Season 3 in the Books!

Well I have to say, my farmer blogging this season was a poor performance.. but I want to take a positive spin on this by saying, instead of thinking, planning and dreaming about it and blogging these dreams as we have done the past two seasons.. We were DOING this season!

And by doing we were so busy that I just haven't had the time to document all of our TRIUMPHS this season! We were busy every weekend, hustling big time to make things happen and we haven't even had a hot minute to turn around and see what a great season we have had and been able to reflect on all the greatness we have thrown into the season. This summer literally just flew by! From one wedding to the next, between planting, harvesting and selling.. we were just flying by the seat of our pants and got through it one weekend at a time! So finally, after the weather changed, I must reflect on all that we have worked on.

As I sit in front of my laptop and watch the snowflakes drop to the ground (yes.. in late September), I think about all that was accomplished this summer from the very start in May to just a few days ago when I scrambled to harvest the last bit of herbs at our house in Calgary before the forecasted snow this weekend. It has been one very productive summer!

Firstly, we had a fantastic harvest. Our beets, carrots and garlic were unhinged and the largest harvest we have had so far in our short history. We were so lucky that none of the wild weather affected our plot in the extremes that we saw across the country over the season. We didn't come out unscathed all season however. We had some scabby potatoes due to the lack of rain while we were away on holidays. The season was delayed from a cold spring, and we had some plants not come to fruition due to a shorter season (as the snow continues to fall). We also had a crop of cabbages that grew amazing.. and then were eaten by caterpillars before we were able to harvest. The weeds took hold of some of our potato crop that were planted in new beds, so some of our candy cane plants were dwarfed, but we did have a bumper crop of bellanita potatoes. So we must count our blessing, as with some failures, also comes success, which is really what farming is about. This season we also came off with a harvest that will carry us into the winter for the first time ever, which is really gaining ground to our household being more self-sustainable.

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Secondly, this summer we had the best opportunity a little market gardener could ask for. We got the opportunity to sell our vegetables at the Wildrose Brewery Taproom, right beside their patio in Calgary! We had two markets in August on the weekend and finally made a little bit of money! The turnout was amazing, despite a wetter second market, and it was so great to be able to share all of our hard work with people who were enthusiastic to see fresh farmed vegetables and supported us by filling up their fridges with every colour under the rainbow, and even weird veg stuff they weren't so sure about. Whether it was people who came because they saw the advertisements, or simply good folks who came by for a pint and picked up some groceries on their way out. It was good wholesome fun selling at the tap room.

Yes it was a ton of work. Yes I'd do it all over again. It was so satisfying and the challenges were difficult but so successful and we really did feel like farmers and like we almost knew what we were doing!

For our third season into farming, we can still say things are growing exponentially and we are learning more ways to be efficient and our plot is getting easier every year to plant and maintain. Every year we find more goals and plans for the farm land and we hope to one day make it the real deal.

So as I sip my hot cider after a brisk walk out in the snow flakes, I think about all that can be accomplished in the future seasons. We have picked up a new variety of garlic from Twin Brothers Garlic to plant this fall, once the snow melts hopefully, and we are looking to increase our garlic harvest by 50% with three varieties!

The plans will now be developing for season number 4. Goals will be to take full control of the plot we have from thistles/weeds, develop a good composting pile for the farm and develop some organic pest control measures to be able to grow vegetables that are more susceptible to pests.

We look forward to hopefully some self grown strawberries and matured rhubarb this spring, as well as a few more haskap plants maturing for June for an actual harvest for ourselves! So with that to look forward to next year, happy harvesting to all those farmers hard at work with the remainder of the season. We hope there wasn't too much snow for everyone!

Happy autumn! Enjoy the pumpkin pie and all the bountiful harvests we have worked so hard for.

Cheers to hard work! Until next time my friends.

K