May 14, 2011

Just Picked Asparagus

Yesterday we harvested the first crop of the year. After several sunny days the asparagus had grown up prolifically and we were able to get decent amount of asparagus cut. Not only is this exciting because it is the first crop of the season, we finally can eat something of our own. But this is also the first year, after waiting 3 years that we can harvest the asparagus. Asparagus is a perennial crop that needs a few years to establish itself before you begin to harvest it. This is not to say that we didn’t have any asparagus in the last couple of years. But we had to be careful to only harvest a bit and only a couple of times to ensure we did not over harvest, which could lead to long term damage to the crop. Asparagus can produce for 15 years if cared for properly. After 3 years of waiting we are now about to harvest the asparagus for everyone to enjoy for years to come. Personally I love asparagus and I am excited to have it available for snacking on raw and to cook with it for dinner.

The Birds and the Bees 

Trilliums

The Trilliums are in full bloom back in our forest. The forest looks beautiful carpeted with the White Trilliums. Spring is such a nice time of year in the bush as the trees are beginning to leaf out and the forest floor is covered with flowers. It is also a good time for wildlife sighting, because you can easily see through the forest without all the leaves. So far this spring I have seen several wild turkeys, including finding a hen on her nest of 13 eggs. The Eastern Bluebirds who return each year to our nest boxes are back. We also have seen Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Blue Jays, Robins, Red-winged Blackbird and many bright yellow Goldfinches. There is a pair of Baltimore Orioles who have been hanging around our house for several days, taunting our cat from through the window. There is also a Black bear who is living back there somewhere. We haven’t seen him yet but he has been knocking over our beehives so we know he is around here somewhere. It looks like a tornado went through our hives every time he visits.

Beehives after the bear visited

Putting in the Crops

 This is the season for planting and boy have we been busy getting crops into the ground before the rain. Over the last couple of days we planted 50, 000 June strawberries plants. It took 2 days with our 3 row planter to get them all in the ground. Also a lot of onions were put in the ground. We now have 2 acres of Broccoli, Cauliflower and Brussel Sprouts planted. I hope everyone likes Brussel Sprouts because we planted about 4000 plants. Even though we have got a lot in we still have a lot to do. There is another 50,000 Day-Neutral Strawberries plants that have to be hand planted, a back breaking job.

May 6, 2011

Asparagus poking through

As spring thaws the winter away, and life starts to flourish. A buzz of activity starts again on the farm in preparation of another season. Everyone has returned home and is eager to start working for the season. There is lots to be done and a few new projects to start. So far not too much is coming in from the fields but we have had several delicious meals of fresh asparagus and even a fabulous “Welcome Home” rhubard pie made by Marlene.

This year we are building a greenhouse as a new addition to Willowtree Farm. This means we will be able to grow our own seedlings for transplanting this year. Currently we have our seedling grown at a local greenhouse for us.  For many of the crops, seedlings are started indoors long before they get planted in the fields.

Building the New Greenhouse

Transplanting seedlings gives a considerable advantage, especially in the cool spring and reduces the days to harvest.  It also means we know exactly how many plants we have in an area.

 Planting has began

Floating Row Cover over Broccoli and Cauliflower

This spring has been really cold and wet, meaning we haven’t been able to get in to the fields as early as we would have liked.  However the last few days have been nice and dried things out, enabling us to start planting. Yesterday we spent the afternoon planting almost 9000 broccoli and cauliflower plants. After planting we rolled out floating row covers which are thin blankets that help to increase to air temperature around the plants and protect from frost. The row covers are magical in the spring, protecting plants from the cold and advancing their growth. Soon enough the broccoli and cauliflower will be big enough to eat.  We have also planted our first planting of sweet corn, and are beginning to plant some of our grain crops. Soon enough we will be in full planting mode, with plants going into the ground everyday.

Chicks and Calves

Day Old Chicks

 Each year spring brings new life to the farm. Right now we have had several new calves born. They are little bundles of energy, bouncing around the field, testing out their new legs and exploring the new world. On Wednesday we got 150 day old chicks. The chicks are tiny yellow fuzz balls, straight out of an Easter ad.  After teaching each one to drink and eat, we placed them in our incubation room to keep them warm. They will be kept here until they get their true feathers and are able to go out to pasture. For now they are basking in the heat lamps and chipping in delight.

April 12, 2011

This is the recent press release that we have been sending to the local newspapers in order to help promote our CSA program for 2011

Port Perry, Ontario, April 2011:  The 2010 summer farming season may be over but the work for Willowtree Farm in Port Perry isn’t. The farm is already planning ahead for the 2011 season and the second year of their Community Supported Agriculture program. Willowtree is encouraging residents to become a part of their program and purchase weekly baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables or natural beef straight from the farm. By taking part in the program Willowtree has plans to have residents see, taste and learn the true meaning of local food.

Jordan Mckay, of Willowtree Farms says that it is really important people learn about why local farms are offering this type of program. “Eating local is becoming more important all the time, people need to know where their food is coming from and where it is produced, he said. “So many people are unaware of what food is produced in their area. The CSA program really connects the farmer and consumer.”

McKay who is also a part of the Port Perry Farmer’s Market from June to October, says their program makes it more convenient for customers. “We understand some people can’t make it to the market every Saturday but we still want them to be able to experience fresh, seasonal food, which is where our program helps out,” he said. “Our program just adds to what the market is trying to do and give an alternative for those people that can’t make it.”  Leading up to next season, Mckay says residents that join will get a chance to see how and where the food is grown and learn more about it. The farm will be offering farm tours, so members can see how and where their food is grown, as well as recipes and descriptions of the food that they receive in their weekly baskets.

Willowtree is unique in the way that they try to provide customers with not just taste but knowledge of local food. “You can walk into the grocery store anytime and purchase a banana or apple but a lot of people don’t know what is in season and what isn’t,” said McKay. “By purchasing our baskets customers aren’t only getting great tasting food, but food that is in season around us.” According to Mckay, people can learn a lot about their meat as well by making a visit to the farm. “We have signs, explaining that our meat comes straight from the animals on the farm, which are all natural fed with no antibiotic or growth hormones.” Whether residents are looking for the perfect seasonal vegetable or looking for just the right steak to grill, Willowtree is sure to have something to please the palette.

November 4, 2010

As the cool autumn winds blow in winter, things around here have slowed right down. After Halloween, the market’s official closing date, things will pretty much come to a halt for the staff of Willowtree. Everyone will get a break from the early mornings and long days they have put in all season. Even the cows love the days after Halloween because they get fed all the leftover pumpkins. Let me tell you they celebrate this, like a true holiday, gorging themselves on all the delicious pumpkins. They wait for this day as soon as they see the wagons of pumpkins roll by headed to the Market.

 Of course we know that this is a sad time for many of our faithful customers whom, we leave no option, but to buy their produce from the grocery stores. We are truly sorry for this, because we know how horrible of an option this can be. But we have no choice; we can’t grow food in Ontario in the winter. If we could we would, and we have considered all options about how to sell snow, but Ontarians aren’t buying it.  Winter is the time where we plan for next year, look back and reflect and see what we can improve and dream up new ideas to make next season even better.

We appreciate your support all season long, without you we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. So thank you for coming out and supporting your local farmers and we promise to be back next year with more delicious fresh produce all season long.  Until next year, Keep warm and HAVE FUN!!!! And we will see you in the spring.

Thanks

 Willowtree Farm

October 22, 2010

As the leaves change around us, the farm slowly turns from green to orange. It’s a full circle at this time of year, the fields are virtually empty and most of the crops have been picked off. But the farm looks good in its fall colours. I think it might be the nicest looking time of year at the farm. The market is decorated with corn stalks, straw bales, gourds and decorative corn. A cornucopia of different squashes and pumpkins of all shapes and sizes can be found around the market, surrounded by a back drop of maple trees and their changing colour. It really looks like a bountiful harvest around this time of year, with bins and bushels full of all kinds of goods.

 There is something about this time of year, that even though it is starting to get cold, it’s just so nice to be outside. Many people I think feel the same, because the weekends have been busy with people exploring the farm and picking their pumpkins for Halloween. This year we created a pumpkin patch in front of the market so people can have fun exploring the pumpkin patch.

As for fresh produce still from our fields; we are still picking a few things, including believe it on not, STRAWBERRIES! We have been really lucky and they are still producing slowly but surely for us. Along with the strawberries we still have broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and a few tomatoes. We have lots of apples, and squash that have already been picked and how could I forget cider. We are still pressing fresh cider each week. So even though things are starting to wind down, there is still a lot to keep us busy.

October 16, 2010

Spice Girl

 This year Alex grew several giant pumpkins, but one in particular “Spice Girl”, was very large and was a beautiful orange colour. Usually giant pumpkins don’t have a nice orange colour they usually are a weird pale orange to white. With a lot of convincing, Alex decided to take his pumpkin to Pumpkinfest in Port Elgin. Pumpkinfest is one of the official giant pumpkin weigh off sites and has had some world record pumpkins weighed in. Currently the world record for a giant pumpkin is 1810.5 lbs.  Even though we knew we would not win the big prize, we decided we should show off our beautiful giant.

Harvesting the giant pumpkin was an exciting and nerve racking ordeal. Obviously the pumpkin was way too heavy for us to lift, so we had to get creative. We ended up laying large straps underneath the pumpkin and using the front-end loader to carefully lift the pumpkin. This was a balancing act to make sure the pumpkin was suspended evenly as we lifted it. Then we placed a skid underneath the pumpkin, and then Alex tried to lift it a little higher and the pumpkin slipped out of the straps and crashed onto the skid. We were nervous that this would have cracked the pumpkin (an automatic disqualification) but we could not see any cracks. We loaded the pumpkin onto the truck and headed down to Port Elgin.

It was an exciting drive to Port Elgin with a giant pumpkin on the back of the truck. It is not everyday people see that huge of a pumpkin. Many people gave us the thumbs up, a lot of second looks and many people were pulling their cameras out to get pictures as we drove by.

The offical weight

Sunday was the day of reckoning for all the hard work we had put into the pumpkin. When we arrived, many  people right away were asking what the genetics of the pumpkin were, because it was such a nice looking pumpkin. Then it came time for the weigh-in and inspection of the pumpkin. We past the inspection No Cracks!!! So off to the scale, the pumpkin weighed in at 613.2 lbs. Heavy but not the heaviest, putting Al in 5^th place at the time, however there were more to come. Overall Al finished in 10^th, with the largest of the pumpkins being 1376.6 lbs, looks like we have a lot of growing to do next year in order to win. The pumpkin is on display in the market if you would like to come in and see it for yourself.

September 24, 2010

Fall harvest season has officially arrived, because we have started to press cider!!!! I look forward to this all season, even though we usually keep a small supply of cider frozen for the winter and spring. There is nothing like a glass of fresh cider cold off the press. It is by far the best juice you can get and it is all natural. Our cider is 100% fresh squeezed fruit, with no additives or preservatives.  The apples we use for cider are all freshly picked apples that have bruises or marks on them, and can not be sold for retail. We DO NOT use grounders. Why you ask? Grounders can not be used for cider because of the risk of contamination.

The cider making process:

Apples going up conveyer

First a bin of apples is loaded onto the hydraulic bin dumper. We then slowly raise and tilt the bin so the apples roll out into the trough, where they are washed by many spinning scrub brushes, the apples move along the trough and move down to a conveyer belt and then are dropped into a big chopper. From the chopper the apple mash falls into a large hopper and pumped into our cider press, which resembles a very large accordion. In the press the apple mash is squeezed together and the juice drains out the bottom, where it is collected and pumped into big vats.

Pressing the Apple Mash

The leftover mash which  is now completely dry is fed to the cows, who love this treat. This same process is done to squeeze the other fruits for their juice.  The cider is put into the cooler to sit over night, to allow particles to settle at the bottom. The following day is bottling day.

Bottling Cider

Before bottling we run all the cider through a UV pasteurizer. We pasteurize our cider according to the recommendation from Food Safety-Health Canada. Because unpasteurized juice products can be contaminated with harmful bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli, viruses, and parasites. By UV pasteurizing, we don’t change the flavor or healthy benefits, it just kills and harmful organisms that could make people sick. After the cider is pasteurized we then bottle it, label it and bring it to market for you to enjoy. The last step is enjoying the cider!!! The cider can be enjoyed warm or cold and is great severed as a punch (your choice to spike it). Since we do not add any preservatives, our cider must be kept refrigerated. The cider can also be frozen, so you can enjoy fresh cider year round.

We make several different types of cider, where we mix in juice from our own fruit (except Wild Blueberry). You can find our cider at markets or in the big fridge at the home market. Come out and give our cider a try. You will not be disappointed.

We make:

Just waiting to be enjoyed!

Apple Cider

Raspberry Apple Cider

Strawberry Apple Cider

Wild Blueberry Apple Cider (using Wild Blueberries)

September 17, 2010

Snapping Turtle laying eggs in Black Plastic

At the end of May, this spring we headed to the fields to plant tomatoes and peppers on the black plastic mulch. We were surprised to find a large snapping turtle laying her eggs in the black plastic as well. We observed her very quietly not to disturb her; it was amazing to watch her work. She filled the hole with white ping pong ball looking eggs, she then meticulously scooped dirt back into the hole, and packed it down with her hind feet. After she was done she quickly left the field and headed back to the river.

Look at all the moss on her back

Before we were there, she had dug 15 different test holes, before choosing the spot she would lay the eggs. All these extra holes meant a lot of extra work to fix the drip irrigation she tore through, but worth it for such a cool wildlife sighting. We also contacted our herpetology professor from university. Who informed us snapping turtles are now listed as “Special Concern” because of some signs of threat.  The biggest threats are nest/egg predation (mammals, but especially raccoons), trapping for meat, and road mortality. He thought it was a very interesting observation, as he had never heard of this happening before.

Through out the summer we continued to check on the nest, making sure it remained unharmed, and to see if the eggs hatched. This weekend 95 days later the baby turtles hatched from the nest. Unfortunately we did not get to see them hatch. But we know that they have hatch because of the escape tunnel coming from below the nest. After emerging from the nest, they probably quickly headed for cover in the long grasses and meadow before getting to the river. We were excited to see that the eggs had hatched a first step in survival

August 23, 2010

Wheat Field

Crop rotation is a very important part of good farming practices to ensure sustainability.  Crop rotation involves alternating the crops grown on the same piece of land. Here at Willowtree Farms, Rod has an intense crop rotation schedule to maintain soil quality, to reduce weeds, and chances of disease in a crop. Crop rotation is a long term strategy to ensure the overall health of the land and decrease the amount of artificial inputs.

At Willowtree Farms fall wheat is an important part of our crop rotation. In the fall we plant wheat as well we under seed red clover. The wheat germinates and begins to grow in the fall. Over the winter the wheat lays dormant under the snow. Then in the spring the wheat grows quickly and thick, forming a canopy which suppresses the weed, by shading and cooling the soil below. The wheat continues to grow and when mature and the grain is dry we combine, after we bale the straw. Straw is an extremely important secondary product, which we use a lot of for animal bedding, winter protection and mulch.

Combining Wheat Field

By this time the red clover which was seeded under the wheat has also grown up. The clover grows and flowers, which our honey bees love. Our red clover is grown solely as a green manure crop, which means we plough the clover into the soil adding organic matter.  Organic matter enriches the soil by adding soil structure, raising the pH as the clover decomposes. Red clover is also a very important natural source of Nitrogen. Red clover is a legume, which is in a family of plants which fix nitrogen into the soil through their root nodules.  Clover provides about ½ of the nitrogen required to grow corn the following year. The nitrogen released by the clover is given off slower, than the chemical equivalent. Where as chemical nitrogen can promote weed germination and seed production resulting in a lot more weed is in the crop.

Field with Red Clover

 Having wheat and clover in the rotation provides a lot of benefits to the soil. As well as many products we need on the farm. The grain from the wheat is sold to make cereal products, the straw we use for animal bedding and covering the strawberries. But most importantly is the soil remediation, given back to the soil. Making fall wheat and red clover in a rotation a very green and sustainable practice.

August 23, 2010

Planting Strawberries at FraiseBec

This week we headed to Montreal for the North American Strawberries Growers Association summer tour.We spent 2 days touring all different farms, nurseries and markets around the Montreal area. On the tour we stopped at FraiseBec the largest strawberry grower in Canada, growing 58 hectares of strawberries. It was a really interesting place to visit, to see how they plant, pick and maintain so many hectares of strawberries. At FraiseBec they also use women to pick and pack the berries as well as to cut runners. I found this very interesting because most other places only use men.

On the tour we also visited strawberry plant propagators. The propagators are where we purchase our plants each year, to plant in the spring. So it was really interesting to see that whole other side of the operation and hear about some new promising varieties. It is important to keep up with all the new varieties and changes happening in growing strawberries or you get left behind. We also saw demonstrations of new machinery used for cutting the runners of plants, but at this point I don’t think the machines can replace the quality of hand cutting the runners.

"On the Line" at Masse Propagators

Along the tour we also stopped at several farms which had markets on their farms, or used the strawberries to make secondary products such as cider. It was interesting to see other peoples markets and how they step things up. As well as to learn how they process their cider. All along the tour we were greeted by extremely friendly hosts who were happy to share their information on how they do things and they all ensured we never left with an empty stomach. We were fed many delicious meals of fresh French cuisine in giant sized proportions.

The tour was a great way to get to know other strawberry growers from as far away as the Dominican Republic. We had a lot of time to get to know each other and hear about how people do things and what works and doesn’t work for them. At the end of the day we had some new friends and some fresh ideas we can us to improve the way we do things.