Wednesday, August 26, 2009

End of August CSA Vegetable Basket..

What is a CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program is a system that connects you the consumer directly to fresh, locally grown organic food in your area. In a CSA, farmers grow food for a predetermined group of consumers who pay an annual fee to purchase their share of the harvest.
This allows you to claim back a connection to the production of your food. Knowing it is grown within your community rather than traveling thousands of kilometers.
CSA's are locally sustainable and are shared risk agriculture.
Sadly we cannot control Mother Nature, but we will use all our farming knowledge and experience to make sure that you will receive a wide variety of vegetables each week. However, the farmer knows that if all else fails the CSA member will agree to give their continued support.
If you would like to try a Vegetable basket this season, then please do not hesitate in contacting us, or if you are interested in the 2010 season then send an e-mail to us at the farm and we will place you on our mailing list.


Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Tomato Harvest

Even with the Hornworms we are delighted to see a bumper crop of fruit ready for the picking.
Tomatoes are not just for summer. This is the best time to start your canning for winter stores of home grown tomatoes.
Top Tips for Freezing..
We recommend medium size fruit that are slightly firm and unmarked.
Rinse well, place into freezer bags and freeze.
When you are ready to use remove tomatoes and run under a warm tap to remove the skins.
Canning Tomatoes..
Place five 1 litre jars in a canner, bring to the boil and set timer for five minutes then add lids and boil for another five minutes, then remove canner from heat. Remove jars from canner. In each jar place a teaspoon of salt and a clove of garlic.
Use plum or paste tomato varieties. Use a sharp knife and make a cross on the bottom of each tomato, place them in a bowl and pour boiling water over the top.
Leave for several minutes till you see the skins peeling away, remove skinned tomatoes from water and place into jar. You need to pack your jars tightly with fruit. Pour boiling water over the top leaving 1/4" headspace. Place lids on top, and return jars back to the canner. Bring the water back to the boil and keep it on a boil for another 10 minutes. Remove all jars from canner and let cool. As long as the lids pop your tomatoes will keep for up to a year.

Tomato Hornworms

The farm has seen a rather large infestation of Tomato Hornworms, which is a bit of a shock to us, as we never experienced these in Quebec!
We have become very good at finding them, we follow the trails of pooh!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Berkshire Pigs have arrived..

We are very excited to introduce our first two Berkshire Piglets, Ham & Bacon.
After two weeks of running around the barn they have started a new adventure outside on pasture. We discovered having a few tomatoes in hand made the transition a little easier from Barn to field.