Wednesday 18 February 2015

What a Lovely Evening Just Spent

I attended a meeting of the Kemptville Horticultural Society to talk about our farm and herbs and edible flowers.  The group was so nice, warm and inviting.  There was a seed exchange first and then after my talk we sat around sharing information.  I brought Sprouts and several of the members made yummy sounds whilst eating them and chatting around my little display table.  We made tentative plans for the group to come out for a tour of Day Brighteners Farm for one of their meetings.  I'm excited for that time to come.  A thank you card they gave me had a photograph of a beautiful painting of gladiolus flowers done by the President.
It was a pleasure being in a room with so many gardeners.  I could feel the energy, the hope in every one of us that Spring is right around the corner.
Good Night.
Jo

Warm days, Cold nights, Warmer greenhouses

Monday's weather report: -20 wind chill outside.  It was +17 inside the unheated greenhouses.  The sun is so intense and our days are about 12 hours now.  
So, I guess we'll be planting in the greenhouse by next week, just wanting those nights to be a tad warmer so as not to lose the days' planting efforts.
I've been seeding, watering, and taking care of new seedlings in the house for the last couple of weeks.  I've been doing this for a few years now but am always astonished by the rate at which seeds germinate.  I pushed some basil seeds into the seed starter Saturday, they were up by Sunday night!

I bought a box of tomatoes from SunTech this morning. They are not yet ripe enough to make tomato sauce, so we'll wait until next week to make it.  Their cukes and eggplants are so lovely, I couldn't resist . . . whole wheat pizza  mmmmmmm.
I may be with you on the sprout orders this week.  Two weeks ago, I sprouted so many we had extra.  Due to that, last week I sprouted less and didn't have enough.  We'll keep trying.  Maybe you should pre-order for the next week as well so I know how many to sprout.  The Spring Salad Mix and Alfalfa take from Sunday to Friday.  The Crunchy Bean Mix takes from Tuesday to Friday, so let me know if you can.

The Kemptville Horticultural Society asked me to be a guest speaker at their meeting tonight.  I'm pretty excited about this.  I'll be talking about herbs and edible flowers. They're also having a Seed Exchange that I can take part in.  I'm looking forward to that as well.  

I`ll report in next week.  Have a great every day from now until then.  
Jo

Days are getting longer - email to customers of Feb 11

- this is very promising, the days are definitely warmer - we'll ignore those awfully cccccold nights for now.  
I started hundreds of hot pepper plants this week and some edible flowers.  Just came in from removing lots of snow from the roof of the little old greenhouse, the new Greenhouse has a peaked roof and has a little tiny bit of snow but the sun will take care of that.  
My popped rib is mending but I'm told it'll take another couple of weeks before I can get back to the arm wrestling competitions :-)

I've started the 2015 Garden Planner, now that's exciting.  
Our tomato sauce and salsas have come to an end for now.  I'll pick up more lovely tomatoes from SunTech once available and get back into sauce making whilst dreaming of delicious heirloom and roma tomatoes ripening on the vines outside basking in the sun with their fellow onions, cabbages, carrots, beets, cucumbers, parsnips - oh stop!  Soon. Soon ... must wait.  

I`ll report in next week.  Have a great every day from now until then.  
Jo

Monday 2 February 2015

oh the sprouts

were very popular last week.  Once I catch up to all of you, then I can try to keep up.  
And it turns out I've popped a rib.  It's a good thing those chickens are so cute and provide us with the loveliest of eggs, because it's hauling the large container of hot water (a gigantic hot water bottle so to speak) for them these cold nights, that did this.  I went to see our local super Natural Doctor (super and natural being two words, I don't think Shawn is supernatural, or maybe he is).  He sent me to the adorable and smartest chiropractor Heather who pressed and poked and jumped on my acheyness and then told  me I need to go back to do this again tomorrow!
So I'm moving slow . . . and disliking it very much but better in January than in May, although if it was May, the chickens wouldn't have needed the warmth and my body would be stronger too.  Don't ya just love winter?

That was last week's email to our customers.  Fast forward to today - it's been active around here. 

Last Friday I received a phone call from Norm at Multi-Shelter.  I think that the customer service at Multi-Shelter (which is the company from where we bought our newest Greenhouse in November) is exemplary.  From their website to the delivery process, then the availability of their staff and now the followup.  Norm was contacted by someone who saw on my blog there was ice on my Greenhouse.  Norm called to help me with that.  I quickly explained that the ice was on the old Greenhouse which I had purchased used (will never do that again) and it was re-constructed in pieces at the time, and not on his Greenhouse.  But isn't that great service?  Thanks Norm and Andrea.  

I also heard from Dominic at Wilf & Ada's Diner in Ottawa.  He and we are connecting again this year for hot peppers.  The entire first Greenhouse will be devoted to hot peppers for his Famous Hot Pepper Sauce.

My son is on his way home tomorrow from Victoria - yippee!  What weather to come home to eh?
Now the seed starting will begin in full force, no turning back, no stopping us.  I've not been able to do much in that respect since I can't lift anything heavy.  Bags of seed starter are heavy.    

In the meantime, I picked up more varieties of sprout seeds at Rainbow Foods this weekend so we'll have a constant supply for all of you sprout lovers.  If you're not on our weekly delivery list (and I can't imagine why you aren't) you can pick up our Sprouts at Heather's Healthy Harvest at the Raina Mall in Kemptville.  She's open Tuesday to Sunday.  She tells me that the Sprouts go from our hand to hers and to her customers' in about 10 minutes.  Poplular?  Ya.  

Have a great week.  
Jo