Garden Produce
As spring begins to unfold each year, and the earth once again awakens from dormancy, the delightful first fruits of the season are always welcome. Rhubarb and asparagus are some of the first crops we begin to harvest outside, followed quickly by spring greens and strawberries. Then the flood of summer’s produce, one after another; peas, beans, cucumbers, beets, carrots, fennel, mushrooms, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, blueberries, elderberries and raspberries. Then finally ending with fall’s abundant display of colourful squash, pumpkins, broccoli, cabbage, parsnips, celeriac and leeks. Eating with the seasons isn’t hard – it’s easy and delicious!
All of our produce is organically grown so we do not use any chemical sprays or fertilizers on our produce. Instead we focus our efforts on building soil health – increasing the microbial life in the soil by using mulch, biochar, multi-species cover crops, compost and crop rotation.
The majority of our garden work is done by hand so we have individual contact with just about every plant we grow, from seeding/transplanting, weeding and mulching all the way to harvesting. Even pests are controlled largely by hand. When potato bug eggs appear on the backs of the potato leaves everyone takes a row and we look each plant over carefully – squishing the eggs and collecting the bugs for our chickens.
With a Homeopath in the family (Mom!), homeopathic remedies are also used frequently to strength the plants natural immunity to stressors from weather conditions, blight or insect pressure.
Each year we take orders for stonefruit from Palatine Fruit and Roses at Niagara-on-the-Lake. The usual offerings are: cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines and grapes. Although the fruit is not organic, they avoid sprays whenever possible – using organic methods first, and spraying only if pests reach a certain level. Even then, they are careful when and how they spray – avoiding the most harmful sprays altogether. Since many of our customers like to can, dehydrate, freeze and eat fresh local fruit in season, we have opted for these less-sprayed local fruits over imported organic. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications about ordering fruit.