 Sweet corn anyone?! This weekend we will be opening our sweet corn stand with Norfolk County corn while we wait for our own crop to be ready. We are also pleased to offer a selection of new potatoes hand dug by Johnny & Curtis to complement the first Ontario field tomatoes of the season. Come and enjoy the bounty of fresh, local food! To have a peek at one of my most popular recipes featuring sweet corn you can visit “Mexicana Sweet Corn Salad Recipe.”
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“Farmers are professional gamblers.” True words spoken by a wise man I happen to know personally –RJ Thompson, my husband and owner of this farm. Every year we roll the dice and spend the same amount of money and time growing our crops. Will we spend the summer running very laborious irrigation or will we get just the right amount of rain for our potatoes? Will the sweet corn and winter wheat flourish under perfect conditions or will we battle excessive rains and flooding? Will there be destructive storms or will we see the rainbow at the end of the rain? Mother Nature doesn’t always give the best odds, but we persevere every year to harvest our crops. To see some previous weather challenges we have had here you can visit “Tater Tales Stormy Father’s Day” and “Tater Tales Wacky Weather.”
The past month found us struggling with intense Internet and Wi-Fi issues here at the farm (which is something most of you can probably relate to!) Many frustrating issues have been completely resolved and I am back on track to keep you interested and informed about what’s going on here at the farm. This blog is simply called “What’s Growing.” This past weekend we had beautiful weather and all our crops benefited from it. The potatoes are just coming into flower which means tiny spuds are forming underground. The sweet corn seems to be recovering from a rather rocky start with the cold, wet spring we had. The pumpkins and squash have been planted and are forming some really nice looking seedlings. And the winter wheat is tall and beautiful. To have a look at what was growing at our farm two years ago you can visit “Tater Tales July 18th What’s Growing.”
#AgProud #CndAgDay Today is Canada’s Agriculture Day. A day to share with you what we do all year here at the farm. A day to celebrate the business of Canadian agriculture. A day to post a pic of our favourite Canadian food. Simple right? That’s what I thought… until I started sorting through the thousands of photos I have taken and shared with you over the past few years. It turned into a rather daunting task! So instead of just one photo, I have generated a slideshow that highlights a few special moments at our farm. From a surprise helper in the office to maintaining the potato crop to creating new recipes, I can safely say that celebrating the business of Canadian agriculture is something we do every single day. Not only does this post highlight our love for agriculture, it shares a little bit of who we are. Have a wonderful day! If you are looking for inspiring potato dishes, I recommend you visit “Spud Smarts – About Cooking Potatoes” to get started cooking our favourite Canadian food.
This video clip is of the tail end of our grading line. Today we are packing new white potatoes that have already been washed and graded. They are now sorted into two different packing lines. The line closest to the front holds our medium white potatoes that are mainly packed in 10lb bags for grocery stores and for sale at the farm door. The line at the far back shows our large white potatoes packed in 50lb bags for restaurant delivery and wholesale at the Ontario Food Terminal. To learn more about grading potatoes you can visit “What’s A #1 Potato Anyway?”
 Sweet corn anyone?! We are pleased to let your know that our first sweet corn is for sale at the farm door starting today. Come and enjoy the taste of summer with our sweet corn and potatoes. We also have our first flats of Ontario field tomatoes available. Hope to see you soon! For directions to our farm as well as our hours of operation you can visit “Contact Us.”
Early yesterday morning I headed out to the back field to dig up some new potatoes for dinner. The fields were gorgeous with the sun sparkling on the dewy plants. The potato plants are tall, healthy and very green. They are in full flower which means they are growing tubers that are maturing into potatoes. You can see all the new potatoes attached to the plant I pulled up, as well as the seed potato which is the dark brown potato in the middle of the cluster. For all kinds of interesting facts about potatoes you can visit “Spud Smarts – About Potatoes.”
 What’s growing at the farm today? This photo was taken from our back deck and it shows four of our crops in various stages of growth. There are two fields of Russet potatoes, one section of sweet corn, two hay fields that have just been cut and baled as well as the soft red winter wheat in the back of the farm. This panoramic photo also offers an excellent overview of crop rotation. Every year we change the crops that we grow in specific fields. This allows us to work different nutrients into the soil. Crop rotation encourages healthy plants and discourages pest populations. To learn more about how we grow our potatoes you can visit “Spud Smarts – About Growing Potatoes.”
Today is Canada’s Agriculture Day. A day we can come together to celebrate Canadian agriculture and the food we all love. Through every month of the year we take great pride in providing a quality product to feed Canadians. Each potato dish pictured on the slideshow was developed in our kitchen. You can find all the recipes at “Spud Smarts – About Cooking Potatoes” and in previous installments of “The Common-Tater” in the recipes categories. Bon Appétit!
If you’ve ever been curious what a crop looks like as it grows over a season, then this is the post for you. I have spent the summer documenting one field of AC Chaleur potatoes throughout the growing season. The photos were taken from early June just after the field was planted up to last weekend when we were digging some spuds. It’s an interesting perspective showing the growth and development of the potato plants as they move through their life cycle. To have a closer look at how potatoes grow you can visit “One Potato, New Potato!”
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The Common-TaterThompson Potato FarmFarming is fascinating! 
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