FARM NEWS

We finally have greens! 😁

After a long cold Spring the garden fairies have finally blessed us with an abundance of greens this week 🧚

We've got our Farmers Choice Salad Mix which is a custom blend of different greens, herbs and edible flowers that we create each week.

We also have tender Baby Spinach and Arugula with edible flowers 💐

Experiments in sustainable agriculture 👨‍🌾👩‍🌾

This year we’re experimenting with what is know as interplanting or intercropping.

Interplanting is when you plant a variety of different crops in the same bed as opposed to just one crop. For example, in our hoop house we’ve interplanted a variety of different plants in between our main crops of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. We’ve interplanted crops that won’t interfere with their growth such as lettuce, scallions, nasturtiums, calendula, and marigold flowers.

There are three benefits to interplanting. One, you maximize your bed space by planting crops where normally an empty space would be. Two, by planting crops in empty spaces you can shade out weeds. Lastly, plants thrive in a biodiverse environments.

Each plant excretes what are know as exudates into the soil. Exudates are unique to each type of plant and are what feed the microorganisms that the plants need for nutrient uptake. By having a wide array of different plants planted close to one another you increase the biodiverse of the soil by increasing the different types of exudates, thereby creating a better environment for plants to thrive in.

We’ve already noticed a significant difference in our hoop house plants from using this strategy compared to last year when we planted just a single crop in each bed. Our plants look much heathier and happier 😃

NEW PRODUCTS

Baby Spinach

Veggie Fun Fact: During medieval times, the green pigment extracted from spinach was used as ink for artwork.

Description: This variety of spinach is know as Space Spinach. It has tender and meat leaves with a great spinach flavour.

Kale

Veggie Fun Fact: One cup of chopped raw kale provides more than 100% of the recommended daily amount of vitamins A and K.

Description: This variety is known as Red Russian Kale. It has frilly and tender leaves with a wonderful earthy kale flavour.

Grown by Wild Valley Farms, Passmore.

Rhubarb

Veggie Fun Fact: 3000 years ago, rhubarb was used specifically for medicinal purposes. It was dried and consumed as a purgative (cleansing of the bowels), a carminative (reduce excess gas), and for ulcer treatment.

Description: Rhubarb has a tart flavour that when paired with sugar, such as in a dessert, produces an excellent acidic note. This creates a great balance of tart and sweet.

Sold per pound. 1 lb of rhubarb is enough to make one 9 inch pie.

Hakurei Salad Turnips

Description: Hakurei Salad Turnips are a Japanese turnip that can be eaten raw, unlike the more common storage turnip, and has a crisp and juicy crunch and a sweet flavour. They make a great healthy snack that kids love and make a great addition to salads and veggie platters. MUST TRY!

Radish

Veggie Fun Fact: Radish is derived from the Latin word “radix” which means “root.”

Description: This variety is know was Red Radish. A crispy, peppery radish is the perfect springtime finger food and adds a tasty crunch to salads.

Shiitake Mushrooms

These delicious Shiitake mushrooms are grown locally in Slocan Park by an up and coming farm called Asarum Regenerative Farm.

When cooked, these delicate mushooms have a chewy, tender and meaty texture. They have a mild mushroom flavour and are excellent at absorbing the flavours of whatever spices or sauces that you cook them with.

Bake-At-Home Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

These are not your typical crumbly and sandy peanut butter cookies. These peanut butter cookies are crisp around the edges, chewy in the center, with a buttery, sweet and deeply peanutty flavour.

We started with our freshly milled Soft White whole wheat flour. Soft White has a slightly sweet and buttery flavour, perfect for this cookie. We then added high-quality smooth and creamy organic peanut butter and melted butter to give it that a pronounced peanut butter flavour with a soft and chewy texture. Finally we added brown sugar to further maximize the peanut butter flavour.

The result is a dreamy peanut butter cookie with unparalleled softness and chew. If you're a peanut butter fan, these cookies are for you!