Metchosin Grown and Certified Organic
We love growing delicious vegetables and sharing the abundance.
Our farm stand is open every Tuesday and Saturday all year long.
On the farm stand this week:
Arugula • Beets • Chard • Collards • Eggs • Kale • Radishes • Salad Greens • Saanich Organics Vegetable Seeds
Saved by the Rain!
We were so happy to see the rain this week. It's been really dry and we haven't completely got our irrigation system up and running. This down pour really saved us from some last minute scrambling to get water to our new seedlings. Look at this radish! I swear it was just a wee bud yesterday and the rain was all it needed. So sweet and crunchy with just a touch of heat. Can anything beat a spring radish?
Seeding, Seeding and more Seeding!
We've been spending lots of time in the greenhouse getting our seedlings planted. Almost everything, except for our root vegetables starts out in a seedling tray and gets transplanted out. This helps us cram many planting successions into our field. We can get the next succession of lettuces started in trays while the first ones are just getting ready. We can also get frost sensitive plants like squashes and celery off to an early start by having a one month old transplant ready to put out after the last frost date, which for us is about May 10.
The Weeds Begin Again
As the weeds begin, Bob comes out in force and battles them with a determination to be admired. There have been many times when I've turned my back and accepted defeat, and then Bob will save the crop on hands and knees, covering hundreds of feet in a morning. Done, no big deal. Bob is our backstop. Hell and high weeds come, and Bob fends them off. The farm continues.
Weeds may be Ferocious, but the Paperwork is the real Bear
Far away from the glory atop the tractor is the real farm hero, the accountant. You might recognise Sasha as the friendly farm stand attendant, but he spends some long hours in the office keeping the farm on the rails. This spring has been challenging because we've been working with half a dozen other farms, buying their produce for the farm stand. Its been a tough spring for some of our farming friends, especially those who have specialised in supplying restaurants. Thanks to you, we've been able to sell their produce here. But there's a lot of admin that comes with retail and Sasha has been left holding the pile. Fortunately Sasha gets to de-stress in his seed plot where he saves over 20 varieties of seed that we need for the farm. Some of the seed on the farm stand is from Sasha's hands.
On the Menu at Sea Bluff this week:
How about this for a spring bonanza? We just sliced and diced kale tops, chard, bok choy and kale, and stirfried it up with some ginger and tamari. We served it over some of Level Ground's heirloom rice. And the 'piéce de resistance' was the spot prawns that one of our customers dropped off as a gift. We joked that we were probably eating the best meal served in all of Victoria!
As a final note, we've been so heartwarmed by everyone starting to grow food at home. What an amazing way to help the world in a hard time. As my colleague Jen Cody says, "never waste a good crisis". While this Covid really is terrible, it is shining a light on how very unstable our food system is. From overloaded industrial meat farms unable to process their animals, and dairy farmers dumping milk, to epic line ups at food banks, we're demonstrating the need to do better. I've been asked for my take on the situation, and I say that everyone should try to create their ideal food system by shopping close to home, and networking to make the shortest distance from the land to the fork. It may not be exotic, but food grown by people who really care is the most wholesome. Make choices that shape the food system you want, not just now but for always. And try your hand at growing your own. There may be bad things coming from this disruption, and we need all hands on deck. Here is a website to help : www.growingfood-together.com