Trials and Successes of Winter Farming
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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.
Our HOLIDAY SCHEDULE is at the bottom of this email!
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Last chance harvest of this beautiful lettuce in Hoophouse 3 |
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Farm Update
Though true winter is a few weeks away, we'll allow ourselves to say it's here already because this December has been so cold! Last week we saw more sustained sub-zero temperatures, so we took stock of our crops to assess their survival, yielding both good and bad news.
We had half a caterpillar tunnel of lettuce to harvest, but despite doubling (in some areas tripling) the row cover, it's damaged and likely won't recover. When tender leaves freeze, the water inside them expands, damaging their cells. Similar to if you store spinach in the freezer, you can cook with it later, but it won't be crunchy anymore. Unfortunately for our lettuce, were looking for crunchy, fresh-eating leaves. We'll leave the frozen plants in place because there is a very slim chance that (unlike the cut spinach in your freezer) these plants with roots still in the ground might still recover.
The good news last week came from Hoophouse 3. Earlier in the week, we noticed the Hoophouse 3 lettuce was frozen, and we were disappointed that we had lost the lettuce in this better-insulated space as well. To our luck, the sunnier days late in the week made Hoophouse 3 so warm the plants thawed and recovered. With Saturday calling for a daytime high of -10°C, we harvested all we could on Friday afternoon, anticipating that Saturday would be too damaging and end our good luck. We've had some pretty cold and windy outdoor harvests lately, so this was really a treat to end off the week by harvesting such beautiful greens without being bundled up to the extreme.
We are definitely disappointed that we couldn't have harvested everything from our caterpillar tunnels, but it is part of the reality of winter growing. We invest a lot of time, effort, and resources into raising these crops, but regardless of our investment, the environmental factors have to align for us to have a good harvest. For many years, we have had no problem in harvesting these late-fall lettuces, so we will continue to plan for and plant them. This December, full of unseasonal and sustained cold, the situation is more uncertain.
Given the situation, the best things for us to do are to take extra care of the lettuces we still have growing in our few heated spaces, enjoy the hardy fall-harvested crops we have in storage, and (of course) appreciate every bite of these tender greens we are able to harvest!
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In hand are green butter, red incised, and green oakleaf lettuces. There are a few other varieties in our late-season mix that you can see in this bed. We curate the mix more this time of year because we find certain varieties thrive better in the cold. |
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FARM STORE NOTES
FROM OUR FARM:
Kale and collards: This time of year these are smaller leaves in bags, rather than bunches. We recommend using fresh within 1-3 days or storing in the freezer.
Root roast pack: A combination of the root veggies we have on rotation. Chop it all up and roast, use as a soup/stew base, or use components separately. This is a great way to get a little bit of everything. Bags are 2.5-3 lbs and a mix of carrot, potato, beet, sunchoke, turnip, and a little radish or two.
From the field: Bagged kale, collards.
From storage: Carrots, beets, sunchokes, celeriac, rutabaga, kohlrabi, winter radishes, red and green cabbages
From the Greenhouse and hoophouses: Spinach, salad mix, chard, dill and cilantro.
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FROM OUR SUPPLIERS:
PRODUCE
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Tetsukabuto, stripetti (striped spaghetti), butternut, and black futsu squash. Sweet potatoes.
Great Lakes Farms (Port Stanley): Macintosh, empire, gala, honeycrisp, spy, sunpunch, golden delicious, fuji, Ida red.
Forest City Microgreens (London): Fresh microgreens
Daryl Myny (Aylmer): Spanish onions
Pfenning's Organics: Leeks, red onions, parsnips, red, yellow, and russet potatoes.
Through Pfenning's: Ontario mushrooms. From further away; cranberries, broccoli, cauliflower, lemons, oranges, limes, ginger, turmeric.
DAIRY and EGGS
Mistyglen Creamery (Belmont): Non-homogenized and vat pasteurized milk, yogurt, and cheese curds. Seasonal milk: Eggnog and mint chocolate
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
Seth/La Houlette de vie (St. Thomas): Organic sourdough bread made using local grain that Seth mills himself.
Artisan Bakery (London): Sourdoughs and pastry made with local flour.
J&D Peters Tortillas (Aylmer): Corn, spelt, whole wheat and unbleached flour tortillas.
Lewis Baked Goods (St. Thomas): Organic flour ready-to-use pizza crusts.
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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Welcoming Juno's Puppies! |
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We are thrilled to announce that our farm dog, Juno, has welcomed a litter of 12 beautiful Golden Retrievers. These puppies are being raised right here in our farmhouse living room, surrounded by the daily sights and sounds of farm life. We are looking for forever homes where these dogs will be welcomed as family members. Please follow the link below to learn more! |
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PICKUP / DELIVERY SCHEDULE (this week)
Pickup Instore: Farm pickup is Thursday 4pm-8pm. Western Fair is Saturday 8-3 pm, Kitchener Market 7-2 pm.
Delivery: Thursday or Friday in London / St.Thomas. We will send out the schedule Wednesday.
HOLIDAY SCHEDULE
Pre-orders: Our online store is open Dec 29th-31st for pickup only at
- The Farm (Friday, Jan 2nd) from 1-7 pm
- Western Fair Market (Saturday, Jan 3rd) from 8-3 pm
**Starting Jan 5th, delivery resumes on a bi-weekly basis until the end of April
Western Fair Market (Saturday 8-3, Sunday 10-2):
- Dec 20th and 21st
- Dec 27th
- Jan 3rd and Jan 4th
Kitchener Farmers Market (Saturday 7-2):
**Please note that starting Jan 10th, we have pickup only available in the KW area and are attending Kitchener Market bi-weekly until the end of April
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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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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