Mid Summer

We've been trying to finish a newsletter for the past FIVE weeks. The weeks are just flying by!

We’ve started our staff vacation season, which means most weeks were just a little short handed and everything seems just a tiny bit desperate.. haha. But at least the crew are getting a chance to recharge, mid-season.

Check all the work Jess puts into her beautiful weekly bouquets:

U-pick flowers in full bloom!

The flowers are more and more of a mainstay of the farm, and folks love coming for both the bouquets and the u-pick experience. Maybe consider a trip to the farm before it gets too cold!! (Did Robin get a new Macro lens for his camera? Maybe!)

FIELD UPDATE

The crops are looking great, finally. The constant rain has let up and now it’s been raining every 3-4 days, which makes catching up on the weeding difficult, but it’s actually been perfect for keeping the crops watered. 

CARROTS CRUSHED

We did have a major carrot disaster this year. We have never had any trouble with carrots but this is the year, I guess. The heavy rain in June washed out most of our carrot seeds and then the weeds took over. And for the first time ever the local deer discovered our carrots. So we got about 200 bunches from a field that we were supposed to be harvesting from until the end of August. Essentially we lost about 5000 bunches of carrots.. so this is why our infamous carrots have not been featured too much in our share. 

There are a lot in the field, however - we replanted all the beds we lost, we just have to hope that they will be big enough before the light and heat goes away in the fall!

DID YOU SAY CORN!!!

The corn is looking amazing!! The steady rain has been good for growing corn. We tested out some cobs last night. They were still a bit immature but I think we'll be able to start harvesting at the end of the week for the farmstore and CSA week 11. Exciting!! 

We reduced our tomato production but thanks to good management (Kielan) we are still drowning in tomatoes. Colleen will be in the kitchen this week transforming toms into salsa and pasta

BULK DISCOUNTS: Time to store up for Winter

We are now offering bulk discounts on tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchinis at our on Farm store.

We will offer a bit of bulk on our farmigo store for csa members but will have to limit it a bit due to lack of space in our truck. Check out the farmigo store for our bulk portions.

CSA MEMBER DISCOUNT IN THE FARM STORE!!!

If you do live in Ottawa, consider coming out to the farm some Saturday (or vacation day)! We can offer you a 5% CSA discount on everything our on-farm store and we encourage you to take a walk, see your veg and can enjoy the gardens and picnic space. Plus, if you come on a saturday morning you can try Devon's incredible pastries, cakes and baguettes. Our coffee's pretty decent too - ORGANIC, FAIRTRADE, LOCALLY ROASTED AND PACKED, AND FRESHLY BREWED! And you can pick your own bouquet!!

Some more pics of the team!

CSA PRO TIPS

If you haven't discovered the CSA member facebook page yet, I encourage you to join (or revisit):https://www.facebook.com/groups/542052036128918

We have some amazing veteran CSA members who share mouthwatering recipes and tips on how to make the most of your share.

SHISHITO PEPPERS

We've had some emails asking what to do with shishitos. These tiny peppers are originally from Japan. They are delicious panfried until blistering, baked or bbqued. A little bit of flaky sea salt and olive oil is all you need to make them delicious but I like to add some goat cheese or a tahini dip.

Here's a good recipe to follow: https://natashaskitchen.com/blistered-shishito-peppers/