We’ve been experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures here in Nova Scotia and so we’ve taken advantage of the good weather to get a head start on the new growing season.
The general view in these parts is that you can never add too much lime to the soil, what with the high acidity levels. A few tests on some of our gardens has established that this is indeed the case. Last weekend we spent some hours spreading lime over the gardens on Hawthorne. We also added some rich topsoil that had been waiting nearby since last season. We followed this with some light tilling to mix the ingredients into the soil and managed to lay out about half of the mounded beds in the Hawthorne garden. We also started planting our garlic and estimate that we should have a total of almost two hundred bulbs at harvest time.
We also did some tilling on one of our new gardens this season, located up on Sophia Crescent in Cole Harbour. This is a nice plot of about 625 square feet in a gently sloping, sunny backyard. There may be some further soil amendments added and more tilling to lighten the thick clay subsoil, before going on to start planting in this location.
We will also be adding another garden this season, this one located nearby on Waverley Road in Dartmouth. The proud owners of this new plot are ready to have their sunny, grassy front yard turned into a thriving vegetable garden in the next few weeks.
With these new additions, Lake City Farm will have a total of five garden locations under cultivation this year. The garden on Murray Hill has been under cultivation the longest, and as a result, has become tremendously productive as we work to improve the soil year after year. The gardens on Slayter and Hawthorne now each have a full season behind them with improvements to the soil composition and structure, and so we are looking forward to increased productivity from these healthy growing beds. The gardens on Sophia and Waverley will soon join them in producing a bountiful harvest of fresh, local veggies.
The seedlings that were started indoors a few weeks ago on our seed starting day are coming along quite nicely. Starting this week (April 5) we will be moving many of these out into the warm and cozy shelter of their cold frames to get them used to living in the great outdoors. We have another seed starting day coming up this week, so the newly liberated indoor space will come in very handy.
Happy farming!
Showing posts with label cultivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cultivation. Show all posts
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Harvestfest A Good Time...
We marked the end of our season with our first annual Lake City Farm Harvestfest. On October 24th we gathered for some good company, good food and some live musical entertainment thrown in for good measure.
We started the afternoon at the Hawthorne location for some spiced apple cider and a musical sing-a-long. The inclement weather kept us indoors for the duration but that didn’t dampen our spirits. Bob and Elliot provided the music and were able to play something to please every taste and mostly everyone sang along. We never realized before how many enthusiastic singers there are at the Hawthorne place.
After Hawthorne we carried on up the road to Jean’s and Bob’s place on Murray Hill Drive. Waiting for us were the aromas and tastes of a feast that included roasted veggies, garden salsa, vegetarian chili, fresh baked loaves of bread, more cider, and local beer and wine, among other goodies. Of course, the musical instruments came out again and while everyone ate and talked and laughed and sang we were entertained by Amie and Clara (aka Awkward Folk Band), Will, Elliot, Elise and Bob. We even managed to get Elise to play a few fiddle tunes.
Amy Stoodley from the King’s College Journalism program dropped in and did some interviews for a piece that aired on Eastlink TV on October 29th, 2009. You can view it here: Lake City Farm on the \’Fax
The first season of Lake City Farm’s CSA program was a success overall. We were able to provide our customers with a variety of fresh, locally-grown veggies. Some things we weren’t satisfied with. We would have liked to have more veg in the boxes each week. We put great store in our tomato crop which didn’t ripen in a timely manner, due to summer weather conditions very likely. Most of it was harvested green and distributed to our customers that way. We had lots of dishes that included green tomatoes – fried green tomatoes, green tomato vegetarian lasagna, green tomato salsa, etc. Some things went very well for us. The harvest of greens kept up all season with regular amounts of mache, arugula, spinach, among others. The root crops were OK but of course quantities could have been greater. We made a good start on garlic most of which was replanted for a larger crop next year. As always there were plenty of herbs harvested throughout the season. The gardens at Slayter, Hawthorne and Murray Hill have been improved for the next growing season and we are hoping the cumulative effect of various soil amendments will increase the productivity of the gardens next season. Our cold storage problem was finally solved with the completion of our walk-in cooler.
Our goal for the next season is to keep a similar number of CSA subscribers but to expand the amount of land under cultivation so as to increase the weekly harvest tonnage (I use that word with ‘tongue in cheek’). Farm labour is the challenge at this point but we are working on some ideas and incentives to help with this. Of course, with input from our current customers and partners we are still trying to fine tune the selection of crops that will be planted next season. These things and other planning will keep us busy throughout the upcoming Nova Scotia winter, developing ways to grow more food locally and naturally in the backyards of Dartmouth and Halifax.
To all of our 2009 customers and CSA partners we want to extend a hearty THANK YOU for your support this last season.
We started the afternoon at the Hawthorne location for some spiced apple cider and a musical sing-a-long. The inclement weather kept us indoors for the duration but that didn’t dampen our spirits. Bob and Elliot provided the music and were able to play something to please every taste and mostly everyone sang along. We never realized before how many enthusiastic singers there are at the Hawthorne place.
After Hawthorne we carried on up the road to Jean’s and Bob’s place on Murray Hill Drive. Waiting for us were the aromas and tastes of a feast that included roasted veggies, garden salsa, vegetarian chili, fresh baked loaves of bread, more cider, and local beer and wine, among other goodies. Of course, the musical instruments came out again and while everyone ate and talked and laughed and sang we were entertained by Amie and Clara (aka Awkward Folk Band), Will, Elliot, Elise and Bob. We even managed to get Elise to play a few fiddle tunes.
Amy Stoodley from the King’s College Journalism program dropped in and did some interviews for a piece that aired on Eastlink TV on October 29th, 2009. You can view it here: Lake City Farm on the \’Fax
The first season of Lake City Farm’s CSA program was a success overall. We were able to provide our customers with a variety of fresh, locally-grown veggies. Some things we weren’t satisfied with. We would have liked to have more veg in the boxes each week. We put great store in our tomato crop which didn’t ripen in a timely manner, due to summer weather conditions very likely. Most of it was harvested green and distributed to our customers that way. We had lots of dishes that included green tomatoes – fried green tomatoes, green tomato vegetarian lasagna, green tomato salsa, etc. Some things went very well for us. The harvest of greens kept up all season with regular amounts of mache, arugula, spinach, among others. The root crops were OK but of course quantities could have been greater. We made a good start on garlic most of which was replanted for a larger crop next year. As always there were plenty of herbs harvested throughout the season. The gardens at Slayter, Hawthorne and Murray Hill have been improved for the next growing season and we are hoping the cumulative effect of various soil amendments will increase the productivity of the gardens next season. Our cold storage problem was finally solved with the completion of our walk-in cooler.
Our goal for the next season is to keep a similar number of CSA subscribers but to expand the amount of land under cultivation so as to increase the weekly harvest tonnage (I use that word with ‘tongue in cheek’). Farm labour is the challenge at this point but we are working on some ideas and incentives to help with this. Of course, with input from our current customers and partners we are still trying to fine tune the selection of crops that will be planted next season. These things and other planning will keep us busy throughout the upcoming Nova Scotia winter, developing ways to grow more food locally and naturally in the backyards of Dartmouth and Halifax.
To all of our 2009 customers and CSA partners we want to extend a hearty THANK YOU for your support this last season.
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