Garlicstravaganza!

Yipppppeee! The Garlic is finally in. It feels really good to see all that garlic hanging in our farm centre. And wow, what a great looking crop this year. Best crop yet! We've been growing out this garlic seed for the past 3 years, and it really shows. Nice big bulbs, most of them sized at Super Colossal (an actual garlic size unit lol).

It took Nevin and I twenty hours, over three days, to harvest/process/pack all the garlic. That's 8 1/2 beds worth of garlic (at 150ft/bed). Plus, our friend and long-time customer, Daniel helped us for 5 hours. (Thanks Daniel!). Then it took us 6 hours to hang it all in the farm centre here. For a total of 31 hours. Not bad for about 1500lbs of Garlic!

We grow a Red Russian, and an Italian variety . As well as a very rare, extra-early purple Asiatic variety (thanks Tam!). We've also added a Yugoslavian variety to the mix this year.

Sorry to all who have inquired about seed sales, but we're not planning on selling any this year. We'll be planting all we have this fall, in order to greatly increase production for next year. Putting in an acre of garlic this fall, and increasing it to two acres next year. There's good money to be made in garlic, especially Certified Organic garlic (of which we will be fully Cert. Org. this winter). And we're in a very suitable growing region, with two of the largest garlic seed farms in BC in the same valley as us :)

More updates to come so stay tuned!

Only PART of our total harvest!

Red Russian garlic waiting to be hung up to dry

Our very special purple Asiatic variety. Its kind of like a family heirloom for me. My best friend's parents, when we were growing up together, grew out this seed for 20+ years on their organic farm. Then, when we both grew up and had farms of our own, my friend reluctantly sold me a small amount (with the caveat that I cant sell it to anyone). And we've been building up our stocks over the past three years. Its a beautiful variety, that comes off about 3 - 4 weeks earlier than our other varieties. Which is a huge deal in the garlic world! :)

Nevin starting to hang the garlic up in the farm centre

From top to bottom: Soft-neck Italian, Hard-neck Red Russian, Hard-neck Purple Asiatic

Nev inspecting the harvest

Thats one happy farmer!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm Garlic!

Summer is Here!

Wow, does the time ever fly when your having fun (and working hard!). The solstice has come and gone, and summer is in full swing here. We're definitely feeling that legendary Okanagan heat (a balmy 32 degrees in the shade yesterday!). But it's a dry heat, which is more bearable than the humid heat of the lower mainland, thankfully!

The farm is really coming together nicely. The Greenhouse is in full transplant production, with the cover crop about to be tilled in to get the beds ready for fall plantings. The fields are looking fuller everyday, with transplants going out weekly. Everything looks so healthy. We're really pleased with the performance of our new soil. Things are growing so much faster than we're used to, compared to our last farm. We're starting with a 6.4 pH here (as opposed to starting with a soil pH of 4.6 at our last farm), which is where you want it for good vegetable production.

The farm infrastructure is just about complete (YAY!), with work on the wash station and dry crop storage commencing shortly. We've also started getting all our market supplies and displays in order for farmer's markets starting in mid Aug. How exciting! We'll be attending the Vernon (oldest F. Market in BC!) and Kelowna (one of the largest F. Markets in BC!) farmer's markets this year.

And lastly, I want to take a moment to appreciate someone. We really cant thank Dr. Gwyllyn Goddard enough, for giving us the opportunity to farm on this amazing piece of property. The agricultural potential of this land is vast, and we plan to make this a wildly successful small-scale farm. It is only through Gwyllyn's enormous heart and generosity that we are here making all our dreams a reality. He has a huge interest in supporting young farmers, and in sustainable organic agriculture in general. The world needs more people like him, people who support and encourage a sustainable future! Thanks Gwyll!!! <3

More updates to come so stay tuned :)

Wild Tiger Lily's on the farm. Pretty!

Silky Lupin basking in the sun, on the way up to the plateau.

Our 60' Propagation Table is filling up as fast! Lots of transplants going out into the fields too.

Shauna roto-tilling the squash beds, to keep the weeds down. Nothing more gorgeous to my eye than a freshly weeded field!

Winter Squashes! We have a whopping 6 varieties this year: Blue hubbard, Buttercup, Butternut, Acorn, Small Spaghetti, & Delicata. That's all...lol :)

The fields look great after Nevin mowed them. We're working on rehabilitating these pastures back to health, which means a few years of mowing and spot cultivation to keep the invasive weeds in check.

The plateau on the east side of the property. What a gorgeous field of Oxeye Daisies!

The stunning view from our "office" window :)

8 Beds of Carrots have just been seeded for this fall, and the Kale transplants have gone into the field. Yay!