Suddenly Mother Nature decided to relent and give all of us a much needed day of warmth and beautiful sunshine. The farm burst into spring yesterday. I think we can all use a few “feel good” moments these days. Enjoy these spring photos quickly since apparently we are moving into summer weather by this afternoon! (Note – Our crop of dandelions is not included in the photo album since Curtis ran them all over with the lawnmower.) For more photos showing signs of spring you can visit “Buds & Blossoms.”
   Could there be a better office if you have to go to work on a Sunday morning? John has been learning how to plant the potato crop this year while Curtis has been busy planting sweet corn. If you look carefully at the third picture, you can see both our sons in their socially distanced tractors! Racing the weather is one thing that has not changed here at the farm. They were both up early this morning to get as much planting done as possible before the rain arrives. To see a video of the potato planter working you can visit “Tater Tales May 17th.”
 We are still open to the general public. In order to keep our food supply safe, we have made a few modifications. We have moved our self-serve produce section outside. There are plenty of potatoes, carrots and onions available. Please do not enter the building as we must keep our employees healthy. We request that you do not come to the farm at all if you have been travelling recently or are sick. For our address and directions to the farm you can visit “Contact Us.”
Today as we move our clocks forward an hour, I think most of us can safely say we have had enough of winter and are ready to move towards spring. But before we dismiss winter completely, I have compiled a small slideshow of photos of winter 2020 here at the farm. All the predictions called for a long, cold, snowy and hard winter. Yet we went through one of the rainiest Januaries since data collection started, snow fall was sporadic and the temperatures fluctuated wildly. I hope you enjoy these photos whether you spent last winter out and about in the snow or opted to snuggle with blankets by a blazing fire. To have a closer look at some tiny wintery treasures you can visit “Weedy Wednesday.”
 Winter has returned with a real vengeance here in Southern Ontario. The intense snowfall and howling winds cannot touch our potatoes that are safely housed in our potato storages. The photo above shows one of our potato storages that are usually filled to capacity after the fall harvest. Over the winter we carefully maintain and monitor temperature and humidity levels to preserve the potatoes until we are ready to pack them for our customers. To have a closer look at the inside of one of our storages you can visit “A Rare Occurrence.”
 Sometimes it can be hard to drag ourselves out of bed in the morning and face a long, cold, dark winter day here at the farm. However, it can be a little easier with a beautiful view like this one taken at 5:00 am from our back porch earlier this week. And yes, this is what often greets us when we have an early start to our day! To see some other pictures of the beautiful sky seen around our farm you can visit “The Sky.”
Happy Family Day Canada! Here’s a look at some different families spotted recently here at the farm. We hope you enjoy this long weekend with those you love! To see some other pictures of animals you can visit “Pond Life Part II.”
 
Today is Canada’s Agricultural Day. The day we come together to celebrate the food we love as well as the people who grow it for us. Every day we are #AgProud here at our farm! We are #AgProud of the work we do, the food we grow and our customer service. I am pleased to release my new recipe for “Potato & Sweet Corn Chowder.” I invite you to try this recipe that’s made with simple and wholesome ingredients that are all grown and/or produced in Canada. You can click on the file above to print or download the recipe. If you’re looking for inspiration for some other new recipes you can visit “#AgProud” and “Tater Tales Feb 13th: #AgProud” to get you started. Bon Appétit!
Let’s kick start February with an artistic slideshow highlighting some interesting shapes I have been collecting. The eye of my camera can find some unusual shapes when I have time to slow down and look closely around the farm. Perhaps you will only see some weeds, trees, mushrooms and other weird pictures. Or maybe you will see a moose shaped potato complete with nostrils, a dog’s face depicted in burrs dusted with snow and two hugging flowers as I saw when I was taking the photos. Of course you might see something completely different. Whatever your perception is, I hope you enjoy this slideshow! If you would like to see more fun shape photos you can visit “Simply Shapes” which was one of the original artistic blogs I put on our website four years ago.
Southern Ontario was hit with substantial snow over the weekend. How do we cope with clearing all the driveways, laneways, pathways and walkways here at the farm? We bring in the big equipment naturally! The photos above show John using the loader tractor and RJ using the backhoe to clear snow. All done under the watchful eye of Murray of course! To see some photos of unusual winter phenomenon I took here at the farm you can visit “Weird Winter Weather.”
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The Common-TaterThompson Potato FarmFarming is fascinating! 
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