What Have We Been Doing on the Farm Lately?

One word: hoeing.

10 Farm Photos

1) Gumboots keeping dry and out of the sun under the RV.



2) By living in an RV, I'm now a Big Boy AND having "the experience of a lifetime!"



3) The remains of a Makaria Farm sacrifice to the farming gods. (Or maybe we were just enjoying beer, sausage, and marshmallows?)



4) I found this sign in some long grass, but unfortunately the Real Fruit Gummis (TM) were already sold out.



5) A look inside Apprentice Jill's shack window. It's very mysterious in there. Who knows what kind of trouble she gets into in there?



6) Maybe we'll get some garlic bulbs in a couple of weeks?



7) Gate to the fields. The farm's been lucky enough to be spared from soil diseases like club root (which can be spread on the soles of visitors' boots and shoes), so we're being extra careful.



8) It's not a good idea to run over rocks with Farmer Brock's expensive tractor equipment, so we try to pile them all up in one section of the farm.



9) It's too bad buttercups are such a damaging weed because they're pretty and spreading across the farm.



10) A Makaria Farm neighbour.

What's Going On in the Greenhouses?

We've been so busy in the fields lately that I feel like I've almost forgotten about the greenhouses. A couple of weeks ago, we went in and cut down all the grass, cleaned things up, and reorganized, so things are looking good.

Most of our starts have already been transplanted into the fields, but there's still some cool stuff waiting to be planted.











From top to bottom, those are beets, corn, red sails lettuce, freckles romaine lettuce, and more romaine lettuce. There's a good chance, however, that I'm off on those lettuce varieties.

And speaking of greenhouses, I went on a farm tour of Haliburton Farm near Victoria and was hot-diggity-dog impressed with some of their greenhouses. Here are some photos of a couple of Farmer Ray's greenhouses and healthy looking veggie plants.

Would You Buy Produce From This Guy?

Farmer Brock decided that, no, people would not buy produce from this guy. So the photo was nixed from the newsletter and replaced by this one:



Personally, I'm a fan of the first photo. Apprentice Tim has never looked so good!

(Layout and newsletter design by Apprentice Jill)

Growing Up and Moving On

Remember when the asparagi was just a boot or so high? No more!







Time flies, eh? One minute they're wee little whipper snappers who need all your time and attention, the next they're stealing booze from your liquor cabinet and heading off to university....

Farmer-Apprentice Relationship

Here's a couple of photos of Apprentice Tim and Farmer Brock. Obviously they're discussing important farming issues and cultivating the mentor-mentee relationship.





And for shits and giggles, here's a picture of Tim enjoying the tractor and a t-shirt that references a little television program by the name of Northern Exposure:

Strawberries

Last year's strawberry plants are starting to produce some fruit! For the past few days, we've been busy weeding, mulching, and cleaning up last year's strawberry patch. Check it out:



And this is what it looked like not so long ago:







Who would have thought that there were strawberries underneath that dandelion patch?

Hark!

What's that in the distance? Snow? Ice?



Let's take a closer look....







Yup. That's right. It's a weed! Thousands of tiny, vegetable choking weeds that, if left unattended, can grow up a few feet and drop hundreds of more weed seeds. That's crazy. This little fella is called pigweed, which I think is an appropriately obnoxious name for an obnoxious plant.

My crystal ball tells me I've got a lot of hoeing to do this summer.....

6 Farm Photos

1) I found a robin's nest in one of the sheds. Mama robin was not impressed with my rooting around for fertilizers in the shed. She's got babies to hatch.



2) I also noticed these colourful bowling pins in the same shed. Maybe there will be some summer time bowling in my future?



3) We're planting some sweet corn! Here are the seeds.



4) We've been doing a lot of transplanting these days, but before we separate soil blocks and head out to the fields, we have to check the bottom of our trays for slugs. Although slugs are slow movers, they're fast eaters. Kind of like Tim, Brock, and everyone else on the farm except for me.

5) For the first time, I also noticed these warnings on the bread trays we use for soil blocking. Apparently these warnings go unheeded.

6) Lettuce! This is the first crop I've actually been able to harvest and eat here on the farm. We've got a lot of lettuce out in the fields, but these guys have been growing quite successfully in one gallon pots in the greenhouse.

Tim "Squeaks" Robinson

Here's Apprentice Tim attempting to watch an episode of Parks and Recreation on his laptop while outside and lounging on a hammock.



In other Tim related news, he's recovering from a pretty terrible cold and has lost his voice. I've started calling him "Squeaks" and I'm hoping it sticks!

5 Photos of Asparagi

Pronounced, of course, as aspara-guy.

1) Trays of asparagus starts in a greenhouse.



2) Labelled appropriately.



3) Wispy little fellas, aren't they?



4) Last year's crop of asparagus is coming up strong.



5) Taller than my boot!