Our First Field Planting: A Huge Seasonal Milestone! |
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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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Some of our transplant crew planting salad mix on Thursday! |
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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 those 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
We are really happy to share that our first field transplanting was a big success! We delayed planting until Thursday to avoid a temperature dip on Wednesday night, so on Thursday, we got to work.
We were able to plant 96 trays outside. These seedlings were from both of our first two successions bound for the field. We don't normally plant them all at once, but all the seedlings were large enough to be transplanted, and we were worried it might be the only gap in the next week where our fields were dry enough to work in.
On our transplant list was salad mix, dill, cilantro, lettuce mini heads, endive, escarole, choi, kale, red and green cabbage, swiss chard, and kohlrabi. This mix of crops and the varieties chosen are all ones that grow well and quickly, despite cooler and wetter spring conditions. And, of course, they taste delicious! The seedlings were planted, row-covered, and just as we finished, it started raining. Perfect timing to close off a transplant day and help our transplants get established.
On Friday, we also filled up Hoophouse 1 by planting our second succession of cucumbers and basil. That brings last week's transplant total to 104 trays, or over 13, 000 seedlings, all put in by hand. This is a huge amount of work for us as a small crew, requiring a heavy dose of perseverance, efficiency, and care.
We have a break from transplanting this week and will be focusing on weeding the spring greens in our tunnels and hoophouses, starting more seedlings, and other Spring projects.
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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Some very lanky cucumber seedlings that we planted in Hoophouse 1 last week! Spring basil was really successful in the outside beds last year, so we are trying it again. |
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FARM STORE NOTES
Basil this week! First of the season!
The first succession of choi is ready for stir fries!
FROM OUR FARM:
From the Greenhouse and hoophouses: Salad mix, spinach, arugula, basil, dill, cilantro, baby choi, 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:
PRODUCE
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Sweet potatoes.
Great Lakes Farms (Port Stanley): Empire, Gala, ambrosia, Summerland Sunset, 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, 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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