What are you doing this August long weekend? Things got a little hectic here at the farm as we harvested three crops at once! Here we are picking sweet corn, digging new potatoes and combining the wheat. Happy Civic Day!
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Nothing can compare to farm fresh sweet corn. Our corn is picked daily and is absolutely bursting with flavour. Drop by the farm anytime to pick up your sweet corn and see what other vegetables we have to offer from local farms. You can visit “What We Offer – At The Door” for more information and directions to the farm.
In an ideal farming world we would receive a gentle rain of about one inch every week. This summer has been unusually dry which means we fall back on Plan B. Irrigation is expensive, labour intensive and exhausting. An additional downfall is we can only irrigate about half of our crops. The rest are not within reach of our pond and so they depend on Mother Nature, and this year they are thirsty.
First we need to lay out the pipes. Every 30 foot pipe is lifted into place and attached together manually. The reel and gun are set into place, and the irrigation line is stretched across the field. As the gun sprays the water across the field, it is slowly pulled back towards the reel. The water pump at the pond is very strong. It can pull the water out of the pond and send it up to a mile away. Once the water reaches the reel it has enough force to shoot out of the gun 150 feet in each direction. This creates a path of 300 feet that is irrigated each time we set up the line. Then the checking and double checking begins. We need to constantly check the spray to make sure there are no unexpected blockages and that the hose is being coiled on the reel properly. As soon as the hose is fully back on the reel we need to stop the irrigation for two reasons. We don’t want to flood the end of the field nor do we want to waste any water. Since irrigation runs 24 hours a day this means interrupted work during the day and interrupted sleep at night. Once the section of the field is irrigated, we rearrange the pipes and start the next section. We irrigate because the alternative is worse. No rain = no crops. Be sure to check out “Spud Smarts – About Growing Potatoes” for more information about how we grow potatoes. I had the pleasure of taking almost all the photos for our website. This was a job I tackled with great pleasure since amateur photography is one of my passions. I certainly had challenging moments. What’s the best background to showcase our bags of potatoes? How can I get rid of the sheen on our poly bags of potatoes? How DO you make carrots and lemons look interesting? Will both my sons ever smile in the same picture at the same time? And the list goes on!
I have crawled on my hands and knees through ice and snow to take macro pictures of blades of grass after an ice storm, balanced somewhat precariously on the top of bulk trucks to shoot different angles of potato equipment, almost gotten squashed by tractors as I tried to film an extreme close-up of planting equipment and of course I got very, very dirty sometimes wallowing through mucky fields. (Thank you to my yellow rubber boots!) But by far the most exciting photo shoot was when I was offered a helicopter ride to take these aerial pictures of our farm! Helicopter door came off, camera came out and off I went! It was absolutely thrilling to see the farm from the air. It was a whole new perspective of the land we have farmed for so many years and I was delighted to have this unique opportunity. Be sure to visit Our Story to find out more about our farm and the people who work here. After an unusually cold April and May here in Southern Ontario, we offer this photo album of buds and blossoms as proof that spring will prevail over Old Man Winter no matter how hard he tries to hold on. These tiny buds persevered through heavy frosts and even late May snow. They turned into leaves this past weekend when the weather finally warmed up. Spring has burst into summer here at the farm, and it is just beautiful!
Be sure to visit our photo gallery for additional pictures of flora and fauna around our farm. |
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