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Tater Tales Apr 24th: Happy 2nd Anniversary To Us!

4/24/2018

Happy 2nd Anniversary to us! Two years ago today we launched our website. We had an amazing first year and now we can safely say year two was even better! The traffic at our website keeps on increasing in leaps and bounds. In 2017 we had over 21,500 unique visitors that generated an incredible 65,000 page views. One of the highlights of this year was our nomination for the prestigious Ontario Rural Leadership Award based on our education about agriculture on social media.

I wrote 63 “Tater Tales” blogs for the Common-Tater in 2017 that covered a wide variety of topics ranging from farming equipment, how we grow potatoes, new recipes, animal visitors and life on the farm. The slide show above features the top ten blogs that got the biggest reaction from our audience. You can view them in their entirety by visiting the “Best Of 2017” category in The Common-Tater (as well as the “Best Of 2016” in case you missed our top ten blogs from year one.)

In celebration of our anniversary we are thrilled to release our brand new “About Cooking Potatoes” page today. There are four new signature recipes that will be sure to delight you and your taste buds: Potato & Roasted Apple Soup; Bangers & Mash (created with everyone’s favourite Chef Derek); Potato Crust Breakfast Quiche and Sweet Heat. And don’t fret if you missed your chance to print or download the four previously featured recipes. They have been safely retired to the recipe category of The Common-Tater where you can view them anytime you like.

And what’s ahead for 2018? We remain committed to growing a quality potato that is delivered on time to our ever growing base of customers. Our sweet corn seed has arrived and we look forward to seeing all of you at the farm this summer. John and Curtis are branching out with a few new crops that we will be adding to the produce available at the farm door. You can look for two brand new photo gallery updates coming later this summer. We are investigating Pinterest as an addition to our social media. I will be retiring my “Tater Tales” blogs but have many ideas to keep you updated about life at this potato farm. So as you can see we are gearing up for a fantastic third year that we cannot wait to share with you! Thank you for two incredible years!

Tater Tales Apr 10th: Russets Anyone?

4/10/2018

Russet potatoes anyone? We’ve got you covered whether you’re a consumer looking for a fresh product for your home, a chip truck looking for a potato supplier for the upcoming summer season or a restaurant looking for a year round quality potato. John and Shelby are standing in front of one pile of our popular Russet potatoes in one of our storages. Russet potatoes are extremely versatile. Their shape is ideal for chipping into french fries, the flesh is outstanding as a baked potato, and as you can see from the slideshow, they can be used in many other recipes to create delicious food. All of the dishes featured in this slideshow were created in my kitchen. The recipes can be found on this website in “Spud Smarts – About Cooking Potatoes” and in the recipe category of The Common-Tater. You can watch a video of our potatoes travelling into the storage for the winter by visiting “The Potato Bin Filler.”

Tater Tales Mar 22nd: Spring Cleaning

3/22/2018

What are you doing for spring cleaning? Perhaps sorting out closets and cleaning out kitchen cupboards? Hopefully you won’t find as much dirt and muck as we do here when we are preparing our tractors for the farming season! It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it. And judging by the look on his face John seems to be enjoying himself. After he finishes hosing down the tractors he brings them into the shop. Here he works at changing the oil, the oil filter, the fuel filter, the air filter and then he greases the bearings. In other words, he is making sure the tractors are ready to perform at their full capacity when we need them the most. You can learn more about spring farm work by visiting “Mucking About In The Manure.”

Tater Tales Mar 14th: Potato School

3/14/2018

What do I do with 3 bored farmers in March? I send them to potato school of course! Last week RJ, John and Curtis attended the 2018 Ontario Potato Conference & Trade Show in Guelph. The conference is an excellent chance to network with many professionals in the industry, learn about cutting edge technology and equipment, and prepare for new challenges that may face us in the upcoming year. The guys came back rejuvenated and full of ideas that we will plan forward to implementing at our farm. I sent them with strict instructions to take pictures for the website. When they returned, I discovered that their idea of pictures for the website was somewhat different than mine would have been. These photos taken by John highlight the drive to Guelph, one picture of the conference and a picture of the CanadaGap App brochure. I have left out the 7 pictures he took of Curtis buttering his bread at lunchtime…geez!! You can visit “Spud Smarts – About Growing Potatoes” to learn more about growing a potato crop.

Tater Tales Dec 15th: Circles of Nature

12/15/2017

All is quiet on the potato farm front. The last of the field work and the fall chores have been completed. And anything that wasn’t finished will have to wait for the spring since Old Man Winter has visited us with minor snowfall and wild, blustery winds. Hopefully this selection of photos will warm you up! These pictures of natural circles were taken during my travels this past year as I was collecting footage for The Common-Tater. From a brilliant moonrise to a perfect circle bored into a felled tree to a gentle circle of moss, the photos highlight some of the simple beauty we can enjoy if we can find the time to slow down and look as we race along in our busy lives. You can visit “Picturesque Patterns” to see a collection of photos highlighting patterns found in nature on the farm.

Tater Tales Nov 15th

11/15/2017

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It’s always a pleasant surprise to get a text from a friend informing you that your farm has been highlighted in a local newspaper. “From Their Farms To Your Fork” was written by Blair Matthews and is published in the November edition of the East Gwillimbury Bulletin. Blair’s article highlights his experience at three of the seven farms on the Farm To Fork Tour: King Cole Ducks, the Sharon Mushroom Farm and Thompson Potato Farm. Luckily he arrived at our farm as the tour was winding down so he was privy to an extended behind the scenes tour that included climbing up on the bin filler to have a closer look at how our potato storage equipment operates. It was a pleasure speaking with Blair and I hope he comes back again one day! To read the entire article click on the PDF file above. For more information about the tour you can visit “Tater Tales Sept 29th: Farm To Fork Thanksgiving Tour.”

Tater Tales Oct 18th: Tractor Tales!

10/18/2017

If our tractors could talk…what a tale their thoughts could tell (to borrow a line from a famous Canadian songwriter.) Fortunately there’s someone driving the tractor that has eyes and opposable thumbs to take pictures to show us what sights are out there! It’s not easy to grab a phone to snap a quick picture while towing an implement down a bumpy farm lane while you’re in a hurry to get to the fields. This slideshow is a compilation of snapshots RJ took while he was out and about over the last few months. From unexpected encounters with wildlife to beautiful pictures of the potato fields, it’s easy to see how much he appreciates the scenery around him. And I think you will agree that the artistic side of the farmer shines through with his stunning sunset and trillium photos. If you would like to see more pictures of some of the animals that live here at the farm with us you can visit “Pond Life Part II.”

Tater Tales Aug 1st: Visiting Farmer Tim

8/1/2017

This past weekend was RJ’s annual reunion with his classmates from university. Over the past 23 years we have visited many farms across Southern Ontario to catch up with good friends from school. This year we were lucky enough to visit a dairy farm outside Guelph that is owned by Farmer Tim. When I saw his two herds of cattle grazing peacefully on each side of the lane way when we pulled into his farm, I knew I was going to have an incredible photo opportunity to share.

Farmer Tim owns and operates one of Canada’s 11,000 dairy farms. His devotion to the welfare of his 40 dairy cows was immediately apparent as he animatedly explained to me the pedigree, personality quirks and names for all his cows as we walked through the milking barn. His cows know and thrive under their structured daily routine which consists of one morning milking, loads of food, quite a few naps while hanging out with their buddies in the pasture, one evening milking and then bedtime. Sounds like what I look forward to in retirement!

Education about dairy farming is one Farmer Tim’s greatest passions. His patience with all of us invading his barn while he was doing his evening milking was much appreciated. He took the time to show us step by step what he was doing and why. I even had a chance to try milking a cow myself!

Farmer Tim’s cows each yield about 40 litres of milk per day. The milk is piped to a huge holding tank and picked up every other day. I won’t even attempt to explain all of the complex factors and rigorous quality standards that are involved in safely collecting and storing the milk as I’m sure I would get something wrong. Instead I will leave that for the expert! I encourage you to visit his very active Facebook page and learn all about his dairy farm in his own words. “Farmer Tim”

Tater Tales July 28th

7/28/2017

I was holding off posting this collection of predators until I was able to include photos of a hawk and a snake. Even better would have been a hawk catching a snake! However, the hawks won’t cooperate by pausing their flights long enough for me to capture them with my camera and I have never seen a snake here (which some people would say is a good thing!) So here is my “hawkless” and “snakeless” presentation of predators found around the farm. In order of appearance on the slide show, I present a coywolf in our sweet corn field, a turkey vulture, a murder of crows that landed in our winter wheat, a Nursery Web Spider and a Bold Jumping Spider. (As if regular spiders aren’t creepy enough, we have to have both one of the biggest spiders in the arachnid family AND a jumping one…that’s bold….yuck.) If you prefer seeing adorable animals at the farm, you can visit Tater Tales July 25 to see the likes of bunny rabbits and ducklings.

Tater Tales June 2nd: Cooking with Chef Derek

6/2/2017

I had the great pleasure of spending some time this week with my good friend Chef Derek Roberts. We had a two day cooking blitz creating new potato recipes for our website. We worked on nine different recipes during the short time we had together, including four different potato salad recipes! Chef Derek was a wonder to watch in the kitchen as he cooked our potatoes with his special touch. I am looking forward to sharing these recipes with you over the next few months. Special thanks to Chris Aiken for joining us and helping clean up the enormous mess we created in the kitchen! If you are ever in the Fergus area, I encourage you to stop in at Fraberts Fresh Food, which is the store he owns and operates with his partner and wife, Jackie Fraser. In the meantime, you can see our featured recipes at “Spud-Smarts – About Cooking Potatoes.”