This Weekend's market and a trip to the fiddle patch

From the country...

Millie's first trip to the fiddle patch,

Leopard and Bull Frogs in a bucket,

Stuck in the tree,

the avid fishermen,

the end result.

This weekend is the first spring/summer market at the Evergreen Brick Work's farmers market and we have been busy down at the fiddle patch harvesting fiddle heads, dandelion greens, stinging nettle and garlic mustard. The new Evergreen Brick Work's website just launched recently and it features a place where the vendors can put a profile of their farm and a tab where you can list what you have available for the upcoming market. I have been working on our profile and I think it looks pretty neat- check it out!

On the farm we have been scurrying about planting onions, lettuces, pea shoots, seeding countless seeds and on and on. We have also been tending to our new brood of chicks, ducklings and baby quail. The incubator has been running non-stop for a while now hatching out this years batch of poultry (photos to come). I have been to the public school showing/educating the kindergarten classes and the grade 1 class about the hatching process and I brought along my cardboard box of chicks. As soon as the top comes off- the children just dive for them- it is so great to watch these little people get as excited about chicks as I do. The planter gardens at the school is what's on for next week.

Farm life has really taken hold right now- so much to do and not enough daylight hours. Our backs/knees are sore and fingernails are compounded with soil. The spring peepers are back, each night they lull us into some much needed sleep and the black flies are starting to make their presence...May is here!

Fertile Myrtle

From the country....

Sheesh, so much has gone down here on the farm these past few weeks!

Aside from starting a new market in Toronto, I have been planting planter gardens with the local Elementary school, the boys have started soccer (I am literally a soccer Mom- van and everything!), and the farm has kind of exploded in the fertility department. I have chicks expected to hatch in the next few days from our incubator and I have just finished packaging up the other 130 turkey eggs I have been collecting which I am sending to a commercial hatchery to hatch for me. The new green house has the best batch of bok choi and butterhead lettuce I have ever seen. Everywhere I turn I see new life, or the making of new life (way to go Turkey Tom!) and everything is so green and fresh. This could be my year! I mean "our" year, the year the farm makes its mark in the soil, the year this family turns the corner from floundering farmers to just plain farmers.

We have been up to our eyeballs in wild edibles- over 100 pounds of fiddleheads, and the odd pound of stinging nettle. The greenhouse greens are pumping and we have had salad for 3 squares for some time now. At the market our table is brimming with spring and people are eating it up- literally!

I am sure there will be downfalls- but for right now I am on cloud nine!

Warm Spring Thoughts...

From the country...

Basil plants in the greenhouse, fiddleheads, fresh spring greens and a fuzzy little chick basking in the sun...

Hooray For Fiddle heads!

From the country...

We brought these little green gems home for dinner tonight fresh picked from our secret fiddlin' patch. Fiddle heads are rich in iron, potassium, niacin, riboflavin, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamins A, C and are the ultimate, crisp taste of spring. Yum!

The local food truth...

From the country…

Just today I am implementing a new rule for myself. To do something in the house every day that needs to be done (cleaning and/ or organizing). It is a horrible job but equally satisfying when all said and done. Today was the front hall closet and the fish tank (I did 2 things today and will take tomorrow off.. heh heh).

As I was turfing out random clothes, odd mitts and broken hangers, I came across a bushel basket of garlic from last years harvest. I picked through the basket, tossing the dehydrated, rotting garlic (which by the way, really smells) and keeping the rest. This is the truth of local eating. As you can see by the picture, this ain’t no pretty garlic. It has a purpose though and considering we eat a head of garlic a day here, we love our garlic. We cherish our garlic. No matter what it looks like.

The funny thing is we polished all the primo garlic to sell and we eat the scrappy seconds. This is the truth of being a market gardener. All the pretty, picturesque veggies go out the door and the knobbly stuff stays right here.

We eat about 85% local foods. All the veggies we eat this time of year comes from cold storage, the freezer, or jars preserved from the harvest. We barter/trade with other vendors at market (Mark does this because I am the worst at bartering…) for other supplies such as coffee, mushrooms and the odd loaf of bread.

I do break down though. I buy the odd thing from the discount rack at the grocery store (like the eggplant that made a very nice curry) and purchase some bananas for the kids. How can you live without lemons or limes? The problem for me is during the prime months of spring/summer/fall when our province is bursting with fresh produce why are people buying apples from New Zealand? There is no comparison to a fresh Ontario Strawberry to that of its weak tasteless cousin imported from California.

Just this week though, I had a weak moment at the grocery store and returned home with a head of broccoli. It is during these winter months when your mouth starts salivating for produce to come. It won’t be long now before I am eating a spring salad fresh cut from the greenhouse or a hot skillet of buttery fiddleheads. I can almost taste it.