them and have just started flowering. I doubt I'll have any....

Ditto for the peppers....but my fingers are crossed!

Now salad greens I can grow, and I love taking pictures of them. MMMMM Salad! I've lost count of the number of plantings I've done....

Woo hoo Cauliflower! One from our second planting and the third planting is in already!

Bush beans are flowering....my pole beans are pitiful!

My fava/broad beans...loaded. The tall ones are the "rogue" seeds the rest are dwarf....(My pole beans usually cover and grow over the orange fence in behind......mensch!!)

Snow peas, snap peas and pod peas are all starting to kick in. I have second and third plantings on the go - I love peas! So do my kids - haven't had any in the house yet!!!

Vampires Be Gone!

Last fall we had some wonderful french woofs who helped us build raised beds in our garden and plant garlic....

Lots and lots of garlic.....We've planted garlic before but always in the spring and not much...

And we always ran out before the summer ends.....

Not this year! And in a true Circle of life sort of moment the french woofs came back to visit before heading back to france.....JUST in time to harvest the garlic they helped plant!

We took the drip off more than a week ago, but found the soil surprisingly wet.

We decided to leave it on the cart for the night to dry before brushing the dirt off...!!!!!

This is about 1/4 of the garlic....er.....methinks I've morphed into my mother....we have enough garlic for the entire Comox Valley!

Is your mouth watering???? Mine is and I've had a big dinner!

Today we brushed off the dirt from yesterday's harvest, braided them and hung them in the carport.....and then harvested two more carts full!!!! (And there's still more!)

Truly a thing of beauty....

We got us some turkeys!

They are free range now and loving it.

They sit around me as I watch the kids in the irrigation pond....And peck at my hat!!! Turkey pecks are BIG!

They are certainly funny looking fellas!

Can someone explain please what the evolutionary equivalent of a worm hanging over your beak is useful for - Some are over an inch long now!!!

Moving Day!

Time to move the pigs off the cover crop field onto the 3rd year strawberries....

Unhook the electric fence, take down the poles....and lead the hungry pigs to their new field...

Once the fence was down the pigs had a different idea. 21 pigs ran in 21 directions with 4 woofs and 2 farmers chasing......

Thomas our french woof is the pig whisperer....but even he couldnt get them to follow him.....they had ideas of their own.....21 of them!

Eunmi, the reluctant korean....slightly scared but trying her best to herd the pigs OUT of our new plantings (loaded with ripe strawberries....)

Eventually I had to put the camera down and help!

We gave up trying to get them to the new field, got the new fence up and then worked as a team to get the pigs where we wanted them....amazing what a little organization can do!

I missed some GREAT shots....

But here are the happy happy pigs.....nothing like a pig eating a strawberry fresh from the field!

Whew that was exhausting! Gave those darn farmers a good run for their money eh

Robots

So last night as I struggled to get 3 high energy boys into their jammies and out to the tent where they were sleeping for the night, I had a "out of the mouth of babe's moment"
I must have said to Sawyer on 3 separate occasions as I got teeth brushed, laundry on, jammies on etc. "get your jammies on" and finally I went out to the tent and brought him back into the house to get his jammies on. I was tired (party here on Saturday night) and grumpy and lectured at him (I know I know lecturing doesn't work) "Man, just for once I'd like to say 'Get your jammies on' and you would run and get your jammies on...." and he looked at me with his little pixie face and twinkling blue eyes and said, "Mummy, then I'd have to be a robot. Do you want a robot?"
Quite frankly I don't. I want my Sawyer. And he reminded me I'm trying to encourage them to live fully and freely. No I don't want a robot. Thanx bud.

My tomatoes!

Here's a shot looking into the greenhouse this week. When we first moved on to the farm (2006) we didn't use the greenhouse.....Then a friend brought us some homegrown tomatoes YUM - there is no comparison in the flavour between a store bought and a homegrown tomato - and ours in the garden got the blight (It can be quite rainy here in August/September).....So I asked my mum if we could grow a couple of plants in the greenhouse.....Apparently my idea of a couple and her idea of a couple are a mite bit different....

Below: A shot of a INdeterminate or Vining variety strung up. I have to remove the "suckers"

Same plant below with 2 "suckers" removed from where the leaf joins the stem.....(NOTE: These suckers can be rooted early in the season for extra plants.....)

A new variety we're trying out "Tomacchio" apparently super sweet tomatoes that are great for sun drying or dehydrating....I haven't had one yet - my kids get to them - hard to be mad....Darn the kids ate my tomatoes!

A shot of my determinate or bush varieties of ROMA tomatoes.....they are my favourite type! Awesome salsa, awesome sauce, awesome flavour! I tie up their cages usually in more than one spot as they eventually fall over with the weight of their fruit....

At a certain point in the summer I prune the bush varieties - I cut out extra leaves and new flowers....enough is enough!!! I did it after this photo was taken....

And I have a monster beefsteak coming.....

An "Early Girl" looking great!

My grandfather was a horticulturist and created his own f1 varieties...His cherry tomatoes were amazing - my kids still talk about them (He died at 99 3 years ago!). He kept tomatoes all winter inside and had early tomatoes each spring until his late 90s, yes LATE 90s!!!! My mum has tomatoes and is now busy teaching me......

I never think we'll have enough and come September I have to phone friends and beg them to take tomatoes off my hands.....

The photo above was taken after I pruned the plants back. I took 2 totes of leaves out of the greenhouse! The vining tomatoes I chopped half of the bottom 2 or 3 leaves off and I did a lot of thinning in my bush varieties - airflow and light into the middle is my goal....Can you see a difference between the photo above and the first photo of the post?

A shot of the de-suckered plant with it's bottom leaves trimmed....(And can you see the chickweed growing in the ground behind. We ate a lot early this season in our salad!)

And above is what happens when you think a Vining or indeterminate plant is a roma when you plant it.......Lots of huge branches with fruit everywhere lying on the ground....It took me a long time to tie this one up.

We have the greenhouse on drip irrigation, fertilize with 8-4-4 organic fertilizer, bone meal and fish compost. Little boy pee diluted 10:1 is a great amendment as well.....We plan to winter our layers in this greenhouse with access to outside (back their henhouse in under cover for the winter) ...which should make for some rich soil!

I read last year somewhere that at a certain point all the leaves are taken off the plants to promote ripening....I may try it this year....

I bought a few "heirloom" varieties and except for the "Green Zebra" they are not growing or producing well.....The right side of the greenhouse is mostly heirlooms......

I'm hoping to finish last years tomatoes before these ones ripen :)

Hope this helps someone out there......

I know I have boys when.....

Notice the marked darts......

Pond Creatures!

We have a fenced irrigation pond on our property that we no longer use for irrigation.

It is 14 feet deep with steep sides and it's a little on the murky side.

It has a high level of road salts in it - too high for strawberries anyways....

Long story...read our farm story HERE

Anyways it has come to my attention that it is home to many cool creatures....

A stunning show of colour.....

About 4 or 5 species of Dragonflies................

Some token goldfish.....

Which are not good as they are NOT native so eat frog and newt babies/eggs etc.....bummer!

And this funky bug....

Some water stick bugs otherwise known as Water Scorpions

Lets look a little closer....

And closer still...

Some skaters....

Some Water Boatman....

Some snakes, Kingfishers, Blue Herons, Wild ducks, frogs and swallows that evaded film....

And some pond creatures of a different sort.....

The pond is well used by all the creatures on our farm....

Back to the Water Scorpions - They are carnivores and do bite...

So it was a good thing that my youngest carried this one across the whole pond so I could take a picture!