No produce available this week!

I will not be at the Farmers’ Market this week 😦

Blame the weather! The lull in production I’ve been fearing has arrived. We’ve harvest most of the protected produce, now what is coming is the produce planted outside…the weather hasn’t been too conducive to fast growing so we have to wait. This week looks good though and I’m hoping we will be back on the go next week.

Have a great week and please send lots of good vibes to the little lettuces and kales!

If you would like to get on the email list and be given first dibs on our produce (kale), send an email to farmer@murraymeadows.ca and we will set it aside for you to pick up at Murray’s Garden Centre or the St. John’s Farmer’s Market.

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Getting caught up

Its been a busy week here at Murray Meadows. We hired some help yesterday and got a lot done! Things were stressfully behind due to a broken tiller, delayed fertilizer and wet weather. Beds are fertilized, tilled, and many of them seeded with radishes, beets, beans, corn, chard, spinach and arugula. Other beds got the lettuce and kale transplants, lots of kale with more to go in!

More tomatoes have been transplanted into the hoophouses, as well as bell peppers. Zucchini have also been transplanted outside but the cool temperatures and the windy days have taken their toll. We’re going to reseed some today to replace the dead ones.

We were at the first St. John’s Farmer’s Market of the year with our pals from Seed to Spoon; we sold out in three hours! It was great fun too. We’ll be back this Saturday; come say hi!

As these first few harvests have come, we have been able to reflect and see what has worked, and what hasn’t. For example, people love kale, grow more kale next year! But not to worry, lots of kale being planted now and later, and we hope to harvest kale to Christmas!

I will be emailing everyone on the email list this evening with availability for this weekend and will set aside anything you would like to be picked up at Murray’s Garden Centre or the St. John’s Farmer’s Market. If you would like to be on the list, email: farmer@murraymeadows.ca

Finally an update, Facebook is just too convienient!

Its been a busy month for sure but being held back a bit. I’ve started planting lettuce and seeded beets radishes and arugula outside, but the weather is staying pretty cool. I’m hoping to start transplanting tomatoes into the coldframes soon too. Come on Newfoundland! Warm back up!

It hasn’t just been the weather holding me up though, organic fertilizer is being held up on the mainland, but I hear it is now waiting for the ferry. My tiller also broke while trying to break up some packed ground. Fortunately is was just some bolts and a bit of a bend that has been fixed. The special bolts are in the mail.

Soooo, with any luck, I’ll be back on track and trying to keep up with the demand. There are hundreds of tomatoes getting bigger and stronger and waiting patiently to be put in the ground. As well, hundreds of lettuce plants growing under lights will be enjoying the outdoors soon. Speaking of lettuce, if I do say so myself, the mixed salad greens we are growing are stunning and delicious.

Some great restaurants in town are using our produce and raving about it. Rocket Bakery has been really supportive of our venture since we first met one of the owners, Kelly Mansell back when we were here in 2011 for a visit. They can’t keep up with the demand for their kale salad. Hungry Heart Cafe was really pleased with their arugula, and Fixed Coffee and Bakery, a great busy little cafe is striving to source as much as possible from local sources. It is great to be a part of that. Check them out if you haven’t already and ask for something with a bit o’ Murray Meadows in it!

If you are interested in getting some produce before I have enough to offer at general sale on a regular basis, send an email to farmer@murraymeadows.ca and I’ll let you know when and what is available!

Tomatoes! Lots of Tomatoes!

Here comes the warm weather!

I’ve been enjoying balmy temperatures inside the coldframes these past few weeks…shorts and t-shirt weather in there. More Importantly, the plants have been enjoying it too! With the nice weather coming, I’m tempted to drop in some tomatoes, just a few to see how they do…

Speaking of tomatoes, off to transplant some out of the cell packs and into bigger pots. There are a lot! I’ll post a picture of them on the facebook page this afternoon.

Things are growing great!

Warm days and Irrigation pipes

Who knew Evan was an irrigation expert? He put together all our irrigation before transplanting crops to be ready for this season’s third harvest, sometime in June. The second house is being planted up and hopefully we’ll have plastic on the third this week!

The garlic we planted last fall is coming up but no onions yet, I hope they made it through the winter…they were an experiment to see if they would overwinter here, like they do on the west coast. Time will tell. Unfortunately, the garlic won’t be for sale this year, I’m using it for seed for next year, but only a limited amount of it will be sold, as again, I will be using most of it for seed. By year three, I should have lots for sale! I’ll try some though and let you know how it is 😉

Evan doing irrigation things

 

Finishing touches

 

I’m obsessed with rock picking.

 

First plants in

 

Keeping the plants warm

 

Garlic shoots!

First seeds in the ground!

Its been a busy week so far…I tried to hide from the weather on Monday, so spent it doing errands and paperwork. Yesterday we prepped the beds and got the row cover set up in the coldframes, and today we planted spinach, radish, chard, arugula, carrots, and beets! The row cover should, in theory, give the plants twice the frost protection. It is almost 30 degrees inside the coldframes on a sunny day, like today; but at night it drops down almost as cold inside as outside. Hopefully the soil will absorb that heat during the day, and as it is radiated up at night, the damp row cover should trap it, keeping things above freezing underneath! Here’s hoping, anyway.

Inside the Coldframe

Also, yesterday I peaked at the tomatoes we seeded in trays and saw the first seedling popping its head out of the peat!

Here’s a shot of Mia…yesterday was exhausting for her too. A few breaks from greenhouse work were 20 minute walks with lots of ball throwing…good for both of us I think!

Pooped Puppy

Check out the new page: Herbs, Flowers and Vegetables planned for 2013

Here is a visual list of all the produce we will be offering for sale this year. Well, we’re going to try to offer all of it! If you have any questions or would like to join our email list (we will use it only to let you know what will be available and when), send an email to farmer@murraymeadows.ca.

HERBS

Cilantro

See the rest: https://murraymeadows.wordpress.com/herbs-flowers-and-vegetables-planned-for-2013/

Kale!

In Business!

Seeds are started and sprouting and plastic is on two of the cold-frames! Won’t be long before I’m sowing rocket, spinach, carrots, and more, and moving in my transplants! With any luck, we should be harvesting everything at the beginning of June, for YOU!

If all goes as planned, the first harvest in June should have carrots, potatoes, spinach, butter chard, rocket, kale, baby head lettuce, baby cabbage, radishes, beets, green onions and maybe even some flowers! You should be able to buy it at either the St. John’s Farmers Market or Murray’s Garden Centre (yet to be determined), and hopefully you’ll find it on your plates at fine eating establishments around the city! We are also considering vegetable basket pick-ups at Murray’s with a minimum order, probably $20, that we will have ready for you as soon as possible. Delivery might also be an option for an additional fee. Feel free to let us know what option you prefer. You can email us at farmer@murraymeadows.ca.

Here are a few pics from the past few days…

Greenhouses! Greenhouses!

Our coldframes finally arrived last Monday! And then we spent a week in some cold/windy/snowy weather getting them up. A few more details to go and they’ll be ready for plastic – which actually won’t go on till the end of February.

It was soothing to imagine those few extra degrees these coldframes will give us when your standing outside in windchills of -15!

Would anyone like to volunteer some time at the end of next month holding on to plastic? Comes with lunch!