25 mm or about 1″ of rain has fallen since last evening, and it is still coming down.

And that’s good!

The plants are loving it! This will give them the boost they need. Already they are greener & brighter. The ground is happily soaking up the rain, and the cisterns are filling up (of course we just had a truckload of water delivered on Friday). Equally amazing is how fast the weeds are popping up!

What’s in the box?

Salad turnips, radishes, baby kale, mini romaine lettuce, pea shoots, salad greens.

• Salad turnips are small, round, white turnips that resemble radishes, but without the bite (usually)! Mild in flavour, crisp, and quite tender, they are best eaten raw – simply wash, cut off the tops and enjoy! They can also be stir fried, sautéed, or steamed – both the turnips & the green tops.
• The radishes this week are called French Breakfast radishes. Long and pink with a white tip, they have a similar taste & bite to the more common round red radish. In France they prefer them very small, barely as thick as your baby finger, but I think they taste just fine at any size.
• Kale is the new green in your box. We call it baby kale as the leaves are small – small enough and tender enough to eat fresh in a salad. Our kale is a mix of several varieties with different colours and leaf shapes. Enjoy this beautiful, tasty and healthy green!
• Mini romaine lettuce looks like regular romaine – just smaller. It has the same crunch and the same great flavour. This week’s mini romaine is a beautiful dark red variety.
• The box of pea shoots in your share this week is meant to be eaten – not planted!  Place the box outside in partial shade or inside near a window. Keep them well watered & let them reach about 10-12 cm. Then use as desired – cut what you need and add them to your salad or sandwiches … If you cut them about half way down, leaving a stem & some leaves, they will grow back and you can harvest them again. (Cutting them all the way down at soil level gives a larger harvest – but only once.)

• There will be another salad green in the box as well. It might be lettuce, spinach, bok choy, or arugula depending on what is ready to harvest on the day we pick.

When the rain slowed I ran out to the fields to check the vegetables and grabbed these. From left to right – mini-romaine, salad turnips, French breakfast radishes, beets, green onions. Beets & green onions are coming along but are still several weeks away. Zucchini too!

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Around the farm this week …

I mowed the cover crop field which had so many different species of plants growing & blooming. I left a few strips unmowed for the bees & other pollinators to enjoy. After this rain I will mow it again, work the ground and reseed, this time to buckwheat for the summer.

The tomatoes are growing quickly now – we need to get them staked, pruned & tied.

The zucchini are in flower so we have removed the insect cover and started mulching them. We just moved the insect cover over to the fall cabbages to protect them while they grow.

Seeding continues every few days …

Plant sales have been good at our roadside trailer and at market – but now they are slowing down. We were pleased to donate another truckload of pepper & eggplant & tomato plants to Project Share (projectshare.ca) for their clients and community gardens.

The cats are probably the only ones on the farm upset about the rain today. While they are smart enough to stay in the barn and nap, they are certainly grumpy and want to be left alone!

Happy but dirty after chasing a groundhog in the ditch!

Follow the path south from our barn.

Go around the shop, past the chicken coop & the big greenhouse.

Continue alongside the berm until you reach the train tracks. Turn right.

And there is my favourite spot on the farm – especially on a hot day!

It’s a cooling patch of green, a narrow area between the tracks and the pond, only wide enough to drive through, and with just enough trees and shrubs to give a few seconds of shady reprieve from the heat & humidity as you pass through. Then it is back into the sun.

And indeed it was sunny & hot last week, more like July than the end of May. We were craving this shade! It was quite a contrast to the previous week when it was much cooler with even a frost one night. Now this week seems more seasonable.

People are asking us how this variable weather is affecting the crops. And what about the lack of rain?

Overall crops are growing well. While we could certainly use a good soaking rain (1″ per week is the ideal), it really isn’t dry. When we scuff the soil with our shoe, there is moisture not far below the surface. Vegetables that have been growing awhile have their roots down into this moisture. New seedings & transplants need watering until they get established – like today’s plantings.

What’s in the box?

Spicy salad mix, spinach, green garlic, potted plant.

• Spicy salad mix is always a favourite! Kale, mustard, mizuna, arugula … are added to our lettuce to make this salad mix. With a slight kick from the added greens, it makes for an amazingly flavourful salad.

• Spinach is growing especially well this season. If you were part of our CSA last year, you may remember we struggled to get enough spinach for much of the season – not this year! Enjoy another bag in your share this week.

• Green garlic was very popular last week so we’ll include it again. But don’t worry – there will be plenty of garlic remaining in the field for big, juicy garlic bulbs come fall.

• Choose a vegetable plant (tomato, sweet or hot pepper, eggplant) or an herb plant this week.

(The 2nd planting of radishes which were planned for this week’s box didn’t germinate – so no radishes. The last planting looks promising for next week or the week following. Salad turnips are so close – they should be in the box next week. Broccoli & beets are still a couple of weeks away.)

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Around the farm this week …

So many vegetables growing!

Cover crop field

Saturday was opening day of the Georgetown Farmers’ Market. The weather was perfect and the people of Georgetown came out in droves to support their market. We are so happy to be back for year 30!

I’m not the only one with a favourite spot on the farm. Seems everybody has their favourite hang-out spots as well!

Remember to bring your box back to CSA pick-up to be filled again!

It was a great day!

The weather was perfect, we were all on our A-game, & everything went according to plan.

That doesn’t always happen – especially on a Monday – and is something we do not take for granted.

(Plus, we had our littlest fella with us for the day which guarantees an increase in happiness – and a big decrease in productivity.)

Did we get everything done that was on the list? Never! But perhaps our list was too ambitious – it always is this time of the season.

Here’s some of what we managed to accomplish today …

• a big chunk of weeding.
• transplanted all the eggplant (10 varieties, about 270 plants) and hot peppers (400 plants of at least 25 varieties) into the field. Recording & mapping all of this is what really takes the time!
• planted herbs – dill, basil, cilantro, parsley, arugula as well as green onions, fall cabbage & salad greens in the field.
• watered everything that was put in the ground today, and all the plants on the driveway & trailers.
• filled trays for seeding greens tomorrow.
• filled pots for seeding squash soon.
• moved trays of seedlings out of the greenhouse to the yard to harden off.
• seeded many boxes of pea shoots for CSA next week.
• washed bins for picking & washing vegetables tomorrow.
• continued getting the barn ready for CSA pick-up.
• check over the vegetable beds and decide what will be in the CSA boxes this week.
• write this CSA newsletter.

What’s in the box?

Radishes, lettuce mix, spinach, arugula, & green garlic.

All our lettuce and other greens have been rinsed once to remove most of the field soil. You may want to wash them more thoroughly. Bagged & stored in the refrigerator, they will last at least a week.

• Radishes are one of the first vegetables of spring. Their taste can range from fairly mild to quite sharp or hot – it depends a lot on the weather. Soaking them in ice-cold water for 20 minutes will cut some of the sharpness & also make them crisper.
• Our lettuce mix is a combination of many kinds & colours of lettuce. It makes a delicious and beautiful salad!
• Spinach is always one of our most popular greens. Eaten fresh in a salad or lightly steamed, it is always delicious – and nutritious!
• Arugula is a bit spicy & nutty. Use it in salads, sandwiches or wraps, on pizza … If you find the taste a bit strong on its own, combine it with our lettuce for an amazing salad.
• Green garlic is a fresh garlic plant. At this time of year the bulb has not yet formed below ground, and the green top is still tender enough to eat, like a scallion or green onion. Green garlic is milder than fall garlic bulbs. Use them raw (sliced into salads or mashed with goat cheese for a spread) or cooked (sautéed with scrambled eggs maybe) anywhere you would use garlic bulbs. Store green garlic in the fridge.

A reminder that as a member of our CSA you have access to http://www.cookwithwhatyouhave.com. This website has 900+ recipes, templates, storage and preserving tips, pantry stocking suggestions and vegetable prep videos, organized by vegetable and created using CSA Produce. Log in using the access key you received at sign up or ask us to send it to you again.

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Around the farm this week …

Beets are looking good!

Tomatoes are planted, posts are in and we have started mulching.

Broccoli & early cabbage under cover – protected from bugs.

Putting insect cover on the zucchini too.

The pawpaws in bloom last week.

Waiting for another tractor ride after grampa finishes watering.

Looking forward to seeing all our returning CSA friends and new CSA members this week.

Georgetown Farmers’ Market also starts this Saturday June 3. We’re excited to return for our 30th season!

A sunny day. An open field. And a tractor.

That’s all it takes to make a farmer happy!

There is nothing better than feeling the warm, spring sun on your face, riding on the tractor & working the land, watching the birds soar overhead or grabbing worms on the ground, and smelling the soil as it gets loosened & turned.

This was my field and my view today.

This particular field is where we will grow many of our vegetables this season including tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers …

Last summer it rested. Instead of vegetables we grew cover crops here (oats, peas, buckwheat, vetch, clovers …) which grow and “cover” the ground and are then turned under and allowed to decompose, adding nutrients & organic matter to the soil – feeding the soil. The other day I plowed the field and today I leveled it with a disc. A pass with the cultivator will smooth it out and then it’s ready to be planted.

To the left of this field is the patch of ground where we grew vegetables last year. It has already been seeded to oats & peas and will get it’s break from growing vegetables this season.

We are fortunate that we have enough acres that we can rotate fields in and out of vegetable production. Growing vegetables can be hard on the land and giving it a rest helps maintain the soil health. Growing cover crops on it and applying manure & compost in the fall improves the soil health.

And as much as I – and most farmers – enjoy being on our tractors and working the land, we know this is harmful to the soil. Turning it over with a plow or slicing it with a disc disturbs the layers and damages the living things in the soil including bacteria, fungi, worms, insects and plant roots, all of which contribute to the health of the soil.

So we try to keep it to a minimum, disturbing the ground as little as possible, while still preparing the soil enough to allow seeding & transplanting. We are constantly learning, experimenting, evaluating and hopefully improving our farming practices.

But today I was on the tractor – and I loved it!

Happy spring!

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Around the farm this week …

We have lots of vegetables in the ground – and we are planting more each day. The sunshine and warmer temperatures this week following the rains of previous weeks make for optimum growing conditions. (The taller plants on the left are kale from last fall. We have been eating & enjoying it. Quickly it is going to flower & then to seed. Then the bees & other insects will enjoy it too.)

The new barn quilt that I painted this winter.

Amy has so many helpers!

It’s April and the farm is springing to life.

After a lot of rain last week followed by sun & warm temperatures this week, things are really going to move quickly!

In the small greenhouse a wide assortment of vegetables are up and growing – with more added every day.

In the big greenhouse we have begun transplanting – a task that will take up much of Amy’s time over the next month and more.

Out in the field the garlic has popped through the straw.

And the blackberries are showing life. This makes us especially happy since we lost our blackberry crop last year due to the cold winter. But this spring the canes are mostly looking good! We will be pruning and tying them in the next week.

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Around the farm this week …

Sage and her new friend Jimmy. Jimmy’s mother rejected him, so he is being bottle fed (and spoiled) until he is big enough to join the herd. (He belongs to our neighbour – not us!)

Rosemary is recuperating nicely after surgery last week. But not at all happy with her cone!

We finally got smart and laid ground cover in the greenhouse. This will eliminate weeds and give a nice clean surface for our pots.

A new road sign with our new logo.

Still thinking of joining our CSA? We will only be accepting applications for several more weeks.

March is always a cruel month.

Sunny, warm and spring-like one day, followed by grey, cold, snowy weather the next.

The first flowers bloom, heralding spring, only to be silenced by the snow.

After a long, gloomy winter (the darkest in 73 years so we’re told) we are more than ready for spring. Apparently we will have to be patient – spring will be taking it’s time to arrive.

Fortunately spring has sprung in our greenhouse. The first seeds are up – peppers, tomatoes and onions. And artichokes! We are enjoying watching them grow!

For the first time ever we tapped our 2 silver maple trees in the backyard and collected sap. Boiling it down is a long process, but resulted in some very tasty maple syrup. The first batch was quite pale & thin but later ones were thicker with a lovely, rich colour.

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Around the farm this week …

The remnants of the last snow are finally disappearing – but it is snowing again today!

The garlic patch. This is where we will see the first green growth of spring out on the farm – but not yet.

The Flynns and Sage and Rosemary are also anxious for spring!

We are still accepting applications for our CSA program.

Friday pick-up is full, but there is availability on Tuesday & Thursday at the farm, and picking up at the Georgetown Farmers’ Market.

Twelve minutes!

That’s the amount of time between sending out the email announcing our CSA (community supported agriculture) program for 2023 and receiving our first sign-ups.

After so many years of running a CSA you would think we’d be used to it, but it always amazes & surprises us when people so eagerly join us. (We even had several sign ups already back in December!)

• All the CSA information is here – https://thiessenfarms.com/csa-2023/
• The application – https://thiessenfarms.com/csa-2023-application/
• And pictures of our boxes – https://thiessenfarms.com/csa-pictures/

*** New this year will be a fruit option. We are partnering with our friends at Pineview Orchards to bring fresh, in-season fruit. It will be 5-6 weeks depending on the season and may include yellow and blue plums, peaches, nectarines and pears. Pineview is a neighbouring family farm located just 1 road over from us – we can see their new, red barn from our fields. They had their own CSA for several years but have decided to focus on farmers’ markets and their fruit stand, along with wholesaling their produce. We know that the addition of fruit will be welcomed by our members. Pineview will also be supplying some of our winter squash.

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And now for some lesser-known-facts & history about our CSA program …

• This is our 14th year with a CSA program. We began back in 2010 with 10 members – 3 of them are still with us! Other members have been with us for many years.
• CSA enabled us to gradually decrease our farmers’ markets from 4 each week to only 1.
• Our biggest year was 2015 with 150 shares. That fall we made the big decision to remove all our fruit orchards and only grow vegetables. This didn’t go over well and we lost over half our CSA members in 2016.
• COVID was a boon to our CSA as our numbers increased by around 70% from 2019 to 2020.
• Most of our CSA members live in St. Catharines and Lincoln.
• Our closest CSA member lives right next door – 2 others are close enough to walk to the farm to pick up their shares.
• Our furthest members drive from downtown Hamilton – approximately 45 minutes to reach the farm. Other live as far as Stoney Creek, Grimsby, & Niagara Falls.
• We offered delivery for several years. We stopped because it took to much time, and we never developed a relationship with these members since we never saw them. They rarely stayed with us for more than 1 season.
• We sometimes barter CSA shares. In the past we have traded for working on the farm, meat, wine, shoes, osteopathy treatments …
• Last year we ran our 1st Fall CSA program for 5 weeks. It was very well received and we plan to continue it in 2023.

CSA has been a good fit for our farm.

Thank you for supporting us these past 13 years!

We invite you to join us in 2023.

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Around the farm this week …

The garlic patch is finally mulched. The ground should be frozen with no snow – but that hasn’t happened all winter! We finally picked a coldish day when the ground was almost frozen. Mulching on soft, unfrozen soil encourages mice to settle in where its nice & warm. But some of the garlic was heaving – being pushed out of the ground by the freezing/thawing temperatures so it had to get done. The garlic will grow through the straw in spring, but most weeds will not.

On sunny days (a rare occurrence here!) the greenhouse is a favourite hang out spot for the cats …

… and others!

Want to join our CSA?
Click here for more details.
Click here for the 2023 CSA application.

Our credit card stopped working the other week.

Apparently, when you purchase that much seed, from that many places, all at once, it is flagged as suspicious activity and your card is shut down. Who knew!

Buying seeds signals the official start of the new farming year for us. It means we are finished with the last season and are now looking ahead to the next. That this coincides with the new calendar year just adds to the significance.

Choosing seeds is an important job.

Our entire farm is based on seeds – and the crops those seeds turn into (except for the blackberries – our only perennial crop). So it is imperative that we choose well – quality seeds from dependable seed companies, the right vegetables for our markets, the best varieties for our growing conditions, and the tastiest ones to satisfy our customers.

For 2023 we purchased seed from 10 different companies (plus we save some of our own seed). We will be growing well over 400 varieties of 40 different vegetables, plus about a dozen herbs and more than 25 flowers – mostly edible flowers and sunflowers.

Why do we grow so many different things?

• Our customers expect it! At market, people often stop by just to see what’s new & different, and our CSA members want variety.
• Insurance against the weather. Different vegetables thrive in different conditions. Even amongst tomatoes which are warm weather vegetables, we know that some prefer drier conditions, while others like wetter, or hotter, or cooler … Since we can’t predict what the upcoming year will be like, we grow varieties for many weather conditions knowing that at least some will flourish.
• We grow different crops for the different seasons. Radishes, salad turnips & broccoli grow best in spring when the temperatures are cooler. There are different spinach varieties developed for each season so instead of 1 kind, we will grow 3 or 4 to have a longer harvest. The same with bok choy. Zucchini is a hot weather crop while winter squash matures in the cooler conditions of fall.
• Diversity is beneficial for the farm ecosystem.
  • Having many different crops makes better use of the soil. Carrots and other root crops grow deep into the soil, drawing their nutrients & moisture from lower than lettuce and other shallow rooted vegetables which gather their energy from closer to the surface.
  • Each vegetable will attract different insects – both beneficial & harmful. Mixing up the plantings and separating similar vegetables can confuse the bugs and lessen the chances of harmful infestations.
  • The rows of edible flowers we grow attract bees & other insects which then pollinate other vegetables growing nearby.
• We love colour!
• I have a short attention span & get bored easily. Growing so many different vegetables keeps things interesting.

Each year we try to grow something new. This year’s choice is cauliflower. And we might attempt Brussels sprouts again (last season we were not particularly successful with them – but we learned what to do better for this season).

We always try out new varieties of vegetables that we are already growing – if they offer something beneficial for us. Perhaps a heat-loving broccoli, or a better tasting bean … But tomatoes are our weakness! They are one of our most important crops and there are soooo many kinds we haven’t tried – but simply must! Dancing With Smurfs is a temptation – if only because of the name – but it is too similar to other kinds we grow so we choose to forgo that one! But other new tomatoes that we are trying include Evil Olive, Queen Of The Night, Pink Champagne and even Clint Eastwood’s Rowdy Red (who names these!).

A quick chat with the nice folks at VISA and our credit card was back up & running. The seed buying frenzy continued…

Most of the seeds have arrived now, and are waiting for spring – it won’t be long!

Happy New Year!

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Around the farm …

We are still picking spinach. It’s getting more difficult to find some nice leaves – but they sure taste good!

Before the last snowfall.

And the same fields covered in snow.

Sage waiting for snow – her favourite weather!

“How was your year?”

“Did you have a good season?”

These are questions we get asked all the time in fall. They are asked by farmers & non-farmers alike, by friends & neighbours, relatives, acquaintances, customers & CSA members, even by strangers.

I sometimes wonder what people consider to be a “good season” ?

• To us a good year means we grew and sold some good crops – healthy, delicious & beautiful. We did that!

• We had good employees. Dependable, capable, cheerful workers on the farm & at market are essential to the smooth running of the farm.
• The weather co-operated – mostly.
• Sales at our farmers’ market were up again. And spending Saturday mornings at the Georgetown market and seeing all our friends – vendors & customers – is always a highlight of the week.
• Our CSA program was a success. We had the numbers needed to make the program worthwhile, and our members were great! They showed up week after week to grab their box and were appreciative & kind, and generous with their conversation. Our new fall CSA worked well too.
• We all managed to stay healthy and injury/accident free all summer – no small feat during this time of COVID and as our bodies age. Farming can be challenging & strenuous – both physically & mentally.
• We were able to spend a lot of very enjoyable time with our grandsons on the farm. They love it here, playing and learning.

So yes, overall it was a good year.

Thank you for asking!

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Around the farm this month …

We are still picking greens for our own use – amazing how much cold they can tolerate.

Our kids from BC were finally able to visit, and these cousins got to meet each other for the 1st time!

Our season is rapidly coming to an end.

This is the final week for our fall CSA program. By all accounts it has been a success. The weather co-operated and we have been able to keep the boxes full of delicious vegetables – and even pawpaws! Our members have appreciated the extra weeks of fresh produce.

After some light frosts throughout October, we finally had our first heavy freeze last week. While it finished off the remaining sunflowers, the salad greens & beets came through it undamaged. There will be plenty in the boxes this week.

Once we have picked our vegetables for CSA this week, whatever is left in the fields will be picked and sent off to the food bank.

We have covered one bed with hoops and row cover. Under it is a mix of salad greens for us to eat as long as the weather allows. The cover should extend the season for awhile – we’ll see how long.

One of the last major jobs on the farm in fall is also one of the most important – spreading manure & compost. The smaller pile is guinea pig manure – that’s right, guinea pig manure! We have neighbours who breed & show guinea pigs and bring us manure every week when they clean the cages. It adds up over the season and we have quite a big pile of beautiful manure mixed with wood shavings. The larger pile is 40 tons of mushroom compost that we had delivered the other day. We mix the 2 piles together and spread it over the farm. This, together with the cover crops that we grow, feeds the soil and all the living things in it. The result is healthy, vibrant soil that grows our beautiful, tasty and healthy vegetables.

What’s in the box?

Cabbage/Chinese cabbage, squash, garlic, beets, salad greens, green onions.

The final week of CSA includes some storage vegetables – cabbages, squash, garlic & beets and also some vegetables to eat fresh – salad greens (probably our salad mix and spinach or bok choy …) and green onions.

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Around the farm this week …

Autumn mornings are beautiful on the farm – whether frost or fog or sunshine … and the colours …

Thank you for being a part of our 1st Fall CSA!