Farm Happenings for September 22, 2021

Well, we got our first frost last week! The thermometer at the house only showed a low of 1° on Friday morning, but the one in the field said -4°. I’m not sure which one is more accurate, but in any case it did freeze. We had covered a lot of stuff with row cover so it is only the corn, field cucumbers, zucchini and squash that are finished.

This week we have rainbow radish microgreens and pea shoots ready to go. We should have some strawberries again this week. Check again Monday evening or Tuesday morning to see if we’ve updated the quantity available. The peppers are starting to turn colour so next week should have red sweet peppers.

We also made a crock full of fermented dill pickles. These are my favorite pickles! They are tangy without a vinegar taste. They are naturally fermented and contain live, naturally occurring lacto bacteria, the same as sauerkraut. We’ve repacked them into pint jars but they’re not canned so they need to be kept in the fridge. They will get tangier the longer they sit.

Have a great week!

We enjoy eating, and we enjoy growing stuff. So, what could be more natural than to grow food?

Introducing us and our family: We are Trent and Lois Loewen. We have 7 active, growing children. We have 3 farm dogs, a happy population of cats, and a few laying hens. Our house looks 'lived in', and our yard looks 'used'. It is, too!

I, Lois, have grown a home garden most of the years since 2004, and have enjoyed cooking and preserving many vegetables and fruits. Our family has always been an important part of what we're doing, so they'd spend lots of time in the garden, too. Trent has always been interested in plants and growing, so we've dreamed, and wondered how it could work to grow for market.

In January of 2015, a seed catalog inspired me, and I started dreaming of garden, and dirt! It didn't take long until Trent was also enthused, and planning started! Vegetables, fruit, chickens, and turkeys... It all looked wonderful. We started growing with the large garden we already had, but changed to a more intensive bed system, allowing us to grow much more in our space. We were glad to have happy customers, and have enjoyed serving them.

We have since added more garden space, and it's fun to let our children choose a crop or plants that they will try growing. Some of they're choices have been pumpkins, edible squash, gourds, and tomatoes. We chose to quit doing chickens, for now, so we could put more into vegetables.

We also built a greenhouse in 2017, and we really enjoy growing with it! We are interested in working with extending our growing season in spring, and also in fall. For some crops the greenhouse will be helpful with that.

It is important to us to have delicious, wholesome food for our family, and we want to share that with our community, too.

Although not certified organic, we strive to grow our produce without the use of synthetic chemicals, and in a way that is sustainable and beneficial to the land.

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