Our Market Farm

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We’ve had a pretty busy season here at our old island home and things we’ve been wanting to do have slowly been falling into place.  Our biggest news of the year has been several weeks in the making….

That’s right!  This year we’re launching our veggie box program and market stand and you can check it out here: http://ouroldislandfarm.wix.com/ourfarm

If at all possible, we’d like to kindly ask that you to find us on Facebook at Our Old Island Market Farm, like the page and share it with as many people as possible – especially if you or your friends are in the island – but obviously everybody is welcome to ‘like’ what we’re doing.

The past two years we’ve been learning PEI’s growing seasons as we’ve been growing all the vegetables for our own needs and sharing our excess with friends and neighbors.  This year we are ramping up production by incorporating some highly intensive gardening practices to maximize our output and offering weekly vegetable boxes valued at $25.

The last several weeks have been crammed with starting seeds, planning the garden layout and revamping our rotation plan and determining the produce needs for ourselves plus several weekly customers.

Over the next few weeks, the seedlings will be hardened off and ready for transplanting under row covers until the risk of frost has passed.  In the meantime, bathroom plumbing is underway, the original 130 year old doors are being stripped of several coats of paint, new wood flooring is being milled and finished for installation and plans for the kitchen addition are underway.  Suffice to say, if you’ve been missing our regular posts, stay tuned, things are about to get a little crazy.

 

A Year in Review

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Well suffice to say my blog efforts didn’t quite pan out the way I intended in 2015.  Not to say that progress hasn’t been made on Our Old Island Home, I just haven’t been faithful in sharing our progress with you.

Vanessa and I have been working full time at our new jobs.  I’m with Paul Davis Systems, an insurance-related restoration contractor on the island.  Vanessa is working at Cavendish Farms, processing one of PEI’s grandest commodities.

The gardens did equally well for us this year as the previous year.  We had greater success with some of our crops – our winter squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, garlic and onions were not only superior to 2014, but provided above and beyond our needs for the year.

Some of the successes in 2014 however, were failures in 2015.  Our corn was one such crop.  Between the dry summer, our neglect resulting from working full-time to just bad luck we didn’t have a single ear come to maturity.  Most formed on the plant, but went directly to the chickens where the ears were picked (pecked?) clean.  Our beets and cucumbers didn’t come to much this year either.  I blame the new garden plots we haphazardly prepared in the spring for their lack of contribution to our table.

Otherwise, the remaining crops (carrots, potatoes, turnip, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, peas, greens and zucchini) did as well as the previous year’s effort.

The hen house welcomed six new layers this year.  We did lose a couple of birds, but the remaining nine hens are providing, on average, seven eggs per day.  We’ve been selling our excess eggs to friends and co-workers.  The sales cover the cost of feeding the birds, but even still as I’m writing this, we have thirteen-dozen eggs in our fridge.  Vanessa has already frozen a couple dozen eggs for baking (yes, that’s do-able) and I’ll be pickling a couple dozen this weekend.  No, I’ve never had a pickled egg, but a co-worker of mine suggested it.  Hey, I’m game to try anything.

As the gardening season was drawing to a close, our attention was refocused on the house restoration.  This year, we completed the insulation in the attic, installed several new windows on the second floor, started taping and seamfilling the drywall, started setting the piers for the new porch and framed the floor for the new mudroom addition.  With fall coming to an end and winter bearing down on us, the added insulation, vapor barrier and windows will make for a much more, um, comfortable winter than last year.

That’s what’s been happening here.  On a more personal note, here’s how we’re doing:  good.  Very good, in fact.  Life is busy and looking back, I cant believe another year has passed.  But we’ve made intentional changes this year.  We’ve made time for each other.  No matter how busy life gets, we take time to watch the moon rise over Pleasant Valley and the sunset at the beach.  We go for long walks together with Murdoch along the trails behind our house and explore parts of the island we’ve not seen before.  Ultimately, this is the one true gift we can give each other – time.  Virtually every other gift will fade, tarnish, wear out or breakdown, and instead of filling our lives with stuff, we rather make memories and experiences.

And finally, in spite of my rather sporadic posts, we still get people asking how things are going here.  For whatever reason, some say we inspire them, others just enjoy the read.  Whatever the reason you find yourself reading these words, I make this promise (no it’s not a resolution):  I will do my very best to keep posting and updating our progress regularly at Our Old Island Home.  That’s all I can do: try.

Vanessa and I wish you all the best that this new year can bring.  Blessings!

 

All work and no play….

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….makes for a dull blog?

For what it’s worth, I’ve written several updates since my last post.  Unfortunately they’re tucked away in the recesses of my brain waiting patiently for someone to shine a flashlight into the void, guiding their way out the darkness and onto your computer screen.

Until then, I humbly offer the following review of our summer.

My last post was full of anticipation for the upcoming growing season.  Now we’re enjoying the early fruits of our labor and impending harvest.

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For weeks now, the zucchini have been growing to mammoth proportions (which we’re processing into zucchini relish) and the zucchini we rescue from that fate end up on the grill with a little olive oil, sea salt and cracked pepper.   Mmmm.

We harvested all of our garlic a few weeks ago, pulling them from their beds and hanging them to cure.

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Each “leaf” of the garlic represents a layer of the paper surrounding the cloves.  While the garlic is ready to use after harvesting, it’s important to dry the heads in order to store them for an extended period.

We let them cure for a couple of weeks in the warm, unfinished second floor bathroom of our home.  Once sufficiently dry, we clipped the leaves and roots and have them ready to use for the next few months.

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The beauty of growing our own garlic (aside from, you know, eating it) is that we have all we need to plant and grow next years’ supply.  We’ll set aside the largest and best garlic heads and plant those cloves this fall for next summers’ harvest.  Fresh food is awesome.  FREE, fresh food is awesomer.

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We’ve had a beautiful summer.  Although dry, it’s been downright hot for weeks.  The tomatoes are thriving and just starting to show signs of their maturity.

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The peppers are plumping and the potatoes are nearing their harvest time.  We’ve had one crop of peas already picked, another almost ready and a third crop growing for a fall harvest.  Likewise with the carrots, beans and beets.  Squash and pumpkins are flourishing in our lasagna beds and our second planting of cauliflower, broccoli, kale, collards and kholrabi will be ready in a few weeks.

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Aside from the gardens, our flock of hens grew by six this summer.

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Violet, Pansy, Dahlia, Sunflower, Petunia and Lily have joined the Golden Girls – and at 18 weeks of age, they should start fulfilling their end of the bargain and begin to give us a daily egg each.

We had the pleasure of having my Mom visit for the majority of July.  As much as she was looking forward to a visit, I think we enjoyed it as much or more.

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Well, we certainly enjoyed exploring and discovering new restaurants and shops that Vanessa and I intended to (but never have) tried.  But more than that, we just enjoyed the company.

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Vanessa and I both are working full-time at new jobs.  I’ve been working for a disaster restoration contractor for the past several months.  Although I have to admit, after a long day (or week) of working on other people’s homes and properties, it’s hard to find the motivation to do the same for ourselves.  Vanessa is now at Cavendish Farms processing one of PEI’s most famous commodities: potatoes!  It’s actually working out very well for us.  I work a fairly typical work-week: Monday to Friday with occasional evening or weekend projects.  Vanessa works two day shifts, two night shifts and then has four days off.  Those four days have proven invaluable to us as she’s able to tend to things around the homestead (like curing garlic and raising chicks).

So.  There you have it.  Sort of.  Its hard to wrap up three (four?) months in 600-or-so words, but I think I managed to empty out a few things rattling around in my head.  I’ll do all I can to right-this-ship and resume my regular updates.  It’s looking like an exciting fall around our old island home.  Just do me a favor and let me know you’re still out there.  I get a lot of my motivation and inspiration after hearing from you.

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Thanks – and blessings from our home to yours!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

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Exodus 23:25 – “Worship the Lord and his blessing will be on your food and water.”

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The best place to greet spring is in the garden and like every year, as soon as winter’s grip is loosened, Vanessa and I grab a shovel and pitchfork and head outside.

Spring marks winter’s (long overdue) departure and the awakening of – well, everything.  The birds are back, the frogs are “peeping” from the creek down the hill from our home and plant life is bursting in anticipation of another growing season.  All of this makes spring my favorite time of year.

Back in March, we started our onion and leek seeds.  As soon as the ground is workable, these frost-hardy plants can be transplanted into the garden.  If we were able, we probably would have planted these out a couple of weeks ago – even the end of April isn’t too soon – although the weather wasn’t as agreeable.

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This year we planted about 100 plugs – and each plug has at least two or three seedlings.  We’ve learned the onions can be planted in small groups, given enough space between groupings, and the onion bulbs will form without any problem.  This saves a tremendous amount of time in planting – and eventually harvesting, as it takes the same time to plant a one-seedling plug as it does a three-seeding plug.

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We adjust the spacing between the plants to accommodate the groupings.  Individual onions would be planted about 3-4″ apart.  We keep our groupings spaced about 8″ to allow for the plants to bulb when they mature.

Our leeks are planted similarly – with two seedlings in a pot.  With the leeks, though, we dig a deep hole about 6-8″ deep and drop the whole newspaper pot in it.

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As the plant grows up and out of the hole, the soil will be gradually filled in, thereby keeling the lower part of the leek white: a process called blanching.

And it’s just amazing to watch the garlic grow – seemingly right before your eyes.

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So while Vanessa was planting the onions, garlic and leeks in one bed, I started preparing another bed for a different crop.

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Last year, we ran out of space for our broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards and cabbage.  This year, we’ve dedicated two beds for these cruciferous veggies.  This weekend we planted our cauliflower, broccoli, kholrabi, kale (two types), collards, turnips, rutabagas and cabbages.

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In the other bed, we’ll plant additional broccoli and cauliflower every couple of weeks for a continuous supply of fresh vegetables, along with brussels sprouts, cabbage and whatever else we’d like more of.

In addition to planting out some of the seedlings we started inside to get a jump-start on the season, we directly seeded our peas (snow peas, sugar snap peas and a shelling pea), carrots, beets, radishes, spinach and swiss chard.

All these plants can be started a few weeks ahead of the last expected frost date without any concern.  Other vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, squash, corn and cucumbers are heat-loving and wont tolerate even a light frost, so we’ll wait until June before introducing these to the garden.

The chickens are happy and doing their thing.  IMG_5096

Murdoch is just content to be a part of whatever we’re doing. IMG_5071

Even Jill and James come over to see what we’re up to.IMG_5102

Sprung!

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Yes, it’s been a while.  A few of my loyal readers (there are a few) have been asking what’s going on.  Well, I’m here to tell you.

Winter.  That’s what’s been going on.  And I believe this winter has been going on for almost 42 months.

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But as predicted in my last post, the inevitable has happened.  Spring.

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I’ve never been happier to have muddy boots.  Snow Mountain is eroding and the gardens are almost bare. We’ve been trenching some waterways for the melting snow to run.  It’s been helping keep water away from the house and our walkways somewhat clean.  Until we grade the property and seed our lawn later this year, the mud will be an ever-present companion.

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Having said that, the ground is slowly firming up – at least where we need it to be.  And more importantly, the food gardens are clearing up, too.  Hopefully, if the weather stays nice, the ground will dry out sufficiently for us to plant a few things.

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As soon as the ground is workable, we can plant out the onions and leeks we started a few weeks ago.  They’re coming along nicely under our grow lights – as are the broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, kale and kohlrabi.  Soon we’ll be starting the squash and cucumber seeds as the risk of frost will have to be completely passed before they can be planted out.

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The chickens have been enjoying some new-found-freedom since they’ve been confined in their coop for the duration of the winter.  Our effort to catch the resident weasel has been fruitless.  For the chickens protection, we kept them inside the coop until the past couple of weeks.

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With the weather warming and other food opportunities present, we’re taking our chances that the weasel will leave them alone.  While there was snow on the ground, we could see his tracks throughout the barn.  I’m sure he’s been keeping the mouse population in check and with the arrival of the migratory birds, hopefully it will have it’s choice of sparrows, starlings and pigeons – all of which have taken residence in our barn loft.

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So that’s what’s happening around the homestead.  On another note, we’re in the midst of the second work-layoff this winter.  Earlier the year, the mussel harvesters couldn’t get onto the ice because of the copious amount of snow .  Now the issue is the deteriorating ice conditions.  Ice harvesting isn’t an option now so the fishermen are just waiting for the ice to clear enough to launch the boats.

That put a halt to some of our plans this spring.  We were to visit Ontario for a friend’s wedding but had to cancel with the unexpected income interruption.  But on the other hand, it has freed up some time to do a little work around the house.

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We lifted the underlayment in the bathroom and repaired the subfloor.  Soon, I’ll be roughing in the plumbing for the fixtures and hanging some drywall.  Of course, we’ll need to get back to work soon to afford the next few steps.

But for now, we’re enjoying the time off and the milder weather.  Soon, spring will turn to summer and this record-breaking winter will be a distant memory.

Gardening. It’s cheaper than therapy.

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There’s an old proverb that says, “no matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.”  This weekend sure felt like it had finally arrived.

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“I can smell it”

We took a short drive through Cavendish, enjoying the sun and fresh air, and spotted this guy on the edge of the ice at Wheatley River.

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We actually saw three of these bald eagles on our drive today but this was the only one we managed to photograph.

With spring only a couple of weeks away, our thoughts have been turning to the gardens and our seed starting schedule.

Depending on who you talk to, our last spring frost is typically expected sometime in the last week of may or first part of June. So with about twelve weeks before the last frost of the year, we need to start some of our seeds in anticipation of planting out when the soil is workable

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First up are our leeks and onions.  We’ll start the seeds this week, giving us about eight to ten weeks head start before planting them into the gardens.  Onions and leeks are fairly cold-tolerant, so we will transplant them two to three weeks before the last spring frost date – sometime in early May.

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Over the next few weeks, we’ll also be starting our broccoli, cauliflower, pepper and tomato seeds.

We experienced a steep learning curve last year when planning and planting our gardens.  Thankfully we’ve had far more successes than failures, but with everything in life, if we can learn from our mistakes, we won’t be subjected to repeat them again.  Careful records of our seeding and transplanting dates last year has taken out some of the guesswork, and we can tweak our schedule to improve our success this year.

I think spring really is my favorite time of year.  To me, it feels like the new year actually starts now – when the snow is melting, the soil warms and the trees and plants are waking up from the winter.

I know, I know – we’re not out of winter’s grip yet, but I keep reminding myself that there’s more winter behind us than ahead.

 

Making Peace with Winter

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Call it the winter blah’s.

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Last year, writing about our new life on the east coast came entirely easy.  Everything was brand new and an adventure we wanted to share with our friends and family – and anyone else who cared to read about what we were doing.  But now that we have a full year under our belts, the challenge is to keep writing about what’s happening and how we’re progressing without sounding too redundant.

Take this winter for example.  We’ve had a pretty easy cold-season this year, up until last week that is.  Four storms within a week-and-a-half dumped almost 5 feet of snow on our old homestead.  Writing about the storms, the snowfall, shovelling out (and our good neighbor bailing us out with his snowblower) would sound too much like any of the storm posts I wrote last year.

I’m starting to rifle through the mail-order seed catalogues and could tell you about what we want to plant in our gardens this spring – just like I did in my post last January.  But does that make for an interesting post?  I’m not sure.

The one different variable we have this year is that both Vanessa and I are working full time.  I’ve already written about where we work and what we’re doing – and the job itself holds no interesting stories I can share.  We’re just doing our time there to pay the bills.

Sounds pretty winter blah-ish, doesn’t it?  The truth is, I’m no fan of winter.  I don’t really follow or play winter sports, I don’t care for the snow and cold and I’d rather be outside than in.  By the time February rolls around, I want it to all be over.  I’m sick of the snow and ice.  Bring on the mud!

But as I write this (in front of our wood stove with the outdoor thermometer reading minus 18 degrees), I remind myself that spring is just over a month away and we have so much to do in anticipation of the upcoming year.

So I’ll say this much:  at the risk of sounding redundant, I’ll simply post what’s happening and if there are still readers who want to know some of the (slightly) more mundane aspects of our adventure, then you’ll be happy to read-on in the upcoming days and weeks ahead.

Like I’ve said about the house renovations – it will be a long and arduous task to (essentially) demolish and rebuild our farmhouse, but it’s the memories that we will hold forever. Perhaps this blog will help remind us of every step we take.

Even if we’re up to our waist in snow.

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“and how the heck am I supposed to poop here” – Murdoch