Plant Sale and Pollinators! |
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Have a veggie subscription with us? You are getting this email because you do not have a box scheduled for this week, but can still make a regular order through our store. If so, please complete the checkout process to submit your order.
Order vegetables before Wednesday for pickup and delivery this week.
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Setting up a safe spot for our new bee hive! |
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Plant Sale Pre-Order is Open!
Pre-orders will be packed for delivery/pickup May 14th-16th
Start your 2026 garden off with healthy, organically grown seedlings from the farm! Seedlings are grown by us, with care, and the varieties are ones we know and love. Pre-order for Best Variety: Secure your favourite seedlings early to help us plan for the season.
Pre-ordering closes May 13th at 12 pm and delivery or pickup will be later that week! We will have extras available at our Open House on May 16th and at our farmers market stands on May 23rd.
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Visit the farm for a tour and see exactly how we’re growing this season’s harvest.
If you have pre-ordered from our plant sale, this is the perfect time to pick up seedlings for your home garden. Whether you're looking to plant your own garden or just curious about local farming, everyone is welcome.
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Farm Update
Our early greenhouse tomatoes have settled into their new spot and are growing so quickly now. Many of them have flowers now, so that means it's time for bees!
Our greenhouse is essentially a very small section (less than 5000 sq feet) of the typical industry greenhouses. A key difference with ours (aside from size) is that most industrial greenhouses grow hydroponically, and we grow our crops in soil. Though soil is our growing medium, we still benefit from our small piece of this industrial technology with the use of radiant heat, hot water lines under the soil, and a thermostat that triggers netted automatic vents.
Netting on our vents means that we can safely grow fresh-eating cucumbers and a number of other crops in the greenhouse without the same level of destructive insect damage. In the case of cucumbers, netting makes the difference between having a crop or not.
Tomatoes really benefit from the tall ceilings in the greenhouse, and it means that we can use a trellising method that allows the plants to get really large and supports them over a longer season. Tomato flowers need pollination in order to make fruit, and since we have netting over our vents, that means bringing in bees!
The catch with getting a beehive is that early on, the tomato plants aren't making enough flowers to support a whole hive, and these enthusiastic little bees… over-polinate. To avoid those bruised-up, damaged flowers and provide an adequate amount of forage, we plant flowers in the greenhouse just for the bees. This year we have borage, nasturtiums, and some pansies for the hive!
Have a question or something you would like to hear more about in a future newsletter? Catch us at the market, farm pickup, or send an email!
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Adding another trellis line to our tomato plants |
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FARM STORE NOTES
Some new things we didn't have last week:
Arugula, radishes, dill, and leeks!
FROM OUR FARM:
From the Greenhouse and hoophouses: Salad mix, spinach, arugula radishes, dill, rosemary, thyme, leek, and chard. Living Genovese basil plants.
From storage: Carrots, sunchokes, celeriac, kohlrabi, and winter radishes. Dried herbs from the farm!
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FROM OUR SUPPLIERS:
THIS WEEK: Hot Cross Buns from Artisan Bakery! These are vegan!
No Lewis Baked Goods pizza crusts available this week.
PRODUCE
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Sweet potatoes.
Great Lakes Farms (Port Stanley): Empire, Gala, ambrosia, Sunpunch, Golden Delicious.
Pfenning's Organics (New Hamburg): Beets, cabbage, yellow onions, red, yellow, and russet potatoes.
Through Pfenning's: Ontario mushrooms, garlic, and red delicious apples. Canadian tofu. From further away, shallots, citrus, ginger, turmeric, broccoli, celery.
DAIRY and EGGS
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Eggs.
Through Pfenning's: L'Ancetre butter and grass-fed cheeses
Gunn's Hill (Woodstock): Brie, Handeck and Five Brother's cheese.
FROZEN
3Gen Organics (Wallenstein): Ground pork, sausage, bacon, ham, tenderloin, chops
YU Ranch (Tillsonburg): Pasture-raised ground beef, beef patties, stewing beef
New Leaf Foods (London): Plant-based beet burgers
BAKERY
J&D Peters Tortillas (Aylmer): Spelt, whole wheat and unbleached flour tortillas.
La Houlette de vie (St. Thomas): Sourdough bread and pastry with grain that Seth fresh-mills himself ***off this week
Artisan Bakery (London): Sourdough bread and pastries made with local flour
PANTRY
Aldred Maple (West Lorne): Amber, dark, or whiskey barrel-aged maple syrup.
Wildflowers Honey (St. Thomas): Unpasteurized honey from hives all over Elgin County, including our farm!
Mat's Fine Oils (Staffordville). Fresh, organic and cold-pressed, hemp and sunflower oil. Store in the refrigerator.
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PICKUP / DELIVERY OPTIONS
Western Fair Market: Saturday 8 am to 3 pm / Sunday 10 am to 2pm
Farm pickup: Thursday 4 to 8 pm
Kitchener Farmer's Market: Saturday 7 am to 2 pm
Delivery: Thursday / Friday in London & St.Thomas and area, Saturday in KW / Cambridge (schedule will be sent out Wednesday night)
RETURNING CONTAINERS
We love to re-use wherever possible! We can take our CGF boxes and liner bags, strawberry and blueberry baskets/boxes, milk bottles, and egg cartons.
For delivery, please leave these return items out where you would like your order dropped off. Thank you!
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Middle River Music Fest 2026
Mark your calendars for August 29th, 2026! We are so excited to host the 6th annual Middle River Must Fest here on the farm. Look out for early bird tickets that go on sale in May!
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Why am I on this list? At some point you signed up for our previous "farmstand" list or our newsletter list. Want to get off the list? No problem: . Common Ground Farm 6986 Middle River Road St. Thomas, Ontario N5P 3S9 |
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