The First 2026 Planting Milestones |
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Order vegetables before Wednesday at 12pm for pickup at the Farm (Friday) or Western Fair Market (Saturday).
No delivery or Kitchener market pickup this week.
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The new planting in Hoophouse 3! On the left, green onions are being planted, then arugula and radish seeded in the remainder of the bed. Next is two beds with beets, herbs, and pak choi. The three right beds are salad mix.
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Sign-up is Open for our Spring to Fall 2026 Subscription!
Join us for a season of produce fresh from our fields to your home.
Each week, we draft a box for you filled with our best seasonal produce, which you can customize to fit your needs and tastes. Then, we harvest and pack everything up for pickup or home delivery!
If you were a member in 2025, its likely you have already been auto-renewed for this season! Look for messages from us about the renewal, or reach out to and we can check on our side so you aren't signed up twice!
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Farm Update
We passed one of our first seasonal milestones last week by completing the first big planting project of the year.
This planting project transformed Hoophouse 3 into its Spring Phase. Hoophouse 3 is our largest growing structure on the farm, providing the first big volume of new harvested crops each year. Though it's unheated, this hoophouse can be planted as soon as the deepest cold of winter breaks - hopefully that has truly happened now!
Crop selection is important in indoor growing structures. For Hoophouse 3, we chose varieties that are hardy to colder temperatures, highly valued in CSA boxes and at market, provide variety at a time of year when diversity is low, and grow quickly. Everything needs to reach maturity and be out of that space by May 1st, to make way for the Summer Phase of fruiting crops. So, we planted salad mix, arugula, beets (for bunching), dill, cilantro, green onions, radish, and pak choi.
After removing weed suppression tarps and adding compost, we brought the tractor in to incorporate it into the soil. We marked beds and planting lines, then it was all hands on deck to plant this space. Planting finished on Friday - and just in time! With cold nights ahead, we're trusting they have had just enough time to recover from transplant shock to handle those conditions.
Our next spring plantings are scheduled for the next 2-3 weeks, but we anticipate those being more challenging. They'll be going into our field tunnels, which are both the least insulated of our structures and waterlogged from snow melt at the moment! Field tunnels do warm up a lot when the sun is out, so were crossing our fingers for some clearer days ahead.
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A smaller planting of dill and cilantro that went into Hoophouse 1 early last week |
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FARM STORE NOTES
FROM OUR FARM:
From storage: Carrots, beets, sunchokes, celeriac, rutabaga, kohlrabi, winter radishes, red and green cabbages. Dried herbs from the farm!
From the Greenhouse and hoophouses: Flat and curly parsley.
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FROM OUR SUPPLIERS:
NEW: Organic Tofu! Canadian grown and prepared.
Squash: A few folks have asked about these. Our friends at HOPE have sold out of what they stored in the fall!
PRODUCE
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Sweet potatoes.
Great Lakes Farms (Port Stanley): Macintosh, empire, gala, honeycrisp, ida red. ambrosia, sunpunch, golden delicious.
Pfenning's Organics (New Hamburg): Red and yellow onions, red, yellow, and russet potatoes.
Through Pfenning's: Ontario mushrooms,. From further away, shallots, citrus, ginger, turmeric.
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): Bi-weekly through the winter. Available next week! Sourdough bread and pastries made with local, organically grown grains milled fresh by baker Seth.
Artisan Bakery (London): Bi-weekly through the winter. Available next week! Sourdough bread and pastries made with fresh locally milled Arva 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 OPTIONS THIS WEEK
Farm pickup: Friday 1pm-7pm
Western Fair Market pickup: Saturday 8 am to 3 pm / Sunday 10 am to 2pm
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 deliveries, please leave these return items out where you would like your order dropped off. Thank you!
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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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