In the summertime...

A few pics to show off. The bounty is great this year. Come by and take some of it home to share with your friends and family. Everything is fresh and delicious right now.

Chard

Salad galore

The store

Laddy the Newfoundland Pony

Watering with compost tea

Harvesting the bounty

The growing year is not over yet!!

Harvesting cartloads of delicious salad greens, large head lettuces, sweet carrots, scrumptious baby beets, onions, various herbs, kale, chard, peas, beans and GARLIC!!

Still putting in lettuces, spinach, mustards and various other greens for late fall salads. The coldframes are getting prepped for those more delicate plants that will make it through the cold weather and the greenhouse is putting out some tomatoes, basil and peppers finally.

Also taking orders for blueberries and partridgeberries.

Come on by the farm store and pick something fresh up for your family. Open daily from 11-5.

The salad has arisen from the dark sandy loam of Eastport Organics. Finally!!

13 Reasons to Avoid Products Containing Store Bought Beef Fat

13 Pesticide Residues Found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program^1,2,3

Human Health Effects:

5	—	Known or Probable Carcinogens4
9	—	Suspected Hormone Disruptors
0	—	Neurotoxins
4	—	Developmental or Reproductive Toxins

Environmental Effects:

5

—

Honeybee Toxins5

https://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=BA

If this doesn't make you think twice about buying that fatty steak next time you're at the grocery store, you should really consider seeing a psychiatrist. This site is a great wake-up for those interested in what's in their food. whatsonmyfood.org has been putting out great info for some time, and I think if people became more familiar with this type of information then they would start to make informed decisions about their food.

Paddock project progress

The fence line is in for the paddock. Still some finishing and securing to do, but all of the rails are in place and a gate or two is still needed.

Very satisfying to see a home for the two ponies coming together before the busy spring season when I won't have so much time for them. There's just over an acre of land for them to run around on here, and that will be connected to the barn by the end of next month. They'll have free access to about 1200 square feet of open floor space in there, so all of it together should make a great place for them to hang out. I bet the WWOOFer's will love it too.

The back of the paddock leads out into the community forest, with Terra Nova National Park beyond. Future overnight rides into the park are definitely on the agenda.

Good times indeed.

Forestry is sometimes also part of farming

There are things to do in the woods in the winter. Tree pruning is one of them. What is tree pruning and why would I do it? Well, first of all its not what your Mom did around the house every fall with the roses and other shrubs. It's got to do with larger trees eventually destined for human use.

Tree pruning is actually a silviculture practice that, if done properly, will increases the amount of clear wood in a tree's bole. By clippping or sawing the lower branches off the bole (trunk) of a worthwhile tree, you can increase the amount of clear wood that the tree will produce after a number of years. Pruning increases the strength, value, and fibre continuity by reducing the number of knots in the bottom portion of the bole. Since the bottom of the tree is the largest part of bole this is where the majority of the value and volume is and coincidentally where pruning takes place.

There are various tools for pruning. The Japanese have nice tools, as do the Scandinavians. Some people have adapted hand saws, while others use good 'ol bucksaws, it really depends on the size and value of the tree you are working on. The type and quality of the pruning also depends on when you start to treat the individual trees (ie when they were spaces, how long they have been allowed to stretch out under a canopy of larger trees etc.).

Obviously the farther up the tree you prune, the more clear wood you will eventually get. Some tree species are more worthwhile pruning. Black spruce on a medium site will probably never produce a large bole, so it's not worth spending any amount of time pruning up 12-16ft., while a white spruce or larch on good site may be worthwhile as the end result could be a beautiful beam for a log home.

So that's what I'm up to these days, clearing out older forest (for firewood) so younger trees can establish underneath, pruning the more valuable trees, and assessing future sites for growing various forest food like mushrooms. So it all comes around again...


Lots to do, so little time...

What we need is a good old-fashioned barn raising!!

Cleared a bit of land today. This is the site of the 40'x60' barn that goes up this winter/spring. It'll be framed with telephone poles, covered with a metal roof and have vertically overlapped wooden siding (known as cladding). Should make a good hay loft and materials storage facility. The poles you see are the fencing for the ponies. That'll extend out into the field and be movable. Bit of work there, hopefully the WWOOFer's can help with it when they get here! The second pic is the view of the field looking NNW from the NW corner of the barn site.

Not much accomplished in the fields today. Horses, woodcutting and submitting forms to government  prevailed.

Eastport Organics at work

Today was wood hauling day on the farm. Laddy hauled about ten loads of wood and really enjoyed himself it seemed, like he was finally getting to do something real (rather than just carry me all over the peninsula).

Turned one of the larger compost piles and everything looked good, some coarser tomato vines and mustard stems not broken down, but the fish offal, manure, vegetable waste and kelp are now sweet sweet plant food.

Did a bit of digging around some of the beds from last fall collecting the remainder of the spinach seed too, that might prove useful this winter in the greenhouse. Seed looked OK and will dry in a couple of days in the wood room where the dehumidifier is still running.

Pulled up the coriander / cilantro also. Will turn and lime that area tomorrow. Haven't done it in two years and the pH 'n' fertility is a bit low. The smell of cilantro is still on my hands. Mmmmm.

Mom on the beach with Laddy (who's looking for treats in her pocket). MacKay is watching the waves roll. Wonder what he's thinking?

Foggy eh? This is what we'd call a 'mozzy day' in these parts. Very unseasonal weather. Cold air generated from the Labrador current meeting a warm southerly air mass.

Turned over a few compost piles today, dug in a bit of lime and harvested some red cabbage for supper.

Today the CSA forms went out to the local grocery stores! Ordering seed, replanting winter greens in the greenhouse and starting onions in trays in the house tomorrow, or the next.