Skeeter Farm

Skeeter's getting a new website!

2011-11-25T11:16:00.001-08:00

The future home of our blog posts and info about CSA programs, markets etc will now be hosted at www.skeeterfarm.com

Yahoo!

Not much there yet, but stay tuned as the wonders of our new website are unveiled over the next few months :)

Blog Neglect

2011-11-15T19:45:00.000-08:00

Hello Loyal Blog Readers!

Our apologies for not posting any updates over the last few months. The end of the season has been beyond crazy for us, trying to manage our full time jobs, school and running the farm. The truth is, 140 character sound bites seems to be all we can keep up with at the moment.

SO, if you'd like to keep in touch with us a little more over the winter season you can follow us on Twitter @skeeterfarm or check out the Facebook page, and even like us if you feel so inclined :)

We will be posting information about how to sign up for the 2012 CSA season in the new year. If you would like to be put on the CSA email list to be notified when registration starts, please send us an email at skeeterfarm@gmail.com.

Cheers!

The Skeeter Farmers

The Quintissential Comfort Food: Seasonal Soups

2011-09-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

Yummy times ahead! These days the weather is unpredictable, sun one moment, rain and clouds the next. But no matter what, fall is here. Crisp morning air, leaves on the ground, and the feeling like you can't get out of bed. I never craved a soup during our summertime weeks, but the simple nosh of soup is what beckons at our household these days. Now, soup I always thought was a bit of a meal one must follow a recipe for, but once you have the basic patterns down pat, you can create a soup out of any veggie there is!
Being a follower of some celebrity chefs (not to name names ; ) I have learned many techniques for soups, full of seasonal produce, and packed full of flavor and nutrition. Here are some ideas to get you going a bit in the kitchen this fall and winter season, and if you are a new soup maker, try to notice the pattern of building flavor as you go along. Then be adventurous to try more new veggies whenever you want. I have had a blast! Does anyone out there have more new ideas? Please share on our facebook page, or email us with your great recipe!

Creamy Acorn Squash Soup
1 onion, or leek, diced
1 tbsp of dried rosemary
1 bay leaf
4 cups water
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 acorn squash, peeled and chopped into large chunks
1/4 c heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Heat olive oil on medium heat, and add onion, garlic and herbs. Pan fry until translucent. Add squash, and water, and cook until squash is soft. Remove bay leaf, and puree in a food procesor until smooth. Put soup back into a pot on the stove and add cream, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Comfy Tomato and Bean Soup
1 c. cooked, or canned beans
olive oil
1 onion, cubed
1 pepper, cubed
1 sprig thyme
1 can diced tomatoes, or 4 large fresh ones, diced
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Sautee onion and olive oil until translucent. Add beans, and squash with a fork until 1/2 the beans are crushed. Add thyme, pepper, tomatoes and 1/2 water and cook on medium for 20 minutes. Add 1/4 c of grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Add additional water if too thick.

Zingy Spinach and Broccoli Soup

1 broccoli head, washed and chopped
2 c. spinach
2 c. stock, veggie, or chicken
1/4 c. white wine
1 onion chopped
2 tbsp. dill, chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Sautee onion in olive oil until translucent. Add broccoli and cook for 5 minutes, and add stock, white wine and continue to cook until broccoli is soft. Add dill and spinach. Cool for 10 minutes. Add to food processor and blend until smooth. Return to pot, and season with salt and pepper.

It's all about Food Preservation

2011-08-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Kind of a funky title for a blog post, but quite honestly, I didn't know how to title this post. The realm of food preservation encompasses so much these days, and canning seems to spring to mind first. I think this comes from the fact that canning has hit a new stride. A new generation of canners has arisen, no doubt due to the resergence of interest in local food. Knowing that we cannot eat locally all year (although some areas of this province can), perserving our summer bounty is becoming more and more common. Of course this is not a new concept, to be sure, but the idea of canning tomatoes to see their pretty red color is something many a people have fallen in love with.

I have to say, I have been canning for years. While I love to open up my pantry to see all the pickles, jams, and other canned goods I have worked on through the summer months, I have been wanting to expand this idea of food preservation a little further. For example, food drying and curing. A technique that is steeped in history and to this day is used in every country in the world, drying and curing has now become my new thing. Last year I asked for a food dehyrator for Christmas. My parents indulged me, and with this summer, I have been trying it out. I always knew that drying foods or herbs needed a cool, dry, dark place to dry out in, and a dehydrator gives a more even thorough dry. Also, foods and herbs keep their color, and keeps more of the oils in the food. Can I just say, this is sweet. In my picture here, I have plates full of dried chamomile (for a tea order), and I am taking a stab at drying basil (for maybe CSA?). Wouldn't that be awesome too, opening up your tea or spice cupboard to find, nice clear bottles with your own dried herbs or teas? I think that maybe I am coming full circle with my idea of food preservation. For the longest time, I thought freezing veggies and fruit was persevering them, but what if I had a blackout, or my home was damaged in a earthquake? What would happen to my perishable goodies then?

So these questions helped me sort out what preserving actually is. I will always freeze berries for the winter, but in addition to this, wouldn't it be cool to maybe dry some too? To throw on cereal or oatmeal, or in trail mixes to snack on? Hmm... maybe I've caught on to something here. If only I ate meat, then I would be curing a big ham leg in my spare room.....

How to Eat Like a Veggie Farmer

2011-08-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

One of the obvious perks of working/owning/living on a farm is the bounty of fresh food that we have to choose from when we go to construct our meals. This season, more than ever, we have delved into eating like true veggie farmers! This in part due to having a great kitchen to cook in, now living ON the farm and an amazing cooking partner do it it with (Pat).

As the meals have become more and more delicious, elaborate and fantastic I started to think about how our eating habits have changed since we started farming. Frequent trips to the grocery store are no more! We eat what we have, and make meals so good they would knock your socks off. These photos hopefully share a little insight into the world of seasonal meals that we Skeeter Farmers have come to enjoy.

There is nothing more amazing than an at home, mid-work week lunch (major perk to farming). Here we made fresh kale/basil pesto pasta. Topped off with a homebrew porter.

In and amongst the chaos that is the summer around here, it's nice to have fresh flowers adorning the house. I realize these aren't food, but too pretty not to share.

I've had to get over my distaste for beets this summer. Here were enjoying some farmers market leftover chioggia beet and cabbage salad. Not something I would ever have put together, but true to the idea of eating what you got! Rather Dr. Seuss I think....

Another amazing mid-work week lunch at home. This time it's fresh pesto pasta topped with sauteed crookneck squashes and tomatoes on a bed of arugula.

Just another pretty bouquet of flowers to make me happy while working on the master's thesis. These flowers were grown specifically for a wedding in August. We are happy to have the leftovers :)

Edible flower petals make eating salad so much more enjoyable. This is Skeeter Farm's special blend of salad mix!

You know what makes salad mix even more enjoyable? If you top it with pan fried peppers and summer squash then load it up with pesto. Hmmmm....I am noticing a theme with a lot of these lunches!

Here is some after-the-market dinner prep. Dinner prep usually starts around 9:30 pm and doesn't get eaten until after 10:30 - something that we have had to come to terms with in this summer of chaos. We have also had to come to terms with eating 2 lbs of beans at each sitting. Hate to see any of this bounty go to waste :)

You know what goes good with 2 lbs of beans? 4 lbs of potatoes and beets!

We eat a lot of kale too!

The only bad thing about this type of eating is when the season runs out! In order to enjoy our food year round we are canning up a storm. Here's Colleen and I pickling cukes and beans. Simon is supervising from his box.

Have we made you hungry? Please tell us/show us all of the wonderful things you are making with this season's bounty by posting a pic on our facebook wall. Thanks to all of our customers who have shared so far.

Pickling Cukes are Ready!

2011-08-04T19:58:00.000-07:00

Hello canning enthusiasts! At Skeeter Farm, our pickling cukes are on there way! I think each one of us, deep down has the desire to pickle to our heart's content, and think of cold, wet December days when opening up a pickle jar becomes a source of comfort.

If you are interested and full filling this canning desire, or are looking for some fresh cukes for your annual pickle fest, email us. We are filling orders now.

You can reach us at: skeeterfarm@gmail.com for all orders, and we can give you pricing right away.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Oodles of Zucchini!

2011-08-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

High summer is here everyone, and so is the onslaught of zucchinis and summer squash. I, like everyone out there who loves summer, loves the zucchini family. Our weather this spring and summer has brought on a great many crops, and with so many pollinators that we have at Skeeter Farm, zucchini and summer squash are in abundance.

Usually people have a few recipies they fall back on with zucchini, but there truly is a great mulititude of ideas out there. Zucchini, patty pans, and crooknecks are mild in flavor, so they take on any flavor that it is cooked with. Herbs are great, along with tomatoes, cheeses, and alliums highten the flavor and usefullness of this delicate veggie.

If you are in need of a few more recipie ideas, here are a few, and I hope you enjoy!

Grilled Zucchini

Slice a zucchini lengthways and brush with a bit of olive oil. Grill until soft, and grill marks appear. Remove from the grill, and squeeze some lemon juice on top, add some crumbled feta, and top with fresh mint, basil, or green onion.

Summer Squash and Pasta

Cook your pasta until al dente, and while warm drizzle with a bit of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add grated summer squash, as much as you would like, and some grated parmesan cheese.

Zucchini and Tomatoes

Cube zucchini or summer squash and add to a pan on medium heat with a bit of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and add two fresh tomatoes, and one clove of chopped garlic. Saute until zucchini is tender. Top with some ripped basil.

Baked Summer Veggies

Par boil four potatoes just until fork tender. Drain, let cool, and slice 1/2 inch slices. Slice 4 tomatoes and one medium zucchini. Once all the veggies are sliced, diagonally layer and alternate them in a shallow baking pan. Once complete, sprinkle fresh oregano, salt and pepper and bake for about 20 minutes.

Yum, yum, can't wait until dinner!

Waging War on the Wireworm

2011-07-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

Many moons ago, Colleen wrote about the initial surge of those pesky little wireworms in the hoop house. Well, they continue to turn up once in a while around the farm, evidenced by sad, drooping plants here and there. So, the fight continues...

A little info for those who don't know much about the wireworms. Our particular wireworm species are either Agriotis obscurus or Agriotes lineatus, both non-native, both a pain in the behind. Wireworms are the larvae stage of a click beetle, and stay in the larvae stage of the life cycle for 3 - 4 years, feasting on poor little plants. Once they become adult click beetles, they don't hurt plants.

I guess in some ways, we are not all that unlike the wireworm. We both like Yarrow. We both like Skeeter Farm. We both like plants. However, there is one all important difference. While we humans like to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of the plants' labour, wireworms like to take plants well before their time. For this reason, we will forever be enemies.

Initial efforts to deal with the wireworm included negotiation (no luck) and the trusted sacrificial carrot tactic (very effective).

Well, this past week we stepped things up and took the fight to the wireworm with the enlistment of Beneficial Native Nematodes!!! Nematodes naturally occur in the soil and eat soil dwelling insects like larvae and grubs, leaving friendly earthworms and plants to go about their business. In effect, we have brought in some reinforcements to help fight the good fight. We'll keep you posted.

In Nematodes we trust.

Our first CSA is on it's way!

2011-07-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

Yes it is finally here. Our first CSA of 2011. Many a serious nights worried about harvest dates, germination happenings, and the absence of sunshine.... but it all worked out. Folks, we were very proud to put forth this effort, and we are stoked about our crops!

Amy and Patrick on there way to you very shortly.... and myself the subsequent week... to drop off your veggies. Now remember, each week brings forth a new set of unpredictable events, so bear with us, as we will do our best, and we will not forget about what the farming experience means and the ability to provide local ingredients means so much to us.

Enjoy everyone!

The Lettuce of Skeeter Farm

2011-07-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

Crunch, crunch! Now, not wanting to let the cat out of the bag already, with just days until our first CSA delivery of 2011, but we at Skeeter Farm have had luck this year with all kinds of lettuce and greens. Truth is, this luck has arisen from the (let's face it) cold, wet spring. While some crops are a bit behind, all kinds of greens are a growin' out in Yarrow.

Back in May when I started planting the greens bed, I had a great time perusing our seed reserves to decide what kind of lettuces to plant. Freckled romaine and usual romaine, green leaf, butter lettuce, and even a 'drunken woman' variety got me interested enough to commit to several rows of lettuce. Good thing, as I never thought we would have such a challenging, nervous time in June, waiting for seed germination of dill and cilantro or for peas and beans to finally have a growth spurt. But kale, swiss chard and bok choi have all been troopers with the lettuce to flow us in to the weeks, and now days, before our first farm harvest.

So whether you are a customer that will be receiving a bag next week, or a loyal market goer in Coquitlam, or maybe a Skeeter Farm 'friend', we hope you enjoy our Skeeter Farm spring/summer/fall greens, because trust me, this head of romaine tastes even better than how scrumptious it looks!

Living in an Amish Paradise

2011-07-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

Skeeter farms has a new baby. It's actually a new Wheel Hoe, and, like a new baby, everyone instantly loves it, can't stop talking about it, and cannot imagine their lives before it.

Weeding is possibly the most time intensive activity on the farm. It has usually included an upright hoe, or being down on your hands and knees pulling things out by hand and shuffling along the 100 foot rows. The Wheel Hoe (yes, it deserves capitals) is about ten times as efficient. Ten. Times. As. Efficient.

"God Bless you Wheel Hoe" - Patrick Kitchen

The Wheel Hoe is made by Hoss, and it's crazy to imagine that everyone with a garden doesn't have one of these. Interestingly, the Hoss website says that "In the 1910's, 20's, 30's, and 40's the wheel cultivator ruled the gardening world", but that they disappeared as people developed herbicides in the 50's. Eliot Coleman, author of the New Organic Gardener, seems to be single-handedly bringing them back though, as every web reference to wheel hoe's seems to reference Coleman.

What's great about the Wheel Hoe is that is greatly reduces labour, but not at the expense of the environment - as it burns no fuels. It just uses simple mechanical principles and is made of long lasting materials that are easy to clean and repair. In fact, the handles are made from "Amish-crafted #1 red oak".

So, this little baby should make weeding out at Skeeter Farms a lot more enjoyable and fast, leaving more time for other important things, like harvesting - which is coming up soon!

Colleen

PS: "Amish-crafted #1 red oak" made me think of the Wierd Al song 'Living in an Amish paradise' (set to Coolio's 'Gansta's Paradise'). So, just for fun, here are the Amish Paradise lyrics. I don't recommend trying to read them at work, as I did, because they are pretty funny and you might spit out your coffee (as I did).

As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain

I take a look at my wife and realize she's very plain

But that's just perfect for an Amish like me

You know I shun fancy things like electricity

At 4:30 in the mornin' I'm milking cows

Jedediah feeds the chickens and Jacob plows, fool

And I've been milking and plowing so long that

Even Ezekial thinks that my mind is gone

I'm a man of the land, I'm into discipline

Got a bible in my hand and a beard on my chin

But if I finish all of my chores, and you finish thine

Then tonight we're going to party like it's 1699

We've been spending most our lives living in an Amish paradise

I churn butter once or twice, living in an Amish paradise

It's hard work and sacrifice, living in an Amish paradise

We sell quilts at discount price, living in an Amish paradise

Experimenting with Mulches

2011-06-23T23:19:00.000-07:00

A long, cold, wet spring like the one we had this year means one big thing for us veggie farmers. Lots of weeding! Some how those weeds are much better than our crops at growing big and strong in the weather we've been having.

Up until last week it felt darn near impossible to keep on top of them. Things are looking better now, thanks to lots of people power, and the use of some different mulches.

A mulch around the surface of your crop can serve multiple purposes - yes it helps to keep weeds down, but it can also help to regulate soil moisture and soil temperatures, provide a nice environment for soil organisms and depending on the mulch you use, can add organic matter to your soil once turned down (all good news for a veggie farmer).

Around Skeeter Farm we are using four different mulches, each in small quantities. I imagine that if we have good results with any one, we'll go ahead and use it more widespread next year.

Duck compost, which we are very fortunate to have access to from FVDG, is made up of the composted duck manure and wood shavings that the ducks are grown on.

Black plastic mulch is good for warming the soil (something that melons love) but isn't exactly great for the environment as it probably takes thousands of years to decompose. We limit our use of the stuff.

Straw is something that we have used as a mulch around our garlic to keep it from experiencing the extreme winter temperatures that we can get in the valley.

Something new this year is the use of sheep's wool as a mulch. We were fortunate to have some given to us and we are experimenting with using it as a mulch around some flowers. It looks beautiful and smells delightfully sheepy!

Skeeter Open House - June 18th

2011-06-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

The farm is holding an open house from 10-2 on Saturday June 18th for anyone who is interested in checking out the new place!

If you'd like to come, and maybe even help pull a weed or two, please RSVP to skeeterfarm@gmail.com for directions!

Yikes. It's a good thing we aren't squeamish.

2011-05-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

Growing things without pesticides and chemicals means that sometimes you have to get creative when it comes to pest control.

Pesky little wire worms have taken a liking to the tomatoes in the hoophouse – they crawl inside the stems and suck up the nutrients that the plant needs to grow, eventually leading to their demise. Bummer! Usually they attack potatoes, but this is a rare case of them attacking tomatoes (how exciting?).

So Amy and Patrick found a creative solution online: stick whole carrots into the ground next to the tomatoes and hopefully ‘distract’ the worms into eating the carrots instead. Like so:

That’s step one (and it worked!). Step two is pulling up the carrots each day and pulling out the worms by hand!

It helps if you aren't squeamish! Then proceed to do this every day and hope for the best!

Afterwards (and after a thorough hand washing), we deserved a treat and ate peanut butter cups. I made them and I they were great, but this photo suggest otherwise! Maybe she's still thinking of worms...

-Colleen

A Lovely Spring Recipie

2011-05-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! In my quest to eat local as much as possible, I've been coming up with many alternatives to eating the quintessential spring foods: rhubarb, asparagus, new potatoes... now, even though Skeeter Farm is growing everything under the sun, asparagus is still up in the air for us. Soon, though, I trust you, it will come to fruition. Anyway, as stated before I am all about supporting my local farmers when I can, and my husband and I enjoyed making (and eating) this lovely soup! Give it a try! (Sorry my pic couldn't load properly)

Creamy Asparagus Soup

2 1lbs asparagus chopped
1 large onion chopped
a pat of butter
5 c vegetable broth
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1/3 c heavy cream
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

Cook onion with butter, salt and pepper until translucent. Add asparagus and thyme and sauteed until tender. Add broth and continue to cook for about 5-10 mins. Puree soup with a food processor, put back on heat and add cream and juice of 1/2 lemon. Season further to taste.
Enjoy!!

Recipes concerning Skeeter Farm veggies are on the horizon. Stay tuned for some additional ideas......

A Reason to Farm

2011-05-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I haven't done any blogs in quite a while, but as you might have guessed, the balance of full time work and farming has occupied my time in a big way. And of course, the workload of getting crops started really has distracted me from doing posts lately, but we are ahead of the game now, and I can now start to slow down a bit.

So, my title, A Reason to Farm. I should explain more about this. While doing some planting today I was talking to Amy about my reason to farm. While I didn't get too much into the actual reason earlier today, I will now.
I think everyone has their own particular reasons for choosing farming as a career, or hobby, but my reason to get involved in this local farming venture is because of the food. A simple statement to be sure, but the food is more that just eating the fresh peas from the field. It is, for me, the pride and joy of growing something yourself that tastes absolutley fantastic and healthy. The tomatoes are not imported from Florida, and the kale is not from California. The real flavor and taste is natural and explosive, not bland and unripe. The act of eating in season and local is affordable, challenges the creative palate, and when fresh out of the field you know it has all the nutrients.
In addition, the act of supporting local farmers is truly a great thing for the community. Like people supporting Skeeter Farm, I like to support other local farmers. It keeps people working and food accessible.

On days like this, hot sunny days, when the day consists of 12 hours of planting and potting, farm chores and watering, tommorrow at my day job, I can think of that great productive day and know that I am giving back and doing something great for my local community and that also makes tasting that local tomato even better. Or even local celery!

Lil Farm Update

2011-05-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

This was written for our May CSA newsletter, but I figure it can do double duty as a blog post:

Setting up the farm

The first season farming at a new site is special because we essentially get to design our farm. What does that mean? Well we design and set up our irrigation, design our field and planting beds, create a crop rotation and figure out where other important farm infrastructure like our washing station will go. It is a season to be creative and it is also a season of hard work because all of the set up happens at the same time as planting.

These times are not without their challenges…

Take, for example, the set up of our hoophouse, which spanned over a couple of months and involved several days of hard work (okay so the boys worked really hard…we just worked hard). The final step was to put on the brand new plastic, which we decided to do in a bit of a storm the day before Amy went on a week-long trip. We were so excited to finally have the hoophouse done and to get our light starved transplants out in the sunlight. Well…just hours after we finished the plastic, the wind kicked up, and needless to say our brand new plastic tore and was flapping madly in the wind. Guess we should have spent some more time making sure it was secure…

(Thanks to Joe for the somewhat heartbreaking photo).

Despite hard work there are several things that we are extremely excited about.

One thing is the new irrigation/water system. Those of you who have been with us for a while may have heard about our water set up at the old farm. The old system involved us dragging a 60 lb gas water pump up and down a steep embankment every time we wanted to turn water on. This often was done in office work clothes in the early hours of the morning. Get this…the new system can be turned on in a heartbeat by merely flipping on a valve. Amazing eh?

Another thing that is really quite exciting to us is the fact that our field is a regular shape (cheap thrills). Seems simple, but after farming in an oval shaped field that was shaded on one side, the new field is a dream come true. With a regular shaped field that is not shaded, we have planned out a 6-year crop rotation based on 6 separate planting beds. What this means is that every 6^th year, the same crop family will be planted in the same area. Crop rotation is a critical aspect of managing pests and diseases as well as maintaining high quality soil for our style of farming.

]Speaking of soil, our little tractor, Benny, is having a much better time tilling up this nice sandy soil compared to the heavy clay we have farmed in the past. With only 12.5 horsepower, we were quite underpowered and had a very hard time doing our field preparations. Field prep has gone much more smoothly this year thanks to the big tractors from Fraser Valley Duck and Goose and our little Benny.

Another nice blog post about Skeeter Farm!

2011-05-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's pretty fantastic to have CSA customers who also blog....
We've been so busy in the field lately, there's almost no time to spend on the computer (and I am not complaining at all).

Aimee and Mykol, two classmates of mine, came out to the farm at the end of the season last year to help with our last harvest - thanks friends!

Aimee, 6 months later, posted a nice story and pics of us:

http://abrisebois.blogspot.com/2011/04/scooting-around-skeeter-farm-and-kick.html

Nice plug from a CSA customer.

2011-04-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

Amber and her family came to visit Skeeter Farm last year in November. She is an avid blogger and wrote a nice little story about us.

http://www.strocel.com/talking-to-a-small-farmer/

Thanks Amber!

The farm - our other, needier, life partner.

2011-04-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago...before we really knew what it was all about, we probably would have answered "access to land or equipment" or "how to actually grow things" as the answer to what our biggest challenge is (a question we find we are asked frequently).

These are challenges that are certainly present for new farmers, but in our case, have been relatively easily overcome. They are challenges that you can do something about....like take the steps to gain the knowledge you need to confidently plant a seed in the ground and take it all the way to market. Accessing land and equipment, well, yes it is a challenge if you don't know where to go to find it, but in our experience there is no lack of people willing to help a new farmer out. So if those aren't the biggest challenges...than what is it?

For us, it is time. Hands down.

Time is what limits our ability to do the things we do, restricts how much we can take on as farmers as we dream of bigger and better things, meddles with our ability to have a normal social life, be spontaneous, and spend time with the people we want to spend time with.

When we started out farming, we made the decision to do so on a "part-time" basis. By this I mean that we decided to not quit our day jobs (part-time in quotations as 50 hrs/week on the farm has not been uncommon). In a lot of ways, this was the right thing for us to do. For one, starting a farm while continuing to work another job has allowed us to alleviate the risk involved with taking the plunge into farming by continuing to receive a steady income while we learn how to farm and be profitable. We have relied on our own incomes (i.e. no loans or outside sources of funding) to get our farm going, and it feels good knowing that we don't owe any money.

On the other hand, not fully taking the plunge has resulted in a crazy last few years and some frustrations with not having the time to do things carefully, and in the way we want to. We feel like we are always playing catch up....and it's pretty clear to me that this means of farming will not be something we will be able to continue into the future. At some point there will need to be a decision made: grow vegetables full time and really make a go at it OR settle for farming as part of a lifestyle and not a means of income.

Reading back through this post (which I started to write back in March and never really got to it)...this is sounding complain-y, which is not what my intent was at all. The intent was to shed light on an important decision that all new farmers face - start slow and build up the business while supporting yourself elsewhere, or jump in feet first, take on the risk but have time to make your farming dreams come true. This is a decision that we have struggled with, and still do. Finding the balance between achieving our business goals and maintaining our other life commitments seems to be a perpetually moving target.

this photo has no relevancy to this post other than it a pic of the Vedder River by the farm. What I wish I had was a photo of us driving our little tractor to the repair shop (multiple times) last year at 7 am all dressed up in my office work clothes with overalls overtop with Hannah following me in the VW bus. That would have been perfectly relevant, and amazing.

Farm Art

2011-03-25T10:03:00.001-07:00

A nice Emily Carr student, Daisy, put together this awesome CSA graphic depicting Skeeter Farm's CSA as well as Abundant Acres (Abby) and Glorious Organics (Aldergrove) CSA programs.

We like very much. Thanks Daisy!

Still looking for a CSA program?

2011-03-25T09:15:00.001-07:00

Two great new programs to tell you folks about...

Earth Apple Farm Potato CSA

and

Simple Roots Farm

are two new farms who have started up at the Incubator Farm at the Bakerview EcoDairy in Abbotsford.

We love their websites (hmmm...perhaps we should make one?) and the fact that there are more and more new farmers starting up every year!

CSA Shares Sold-Out

2011-03-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of our 2011 customers...shares are now sold out for our program this year. Please do still email us to be put on our waiting list for next year!

(cool photo by Betty Johnson)

Happy Spring from Skeeter Farm!

Spring is in the Air!

2011-03-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

I know I am a few days early to be saying this, but today at the farm, it really did feel like it. The fresh smell from a recent night's rain, the bright sun and soft breeze was very welcome as I was standing on the soft soil.

Let's face it. Spring for a farmer is pretty exciting! While soil is not yet being worked, lots of things are on the go. Summer market dates are now set, CSA shares are selling out (we have just one left!), and seedlings are started. Onions, leeks, peppers, and herbs are growing in trays, our seed potatoes are sprouting, and our garlic, our precious garlic, is on its way.

Amy and I have got a few things to get done out in the field in the new few weeks, and this lovely weather will definitely help us. Between finishing hoophouse construction and prepping soil, Spring, we have been waiting for you.

Just look at that young Chesnok Red!

telling our story

2011-03-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

We will be doing a little talk tomorrow at the Mission City Farmers market AGM. The event is open to the public and folks are welcome to come and learn about the Mission City Farmers Market as well as a bit about our farm!

Event Details

Our Deer Friend

2011-02-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, there he is folks, the animal to complete our farm. Or, not. This week I have spent some intimate time out in the field, trying to ressurect our hoophouse. During the bitterly cold winds, and minus degree temperatures, I never saw our little friend. But when the weather is a little warmer, he struts out looking for food.

Amy and I are a little worried about our deer friend messing with or nibbling at our crops, but boy doesn't he look cute? Yes, cute enough... we are looking into the price of deer fencing.

Farm Job Opportunity in East Abbotsford

2011-02-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

Our friends from the Arkeysteyn-Vogler Family Farm in Abbotsford are hiring...

Organic farm seeks: Assistant Field Manager

Arkesteyn-Vogler Family Farm

5115 Tolmie Road Abbotsford

Send resume to cfvogler@hotmail.com

Farm/Job description: Arkesteyn-Vogler Family Farm is an organic vegetable farm in east Abbotsford. We produce a wide array of vegetable products for sale at farmers markets and through a weekly harvest box program. The farm is in it’s second year of production therefore there are many building blocks still being put into place. This will give the applicant first hand experience in the creation of a new farm enterprise. The successful candidate will be the lead hand for the farm and will assist the owners in many aspects of the farm operation. The successful candidate will take part in the supervision and instruction of part time employees and volunteers working on the farm. Flexibility as to work hours and the ability to work Saturdays is important as farm tasks are often dictated by the weather.

Responsibilities:

All manner of field work: planting, weeding, trellising, irrigating etc.
Harvesting washing and packaging crops
Supervising and working alongside part-time employees and volunteers
Vending at a farmers market at least one day a week (possibly Saturdays)
Constructing farm infrastructure such as greenhouses and tool sheds.

Qualifications/Assets:

Drivers licence and a car to get to and from the farm
A background in agronomy or a related biological science
Experience working on a farm or in a similar physical outdoor environment
Sales and marketing experience
Experience in a supervisory or management role
Excellent communication skills and conflict management
General construction skills are a big asset.

Remuneration

Contract position: $12.50/hr; 40 hours a week averaged over a month. Plus lots of delicious veggies.

Contract Term April 15^th to October 30^th.

Please submit a cover letter and resume to Andrew Arkesteyn-Vogler at cfvogler@hotmail.com by midnight of March 15^th .

Reading week is...

2011-02-19T07:17:00.000-08:00

good for farmwork. Not so much for reading.

The Seeds of 2011

2011-02-15T21:24:00.000-08:00

In a past life I had a bit of a shopping habit (clothes/shoes mostly). This has undoubtedly translated over to seed selection now that I am farming. Seed orders have been arriving over the last 2 weeks and I have been excitedly inventorying, alphabetizing and carefully dating all of our new seeds. We've built up quite a collection over the past few years, and although Amanda was a bit of a stickler when it comes to crops that didn't make much money last year ;) ....we still have an overwhelming variety to plant from.

Off the top of my head the crops that got dropped this year were okra, popcorn, turnips (yes some of you will be happy about that!) and field cucumbers. They just didn't do much for us...

As for new crops, we hope to be serving up sweet potatoes, potatoes, edamame, our own signature salad blend, and some new herbs and flowers. Along with the new stuff, over 100 different varieties of vegetables and herbs that we have come to love will be planted out in the next few months.

It all started this week with the sowing of asparagus, lemongrass, celery, leeks, kale and parsley. Up next, onions and fennel.

The farm has migrated into my apartment for the time being. This, and Amanda's balcony, are the seed starting stations until we get the hoophouse set up (note the pretty, living, valentines flowers!)

Things change as we get older. For one thing...I have an ever increasing amount of grey hair to contend with (maybe or maybe not a bad thing). And in this case an affinity for a closet bursting with fancy clothes has translated into an ever increasing collection of of unique vegetable seeds (all in all, a positive change!)

CSA Shares Now Available!

2011-02-02T12:07:00.000-08:00

2011 CSA shares for new customers are now available! For more information, check out our previous blogpost on program details.

For more information or to sign up, send an email to skeeterfarm (at) gmail.com.

Alright winter, be over already so we can start growing!

A dollar's worth of food

2011-01-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

For those of us who have too much reading to do:

A photo documentary of the different foods a dollar will get you.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/food-for-a-dollar/

Now to find the balance between healthy, appropriate food for all and a fair price to hard working farmers...

So it's winter still... what to eat?

2011-01-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

I guess this question has been raised a few times, hey? Or, at least, what's for dinner now? Well, if you really did ask yourself that first question, you are more like me-a kink of, local foodist. People joke or laugh at me from time to time when I refer to myself as one, but I do try to every degree to eat local products. Sometimes, I just need a lemon, or an orange, but berries, kale, and local organic free range eggs still manage to be a mainstay on my table.

But really, what can we eat, as the lazy summer, weeding-filled days are over? Kale, brussels sprouts, potatoes, sweet potatoes (connection: Home Grown-In Grocer), beets, kiwis, and more-home grown greens and sprouts. Yup, you can still grow at home! Lettuce greens can be grown on sunny window sills, and this year has been my trial winter for testing sprouting at home. As I picked up my West Coast Seeds catalogue weeks ago, a package of sprouts caught my eye. After reading about mason jar sprouting, I had to give it a try. So, weeks have passed, and I have had a ball sprouting alfalfa, mung beans, and green peas! Yummy in salads and sandwiches, sprouts offer a great crunch in the absence of fresh local lettuce!

So farm friends, what is getting you by this winter? Your homemade pickles? Making your own bread? Can we still eat local in winter? Absolutely!

By the way, check out my mung beans, just beginning their sprouting!

Skeeter Farm 2011 CSA

2011-01-10T13:14:00.001-08:00

Hooray for 2011! Things are looking up at Skeeter Farm, with an early completion of our seed order, and many ducks in a row to have a successful season. It's hard to imagine that in just a month we will be starting the first seeds of the season (inside of course...the ground is frozen solid out here!)

We have put together our CSA program details and this is a blog post to tell you all about it...

What is a CSA?
CSA stands for a Community Shared Agriculture Program, Which is a type of socio-economic model for agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production (thank you Wikipedia). Customers pledge their support by purchasing a share in the farm's produce for the season and by doing so receive a portion of the farm's bounty.

Duration
The Skeeter Farm CSA will run for 15 weeks from approximately the beginning of July til October. During this time, customers will receive a weekly delivery of farm produce. As we learned last year, the season can be unpredictable and therefore we will not be able to nail down a start date until we see how the spring weather unfolds. We are working on establishing a pilot fall/winter CSA program for 2011, which we will make available to a limited number of customers.

Price

This year we are offering two share levels

• Regular share (15 weeks) for $375

• Small share (8 weeks) for $200

The price of the share is based on $25 per week, which covers the cost of production for the vegetables including our labour as well as delivery costs and allows us to make a profit.

Pickup

Veggies will be delivered to locations strategically selected for their proximity to customers and suitability for pickup. These locations will be established once we have most of our customers signed up for the season. If you would like to offer your house or business as a pick up location, that would be very much appreciated. Please let us know! We will be making midweek and weekend deliveries to most locations. The delivery day during the week will be selected democratically by our customers once we have established the list for 2011. We will likely have pickup locations available in Yarrow (at the farm), in Coquitlam, Vancouver West, Vancouver East and potentially downtown Vancouver if there is enough interest.

What's in a share?

A regular share gives you 15 weeks of produce, whereas a small share gives you 8 weeks. If you select the small share, the beginning of the season you will choose which dates you would like to have a delivery. We aim to put approximately 10 different types of seasonal vegetables, herbs and sometimes fruit in your bag. Depending on how much produce you eat, each bag should provide 1-2 people the bulk of your vegetables for the week (however we know of customers who can eat the entire thing in one delicious meal).

What else do I get?

A CSA isn't just about feeding you! It's about making a connection with the folks who are producing your food and the community around you who share the same goals and vision for our food system. In 2011 we will provide you with opportunities to connect via work parties, farm tours and perhaps a harvest party. We will also keep you informed about the events and success of the farm through a weekly newsletter and via our blog. The newsletter will contain at least a recipe a week to help expand your veggie horizons. Also we are always available to help you out with cooking ideas, to chat about growing or to hear your feedback about the CSA program.

How to sign up

If you are interested in registering for the 2011 CSA, please send an email to skeeterfarm (at) gmail.com. We will be releasing shares to new customers on February 1st, but it is best to contact us early so we can send you information right away. Last year we filled up pretty quickly, so it is important to contact us early to avoid veggie related disappointment! Email us with questions.

With Love, from your farmers.

Holiday Humour

2011-01-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

Thanks to CSA customer Will for passing on this little gem...

Happy New Year!

Happy Winter Solstice!

2010-12-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

This is arguably one of my favorite days of the year...It's all downhill from here. At least thats my feeling on this first day of winter. Excited for the days to get longer and in just a couple of months to have the first seeds of 2011 germinating.

Also exciting on this first day of winter is my dinner. Which is cooking right now - kale (in chip form of course) and brussels sprouts from Skeeter Farm. I'll probably add some cookies and other holiday treats to the veggies to make it a well rounded dinner, but I sure am happy to still be eating the vegetables of our labour this late in the year!

Third exciting thing of the day: Amanda and I had a monumental meeting this morning where we signed on as partners together going forward. It's a good feeling to make things "official"...but also seems so formal for something as natural and organic as growing good food together.

Fourth and final exciting thing - check out the view across the road from the new farm...pretty sweet!

Happy Holidays folks! Hope you all have a delicious meal with good people in the next week in honor whatever you might be celebrating!

Farmer Tans 2011 Calendar

2010-12-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

If you are in need of a calendar for 2011 (which is fast approaching), look no further! The Rainbow Chard Collective (based on Vancouver Island and around BC) has come up with this great little diddy that features local, young farmers in their birthday suits. The calendar is packed with racy photography, recipes, farmy quotes and days such as "Spank a Farmer With Fresh Garlic Day" which happens to fall on June 9th. What's even better about this calendar is that the proceeds go towards the actions of the Collective including supporting new farmers' quest for land and other important issues.

I picked up mine online last week, and got it hand delivered a day later. Order here http://Rainbowchard.yolasite.com/ for a year of eye candy!

We're Moving!

2010-12-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I wrote a blog post, which is a common theme on farm blogs near the end of the season I have been noticing. Things are pretty frozen out at the farm, I have mostly been concentrating on school work and we all have been recouping after the season.

We do, however, need to get our butts in gear to get ready for 2011 as there is much work to do and some big changes happening! One big thing is that Skeeter Farm will be moving from the property in Abbotsford to land leased from Fraser Valley Duck and Goose in Yarrow. The move will take us about 10 minutes East of where we are currently located, into Chilliwack. Moving to FVDG is a positive thing in many regards including: having access to many handy things available on a large farm operation (like tractors and electricity!), lovely compost produced on farm, secure storage and more people around to make sure we're okay, joint marketing opportunities, NO MOSQUITOS, and likely many other benefits that will come out in the wash.

Some folks have been asking about how exactly one would move a farm....no, we won't be digging up vegetables and moving them. We will just be planting in another location next year. We will also have to set up some infrastructure like irrigation and the hoophouse (looking for a used hoophouse again one if anyone knows of one) again at the new site. All of this means lots of work, and we will likely be calling on friends for some volunteer parties in the spring.

A little sentimental about the end of a great two years at the old farm

Freshly turned soil and new opportunities in Yarrow

The other big thing that is happening is that ownership of the business is changing. Hannah and Jamie are leaving Skeeter Farm to pursue other things for the time being and Amanda who was our "intern" for 2010 will be joining me as a business partner going forward. Both Hannah and Jamie expect to be farming in the future which will make for exciting opportunities for collaboration. I am also really excited that Amanda didn't get scared off in her first year and wants to take a bigger role in Skeeter Farm.

Despite major changes and a couple of less people on the farm, we will still be continuing the CSA program as well as some farmers markets (with some changes as will be revealed as we work through the details). We will also continue to grow without any synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides/herbicides in this new location.

More about the move and changes to our operation as we evolve. CSA information for next year will be sent out early in the New Year. For now, happy December everyone...Stay warm!

It's That Time of Year

2010-11-18T18:24:00.000-08:00

See the leaves whirling around on the streets, the frost on your windshield, feel the shiver in the morning? Winter is on its way. I thought that after this summer it would be a rough adjustment, spending days in the hot sun, but so far this winter has been great. Granted, heirloom tomatoes are done, sweet green peas are no more, but wow do we have some great veggies to look forward to! This summer was a great lesson for me in terms of the personal responsibility of eating local and supporting our other local farmers. Reducing my carbon footprint was something I have always tried to do, and my efforts of eating local prior to my Skeeter Farm introduction was something of a hobby, not a true belief or passion. The creation of local squash from last years seeds, or the act of seed saving for next years' tomato crop has been a great lesson from my Skeeter Farm mentors. This summer has really brought me around to the fact that I could never turn my back on what we are doing as farmers, and our importance to the preservation of our local food and our beliefs of what real food is.

My picture here is some fabulous kale still left in the field, and my pride and joy of canned Skeeter Farm veggies and fruit. Ground cherry jam, pickled carrots, beans, beets, and cukes. Just this week, I was able to entertain with a platter of Skeeter Farm pickles! Yum!

Local veggies in a jar, and the sturdy, leafy greens of the fall/winter months. Everyone, grab a sweater and slippers, and cozy up to winter and its lovely bounty we are so lucky to have.

Terra Madre Update

2010-11-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

One of the things that Slow Food emphasized to the Terra Madre 2010 delegates was that it is very important bring back the "message" of Terra Madre to our local counterparts in order to build capacity for the movement in our local communities.

I am quite new to Slow Food as an organization. The movement has been around since the 1970's and seems to have a huge following all across Europe, considerable political clout and and some serious government support which enables it to pull off the huge event that is Terra Madre. However, my exposure to the organization is limited to the little bit of volunteering that I have done for events that the Vancouver chapter puts on. I found myself thinking quite a bit during the event and workshops about this "message" we were supposed to be bringing back and proliferating amongst our local communities. After 3 days of intensive workshop sessions, conversations with other farmers/foodies and serious amounts of delicious food samplings it turns out that the "message" of Terra Madre isn't so simple that I can type it into a sentence, or a paragraph, or perhaps even an essay. Even Slow Food themselves have written pages and pages of documentation in order to explain the ideas and opinions of the organization.

From what I gather the "message" of Terra Madre is one of support for a number of important factors surrounding food and agricultural governance, sustainable resource management and ecological agriculture, socially acceptable food and agricultural systems, recognition and support for traditional ecological knowledge and traditional/historical foods. Pretty all encompassing eh? For me, it is still a little unclear how we go about achieving steps towards these reforms in our food system.

If I had to narrow down MY one take home message from the whole event it would be that gatherings of farmers which allow us to converse, share and exchange ideas are possibly the single most important means of social collaboration that we will need to keep us motivated. It is pretty amazing that we had to travel half way around the world to be able to find a time and space that allowed us farmers to openly share our experiences...makes me think that we should try to replicate this type of knowledge exchange more close to home on a more frequent basis (apparently more easier said than done).

Terra Madre day is being held on December 10th at the Italian Cultural Center. The delegates from 2010 will be in attendance and we hope to share what we learned from the whole experience with others in the local food community. Perhaps I will have some more concrete thoughts flushed out by that time...at this point I am still recovering from a whirlwind trip and subsequent scramble to catch up at school. Please do consider joining us if you would like to enjoy some delicious food and speak to some folks involved with food and farming.

With that I will leave you with some photos from the Salone del Gusto (overwhelmingly large room of deliciousness that was attached to the actual conference) and a couple of the markets in Venice.

Growing Local Grain - Talk at Museum of Vancouver

2010-11-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

A new friend Chris (who was at the Terra Madre meetings with Amy) is doing a talk about growing local grains this week at the Museum of Vancouver. We highly suggest you check it out! If you can't make it for Thursday, check out the Museum's local food photography exhibit in the near future.

HOME GROWN EXHIBITION CURATOR SERIES

Thursday November 4 @ 7 pm - Presenter: Chris Hergesheimer

Topic - Growing local grain and the first grain CSA in the lower mainland

Location: Museum of Vancouver, 1100 Chestnut Street Vancouver, BC

Biography: Chris Hergesheimer holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Simon Fraser University. He is the founding member of the Local-Grain-Initiative. Hergesheimer's goal is to position himself at the centre of a community dedicated to local sustainable food production in just the way the community miller was central to communities before the mega-marts and the 10,000-kilometre supply chain. Chris organizes FF/CF’S Grain Chain Coordinator whilst he runs his own business, The Flour Peddler.

Tweet: HOME GROWN EXHIBIT speaker Chris Hergesheimer: Local Grain & the 1st grain CSA in the lower mainland Nov 4 @ 7pm @ www.museumofvancouver.ca

The Beginning/The End

2010-10-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks the last Farmers' Market for Skeeter Farm this season! We will be at the Vancouver West End market from 9-2 tomorrow (in case you're around and want to say hi). Which means that tonight was the last big market harvest (which we completed by headlamp just after the sun went down).

Fall is a strange time at the farm. Stuff is dying out in the field and we are all feeling a lot of burnout. The last crop to come off the farm will be the pumpkins (we’ve got massive jack-o-lanterns and nice sugar pumpkins this year), which really do seem to indicate the end of the season.

At the same time that 2010 is wrapping up, we are already beginning the next season, planning for our 2011 CSA program, preparing the fields for planting in the early spring...and even planting some seed now. Amanda and I took advantage of the fantastic weather this October has been serving up and got our first crop of 2011 in the ground this week - Garlic. We chose to plant two varieties: Northern Quebec and Chesnok Red. Both have received rave reviews in terms of flavour.

Amanda getting down with garlic (its important to plant straight, right?)

Northern Quebec variety (massive cloves of deliciousness!)

Although this week marks the end of our 2010 markets, we still do have one CSA delivery coming your way, which will be on October 31st. In between now and then we have come exciting stuff happening in our lives...

Hannah and her long time partner Dutch, (official photographer/tech support for Skeeter Farm), are tying the knot in a rather unconventional manner. How Hannah managed to pull off planning a "wedding" while farming and working a full time job is beyond me...but it's all set for next weekend (wedding in is quotations because I know I'm not supposed to call it that). So congratulations to a fantastic couple on their upcoming union!

I am actually pretty bummed that I don't get to attend their event...but will probably not feel too sad on the day because I will be in Turin, Italy at the Terra Madre conference put on by Slow Food International. I feel pretty honored to be one of 12 or so people who are representing BC at the meetings - there is a good contingent of young farmers and other foodie folks who are going over and I would imagine that a great deal of collaboration could result from our time there together. I will be sure to take lots of pictures of the fabulous food and farmers that will be showcased from around the world and give you folks a good update when I am back!

Although its the end of the season and we might not have any exciting posts about vegetables we will still try to maintain the blog sporadically throughout the winter (usually with fluff that comes up here and there, recipes and whatnot). As always, if you have any suggestions for this blog (for example, a cool event that you want to advertise) please let us know! We also welcome any feedback about our food, CSA program, market booth etc - if you have any ideas, now is a great time to share them as we move into planning mode.

with Love,

Amy and the rest of Skeeter Farm

Flavor Makers

2010-10-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I guess this blog is not a surprise. Herbs. But one would think that I would rave about these little beauties in the height of summer when fresh lovely basil or oregano would be ready, but these flavor makers come up all year round. Especially since the indoor planters or adorned balconies are covered these days in herbs. That is great. Everyone can take a stab at growing, not matter how big or small, or even if only limited to a few sprigs of thyme or tarragon.

Now, I know that we here at Skeeter Farm have been filling precious CSA bags weekly with an herb selection, but that just boasts the fact that we can grow herbs. And we are proud. Basil, oregano, thyme, lavender (next year!), rosemary, cilantro, lovage, mint, sage, yum.

Above is just an example of the herbs we are even having for sale at our lovely farmer's markets. I love it when people come searching for cilantro to go with their homemade salsa, mint to add to their tabbouleh, basil for their caprese. Herbs add an incredible flavor to dishes of meats, grains, or seafood. An uplifter to salads, soups, or risottos. That little something, something to even a sandwich. I love it just because I don't have to add extra salt to my pasta sauces!
Sage is the one in demand now. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and creative stuffings for turkeys are being planned. Can I make a suggestion though? Add a little lovage to your stuffing if you can as well. That old fashioned herb will add that great celery flavor, and the scent is awesome. Again, visit your local farmers markets (especially the one in Coquitlam this Sunday as Skeeter Farm will be there!) to see what the herb selection is this week and try something new!
Jamie Oliver once said that 'once you start eating herbs, you become instant healthly'. I can't remember if it was in one of his shows or in one of his books, but he did say that. Can you just hear him? Anyway, he was right. Herbs have those great phytonutrients and can help prevent damage to blood vessels. High in minerals of iron, potassium and magnesium, those dark leaves even contain small traces of omega 3 fats! And a little herb fact, oregano is even claimed to have the highest antioxidant activity of all the 27 fresh herbs.
What great flavor makers they are, hey? What a great addition these herbs have to our flavor palates. Oh dear, I have got to get on with making my pesto. Let's if I can switch up the combo and maybe add some unusuals this time....

Beans !

2010-10-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and felt a little pang of guilt, and a slight bit of panic about all of the little things I have left undone in my life lately. Weeds are engulfing certain crops on the farm, squash that needs curing, serious logistics to be worked out about the wrap up of the season (and yes mom...phone parents!). Part time farming/full time student-ing does have its drawbacks....

Blog posting would be one of those little things that has fallen a bit by the wayside and for that we apologize. Despite not writing much lately, there has still been some exciting developments at Skeeter Farm. We have some serious pumpkin growth/ripening happening, lovely little ears of popcorn forming, and my newest most favorite crop - dry beans - are hanging up in the hoop house to dry.

A little preview of 2 of the varieties we grew (Candy and Orca)...and clean hands (i.e. very little farm work accomplished lately)

For those unfamiliar, dry beans would be those that you soak and cook before eating, such as black beans, navy beans, kidney beans etc. We planted 5 varieties of dry beans this year, which we procured from Salt Spring Seeds, as a small experiment. The idea with dry beans is that you grow them just as you would a regular bush bean plant, but instead of harvesting the pods when they are green, you let them dry on the plant and then remove the bean seeds from the pod.

Due to the wet weather in September I made the call to pull all of the plants out and let them finish drying upside down in the hoop house (to try to avoid rotting). Hopefully in a few weeks I will be able to give a little update on our dry bean experiment (and perhaps the results of a taste test) and let you know if we will have some for purchase this year. I have yet to decide whether or not to save all the seed from this year to expand the crop for next season, or to try to sell some of them to test out market prices. Whether they are available this year or next year, the idea of providing a more local protein source and further increasing the diversity of our products is exciting.

September Rainy Day Fun

2010-09-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Judging by the Abbotsford weather report, you might need something fun to do inside this weekend. If you are in the Valley and like delicious food, then check out EAT! Fraser Valley at the Tradex in Abbotsford this weekend. We will be there all weekend at the Farm Start BC booth. Stop by and say hi...you can enter to win some prizes including a basket o' veggies from Skeeter Farm.

Here's something else you might want to plan to do this weekend or sometime soon: Save seed! All you home gardeners out there growing your favorite heirloom tomatoes or other crops should consider trying your hand at seed saving this season. There is something really satisfying about planting seeds from fruits that you carefully selected the year before for their taste and characteristics...and its really not that hard.

I started saving seed last year from my home garden and from the farm and had varied results with the crops this year. The tomatoes from the seed I saved from my garden were by far the best, and in my opinion, the most fun to try to save.

Select varieties that are Open Pollinated (marked OP on your seed packet) and use the internet to search for tips and tricks on how to best collect the seeds.

As for tomatoes, you want to select ripe tomatoes from plants that did well, lack signs of disease, produced the best tasting tomatoes and/or the best looking tomatoes. Its a good idea to take tomatoes from several plants (if you have more than one).

Cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp from the cavities into containers (I use mason jars). If there isn't much juice in the jar, add a little bit of water so the seeds can float. Carefully label the jars so you don't lose track of the varieties that you are saving and then store the jars for 5 days or so until a layer of mold forms on the top (the seeds need to ferment before they will be able to germinate). Once a nice layer of mold fully covers the top of your container, you can scoop the layer off, pour the remaining seeds/juice into a strainer and rinse the seeds. The last step is to dry the seeds on a plate, giving them a little shake every day to keep them from clumping together. Once the seeds are fully dry, put your little seeds into a labelled envelope for safe keeping until its time to plant next year.

Just think, if you save a few varieties each season, you'll build up an impressive tomato collection in no time!

Beet Season!

2010-09-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hey folks! The root veggies are upon us, hey? The sign of fall. Fall greens, squashes, potoatoes, and beets. I have to admit, as the farming months have passed, I have become really appreciative of beets. I am really loving the varities our farm has chosen to grow. Fabulous striped varities, golden beets, long cylindrical beets, the classic detroit. Awesome. You know you are tasting the earth with each bite. You can taste the goodness. But what about the greens, you ask...?

Well, again, fabulous stir fried, steamed, tossed with cooked pasta, in soups. Opportunities, endless. Like any other green, beet greens are loaded with nutrients. Rich with fiber, calcium and anitoxidants A, C, E, they are yummy pan fried with olive oil, lemon juice and topped with feta. How can you go wrong? Or, use them instead of romaine lettuce in a Ceasar salad. Heaven on a plate.

Beets have been around forever. Many people remember having beets and equate them with such an unpleasant memory, but the classic beet root is coming around again, and with huge style. Golden beets grated in a wonderful raw beetroot salad, mixed with green onion and vinigarette, beets roasted tossed with olive oil and fresh rosemary, dill pickeled beets, golden and detroit beets layered in a terrine with herbed goat's cheese. But here's an idea: add a 1/2 cup of grated beetroot and minus 1/4 cup of milk from your next chocolate cake, and wow, can you think of a better way to add beets to your week?

So next time when you see beets at a farmer's market or see them again in your CSA bag, please don't think, 'ohhhh MORE beets'. Buy, or use your bunch in a great new way that will mix up your regular routine or make you forget about the dreadful memories of you as a kid at the dining room table.

September Farm Update

2010-09-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

Holy dina! Is it September already? Let's see....Spiders making their home in the hoophouse, Jamie and I returning to school (Jamie to teach, me to learn), strong desires to eat soup and wear cozy sweaters. Yep, all signs point to fall out here in Abbotsford.

In the past two weeks the farm has taken a turn and we can start to see certain crops nearing the end of their production. The late season has a certain bittersweet feel to it. Some of our favorites, like tomatoes, might only make it another couple of weeks. While at the same time we have an awesome collection of fall and winter squashes just starting to come ready. I think all of us are ready for a break from the farm work, but at the same time, I know I will be envious and anxious for the fun summer times at the farm while I am slaving away over the books in dreary January.

Okay, enough of the pity party. We still have a lot of great veggies coming your way before we take a break. Greens are looking fantastic and we have lots of kale, chard, arugula, spinach and collards to take us into the fall. I am also really excited about the harvest of the Amaranth. This is our first time trying out grain and planted Quinoa and Amaranth back in the spring. Unfortunately the Quinoa didn't do too well in the wet June weather, but the Amaranth is going strong and hopefully will be ready to harvest before the real wet weather hits.

Today marked our last Abbotsford Farmers market for the season. We will miss all of our regular customers there but still have a few West End and Coquitlam markets before the real end. Just 6 weeks left in our CSA program, so enjoy the bounty while you can folks!

Okay, thats it for now.

Heres hoping that your fall is as delicious as a roasted butternut squash.

With Love, from Skeeter Farm.

Friday Nights

2010-09-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Friday night has a whole new meaning when you are a farmer selling at the markets. Harvest days are long and tough, and often involve multiple layers of bug protection, sore backs and headlamps. This Friday there was a short break in the craziness of the harvest when the four of us decided to break and taste test a watermelon (I've been trying to nail down how to tell when these things are actually ripe). Hands down the best watermelon we've ever tasted, not that we're biased or anything.

Moments like this put the season in perspective and reaffirm that what we are doing is so very much worth it.

Friday nights may not be for parties anymore, and Saturday mornings are certainly not for sleeping in - these are the small sacrifices we have made peace with in order for us farmers to do as we do.

Finding Balance and the Right Price

2010-08-29T16:30:00.001-07:00

Jacquay (our pickler) at our nearly sold out West End Farmers Market booth last weekend!

Amazingly, this week marks our halfway point for the season. However, that is a little deceptive because the fall is a very busy time for us, which gets me thinking about balance... As farmers, we are linked to the cycle of the seasons, which means that we have to stretch thin harvests in the spring and figure out what to do with copious amount of food in the late summer and fall.

This seasonality has some interesting impacts on farm profits. Since I am handling our finances this year, I end up thinking about this a lot. For our CSA customers, seasonality means that their weekly veggie bags start out small, but get bigger and bigger over the course of the season. By the time October rolls around and winter squash are abundant, the bags are more than overflowing. However, since CSA folks pay us at the very beginning of the season, these changes don't affect our farm finances. We just have to make sure to be fair and accurate when setting the price of our CSA shares.

Our farmers market and pickling vegetable sales are a different story- pricing is super tricky no matter how abundant our veggies are. We've looked at setting prices based on the actual input costs (seeds, water, weeding time, harvesting time, delivery time, marketing time, etc.), but everything ends up extremely expensive. So most of the time, our prices are determined by our guess at the amount that most people would be willing to pay. We also try not to undercut other small farms.

This complicated situation can be difficult to explain to folks at the farmers market- "Our garlic may seem expensive, but it is only a fraction of the seed cost and it was a cold spring and we have clay soil, etc., etc., etc." Eyes tend to glaze over...Certainly, there are lots of people out there who are happy to pay the full price for local food, but for others it all boils down to their ability to get extremely cheap vegetables at the grocery store. Things are simply too cheap.

My hope is that we are in a transition to a new era when we will begin to pay the full cost of the goods we consume (and have income-assistance programs in place for those that cannot afford the increase). With the proliferation of farmers markets, there are more and more conversations happening between farmers and consumers, which should help. I don't want to sound too dramatic, but I think the price of food has a lot to do with the future of farming. Finding balance may be tricky, but it will be worth it!

The resurgence of food preservation

2010-08-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Is is just me, or is everyone and their dog getting into preserving the harvest? We are witnessing this really amazing thing happening, at least in the Lower Mainland, where young and old alike are dusting off their mason jars (or snatching up every last one at the thrift stores) and learning/relearning/teaching the craft of food preservation.

I am feeling pretty inspired by some of our customers who have put orders in for produce and are tackling some massive canning projects in the next few weeks. Its a pretty sweet feeling knowing that Skeeter Farm veggies will be enjoyed by folks throughout the year or maybe even given as Christmas gifts in nice little jars wrapped up with ribbon. If you haven't experimented with food preservation, I highly suggest it (I am a bit of an canning addict). There are many ways of preserving that doesn't require a whole lot of know-how, like simply drying or dehydrating. We are always happy to talk canning, and Amanda and Hannah can give you the low down on the fermentation workshop they attended this last week.

If you don't have time to do your own this year. You could pick up one of the jars that Jacquay has pickled which are for sale (just gotta wait a few weeks for curing times).

A New Farmer's Learnings

2010-08-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

I know in my past blog post I have committed to spouting my excitement over my favorite vegetables, or my nerdy health benefits over others, but I think I will leave my cucumber talk until the end of this post. It's just that, I can't believe all what I have learned over the past 4 or so months! It just hit me today as I was working on our third planting of carrots. Amy has talked of the progress of the farm, and the 'growth' of the veggies, and I can't tell you how great it is to see the transformation of beets or zucchini from seed to plate. And, the journey it takes to get there!

Anything from learning proper seed germination, realizing that Mother Nature naturally does not always water when you need her too, that ground cherries can ripen in a few hours after harvesting, that time really does fly, and lastly, learning that patience is truly a virtue and that the pay off of satisfaction is great.

Lately we all have been working diligently on harvesting, and our variety of crops keep me learning the techniques of how to get them to market. I am still learning about the tomatillo and just when it is ripe and ready to be picked (but do not fear everyone, there are the lovely Amy, Hannah and Jamie there to coach me along!)

Ok, I think now is a great time to unleash the quick cucumber facts:
At a whopping low 4 calories per ounce, the cumumber is high in potassium, is fabulous for the skin when juiced (include the peel!), is good for the intestinal tract, and is a great veggie to assist in hydration. My favorite cucumber to juice is the long english, it is sweet and we are growing lots of them at Skeeter Farm! Add some fresh mint along to the juiced cumcumber for a lovely, cooling refreshing drink!

Cheers!

Real Progress

2010-08-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

When you are at the farm every day, waiting for vegetables to grow is a little like watching paint dry. At least thats what it felt like earlier this year. Few months later, looking on back on where we were is pretty incredible. The pictures speak for themselves...

May 8

August 16

Nothing wrong with a 9' tomato!

We've got nice melons

2010-08-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

Coming soon to a market near you...

Earlichamp cantaloupe

Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon (who knew they could grow watermelons in Saskatchewan?)

Moon and Stars watermelon (the first one featuring stars, the second one features the moon)

Earlidew Honeydew

Picklin' Time

2010-08-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

We’ve been patiently waiting to see our pretty little yellow cucumber flowers turn into pickling cukes and it is finally starting to happen! Pickling season has arrived and that means that it’s time for us to start taking your picking cuke orders. We had lots of fun taste-testing your pickles this year and we can’t wait to do it again. So, send us an email at skeeterfarm@gmail.com to place your order (and don’t worry, you won’t be under any obligation to share your finished product with us).

And…if you are interested in fermentation, there is a special workshop coming up on Monday, August 23 from 6pm to 9pm in Abbotsford. Andrea Potter of Radha Eatery in Vancouver will be teaching us about the benefits of fermentation and helping us make our very own brined pickles, kimchi, and sauerkraut! The cost is $40 per person and includes ingredients. Contact Kevin Koopmans at 604-864-5770 x309 or Kevin.koopmans@southfraser.com for more information and to register.

everything's going to be irie

2010-08-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have been following our posts this season, may have sensed a slight air of stress amongst us new farmers. If you picked up on it...you were right. We have been biting our fingernails since about mid May, nervously waiting, and praying, and waiting for that abundance that we experienced in our first year farming to return. I'm not going to lie...we were scraping the bottom of the barrel to make our marketing requirements the last two weeks. This week the field is giving us some sweet relief. It was a long time coming...but the abundance is starting to return. Cucumbers coming out our eyeballs, delicious little ground cherries dropping like hot potatoes, and soon, lots of these fantastic looking watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydews and much more.

Time to relax a little, kick back, keep on the weeding, clean the garlic for market, fish fertilize the fall greens, can some peaches, figure out what keeps chewing on the eggplants, and oh yeah, relax, and Eat!

The Markets are Starting

2010-07-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

Skeeter Farm will be at the Abbotsford Farmers Market starting this Saturday! Wahooooo! Hope to see some familiar faces there.

The rest of our market schedule is here, just in case you were wondering.

With Love,

From the farmers

A beautiful okra flower for your enjoyment.

Where's Mantracker When You Need Him?

2010-07-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

We are a bit sad to report that the farm bandits have returned to Skeeter Farm. Last week on Friday Hannah arrived at the farm all ready to harvest for our second week of CSA deliveries on Saturday and discovered that our friends, the ones with the affinity for 2" layflat irrigation hose, had returned for another round of pillaging.

Fortunately for us, this time they didn't get as far as they would have liked. In anticipation of an event such as this, we spent some time and money getting our storage container as secure as we could to try to prevent the loss of more farm equipment. Last Friday the bandits didn't have the right tools to get into our container, and so fortunately they only made off with some hose and a lawnmower and messed up our locks enough so that we also couldn't get back into our container.

So what does this mean for Skeeter Farm. Well we felt, and feel even more so now, like sitting ducks, waiting for the bandits to return and wipe us out again. Slightly discouraging at a time where all of us are feeling the fatigue associated with the height of the farming season. Only this time, if they do come back for round four, we are more prepared than ever. Last week after the break in, I made sure do all of of the last seed bed preparation in order to get our sowing of fall greens in. We have also removed all of our irrigation equipment and marketing items needed to get us through the season off of the farm.

I usually like to have some sort of uplifting message associated with each blog post, and if I have to come up with a message for this post it is directed towards the bandits: dear bandits, you may be able to take our farming tools, but you will not break our spirits.

To add insult to injury, these jerks didn't even have the decency to walk around our beds!

If only daikon seedlings could talk...

A Beer Friend?

2010-07-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, folks, we do have a beer friend growing at our farm this year! Have you guessed yet what veggie that is??? Well, the name soya beer friend is the variety name for the precious athlete loving Edamame beans! Oh, and I think I should mention here that yes, it is boasted that these beans do help with the resolution of alcohol...

The edamame bean, otherwise known as a Japanese soybean, means "beans on branches". To grow edamame, you do not need moist soil, and are typically picked before they fully ripen. The pod is a little shorter than a sweet pea pod, and is quite tough, but the beans themselves have a lovely, buttery, rich texture. Often these beans are steamed, sprinkled with salt and then 'sucked' out of their pods.

I have been asked what my favorite vegetables are, and I have answered with the usual suspects: chard, corn, beets (and their greens!), but there are some crops I am really excited about- and yes the lovely edamame is one of them.

So, I assume that here would be the perfect time to spout some nerdy nutrition facts: per 100 grams, they have 125 calories, 3.6 gr. fat, 12 gr. protein and are good sources of calcium, phosphorus and vitamin A. With this being said, they are a great source of fiber, fatty acids and is the only plant that is a complete protein; they contain all essential fatty acids!

Filled with healthy omega 3's, athletes love edamame beans. Good sources of protein, they are a great quick snack, and let's face it, a whole lot easier to digest that a big piece of steak! Vegetarians, embrace this bean!

This crop you all will hopefully see at our late September/ October farmers markets, or maybe in your CSA bag around that same time. I can't wait to tell you more about some other veggies that I will highlight in the future!

Cycle Tours and Terra Madre Fund

2010-07-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

A couple of great events and a great cause to tell you folks about.

Slow Food Vancouver is again hosting two cycle tours in the Fraser Valley this summer. The tours take place on August 21st and 22nd in Agassiz and Chilliwack. These two events take you on a leisurely ride through the countryside with stops at farms and artisan food producers. Each time I have done them I come home with a bounty that is almost too good to be shared. Check out these events! The are definitely worth not missing.

For more information and to register click on the link to the Slow Food Website:
http://www.slowfoodvancouver.com/index.php/CycleTours/

Slow Food Vancouver is ALSO organizing the Terra Madre Fund which is raising funds to help send a group of young farmers (including myself!), other local farmers and folks from the local food community to Terra Madre in Italy in October.

About the Terra Madre meeting:

More than 5,000 representatives from the worldwide Terra Madre network will meet in Turin, Italy for the fourth time this October 21 to 25. The five-day meeting will bring together food communities, cooks, academics, youth and musicians from all over the world, who are united in a desire to promote sustainable local food production in harmony with the environment while respecting knowledge handed down over the generations.

A link to the fundraising page is here: http://www.slowfoodvancouver.com/index.php/adopt-a-farmer/

Slow Food is accepting donations of air miles in addition to monetary donations, which is a pretty cool way to fundraise for airfares, in my opinion.

I am so excited to be a part of the delegation this year and look forward to sharing what I learn from the folks around the world when we return!

Okay...thats it for this little promo post. More about the Skeeter Farm soon!

Big risk big reward!

2010-07-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

Hooray! We made our first CSA deliveries!

Those of you who have been reading our posts may have noticed that it has been a bit of a tough season for us so far. I guess it was my own naivete that led me to assume that this year would be easier than last year. Although we didn't realize it at the time, we got super lucky with the weather and our equipment last year. I'm thinking it might be more like 5 years until I fully get used to the twists and turns of farming. There really are a zillion things to learn.

As Amy mentioned, we took a bit of a risk this winter when we were full of confidence and decided to run a full CSA program. We were pretty sure it would be easy to find enough customers and we were certain we would have enough veggies. It turns out we were right about the first part, but not completely right about the second part. As I imagine most of you know, the wet spring meant that it took us longer than expected to get everything planted and less sun to give our veggies a good jump start. There will certainly be tons of veggies out there soon- we actually have more area planted than last year and in a more strategic fashion. In the meantime, our CSA customers may be enjoying some fairly unusual items...

But, we had to take a big risk in order to get a big reward! Every time we finish a harvest (no matter how unusual the veggies are) it is an amazing feeling. I absolutely love driving down the road with my bus full of vegetables. This year, with our very own group of devoted CSA customers, it is even better. Many thanks to each of you!

Crops that Get Me Going

2010-07-13T23:11:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt about it. We are vegetable people (if we weren't before, we pretty much have to be now). But we can't all love each crop equally, especially when there is so much variety. We each have our favorites. The favorites are usually crops that end up being favored out in the field. They get the most care and attention, the most water, the most coaching and the most praise. But don't feel sorry for the other veggies. With 4 farmers on the site, we pretty much have all of the crops covered off (except fennel...no one seemed to babysit that crop this year, nor the green onions unfortunately).

Without further ado, here are my picks for my 2010 most favorite crops at Skeeter Farm.

Tomatillos (inside the lantern) because they are fun to gently squish to check out big they are

Melons (this one is either a cantaloupe or honeydew) because they are resilient! (survival credits include slugs, bunnies and 50 plus degree temps in the greenhouse earlier this year)

Ground Cherries - same idea as the tomatillos, but these ones technically pass as a fruit

Okra - definitely not for the texture (one of my least favorites for that), but for the beautiful flowers that are only open for a day - none open tonight

Peppers - the one on the left for its sheer beauty and the one on the right for its future as a chili relleno

tomatoes - possibly the grand prize of any summer garden. This one I like for its resemblance to a pumpkin (the tomatoes need another week of coaching before they ripen up)

Eggplant - for its appropriateness on a barbeque, and as mentioned previously, for the beautiful flowers

Amaranth - for its multipurposefulness - you can eat the leaves as salad, use the flowers in bouquets and harvest grain near the end of its life

Celery - because I tasted some the other day and it was the most delicious celery I have ever tasted.

Chickpeas - I was really excited about this crop until I saw this evening that every plant has been grazed from the top down like the photo on the right (bad animals!)

Red onions - because of the colour (which is hard to see in the photo - a brilliant fuchsia

Farm Update and Vegetable Related Stresses

2010-07-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

It's warm out here....really warm!

Not that I am complaining. The heat is a welcome addition to summer 2010. Thanks for showing up to the party Sun...better late than never!

I'd like to say that we aren't the type of people who stress and worry, but there has been a little bit of an 'oh shit?' feeling lately around Skeeter Farm. Until the heat showed up a few days ago, most of the crops out in the field that we had direct seeded seemed to be just hanging out, enjoying the view. Growing was not top of their mind, thats for sure.

Last year we waited until crops were ready to harvest to make our marketing commitments (harvest box and farmers markets), however, this year we diligently prebooked our markets and set a date for our first CSA delivery (which happens to be July 17th). Now we really wanted the first CSA delivery this year be a feast of veggies fit for a king...but its looking like the feasting might have to wait a couple weeks yet. Oh, we will send out boxes this week, however some of the contents may be more on the unusual side of things, requiring our customers to be open to trying out some new recipes. I will leave it at that, as we don't want to ruin the box o' surprises.

As for some other minor stresses at the farm:
This week meant dealing with some new pesky pest management issues that we haven't had before. Due to the soppy wet conditions some of our garlic was infected with rust. Rust is a fungal disease that doesn't result in much (or any) damage to the bulbs, but does attack foliage. In order to keep it at bay we removed all of the infected foliage from the plants and cooked up a spray made of baking soda and other household items to try to control it. Thanks to the powers of google for farming advice, it maybe worked? Anyways, it hasn't spread. We will start pulling garlic out in a couple of weeks.

We also lost some melon plants to hungry rodents (rabbits?) who were grazing the stem of the plant off right where it meets the soil. To help with that we used some of the yogurt containers that our nice friends have been collecting for us to create a barrier around the base of the plant. Its been three days and so far no more chewed plants!

Something has also been chewing at our nicely forming peppers in the greenhouse. At first we thought it was slugs (because we have been having some issues with them this year) but Amanda saw a little bunny checking them out last night....pesky rabbits! Perhaps those coyotes we hear howling sometimes will come take care of them for us.

On a lighter and more exciting note, we have added a pickler to our team at Skeeter Farm. The lovely Jacquay will be taking on the making of various pickled items for us to sell at farmers markets. So far she has made pickled garlic scapes, which were taste tested the other day. We are really excited to have some value-added production happening this year. We had good intentions to do this last year, but ended up being way too short on time to get on it ourselves.

Thats it for now. Happy summer eating!

Not just a cute name...

2010-07-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

Nope, it's not just a cute name and a scary logo. Our little flying friends are back in full force! Mosquitoes were our big surprise farming challenge last year. Of course, we didn't see them when we started getting going in May of last year, but then came July... At first we panicked and ran for cover as soon as the sun dropped behind Sumas Mountain, but slowly we adjusted. I got a special hat, started taking more B vitamins, and experimented with various types of citronella sprays.

So, was I ready for the arrival of our skeeters this year? Not exactly...I was only at the farm for a few hours this evening and I am now covered in calamine lotion. This means it is time for my now annual review of the latest (non DEET) mosquito repelling techniques.

Of course, many people swear by Avon's skin-so-soft, but the reviews online (both medical and otherwise) don't look very promising.

There's the intriguing Bug Button, which one can wear on the wrist, pin to clothing, or hang from a tree. The special ingredients are Indonesian lemongrass oil and Philippine geranium oil. It claims to repel for 220 hours once it is unwrapped.

Then there's Bite Blocker, which is a soybean-oil-based spray and lotion and calls itself the #1 DEET alternative. WebMD reports that it worked for an average of 94 minutes during a particular study...not all that impressive.

Finally, I think Repel Lemon Eucalyptus has some promise...Lemon eucalyptus oil is one of the three mosquito repellents recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (along with DEET and Picaridin) and this is apparently the only commercially available spray that contains it. It claims to block bites for about 6 hours.

Given the aggressiveness of our skeeters, I've got my doubts about all of these...but I'll try anything once. Let me know which one you think I should try and I'll report back!

Sometimes you have to learn things twice.

2010-06-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

We have smugly told folks on more than one occasion that we miraculously, in our first year farming last year, successfully grew everything we planted. We didn't have any crop "failures". Well...this claim is sort of true, however, one crop that didn't quite work out as we planned was our green onions.

Last year we direct seeded a few rows of green onions (or scallions) way at the back of the field. We had nothing but good intentions when we seeded the onions, but by the time we got around to weeding them, they had been lost in an abyss of horsetails and tall grass. Tiny little onion seedlings are virtually impossible to discern amongst the far more competitive weeds on our site, so we decided to call the onions a loss rather than spend the time with a magnifying glass trying to locate them amongst the growth.

Now a testament to the fact that plants really just want to grow: we did have a "crop" of green onions, despite not doing anything to maintain them. I was weed whacking at the back of our field sometime in September last year when I started to smell a delicious onion smell rising up from the field. I stopped whacking and realized that we had a beautiful, yet patchy, crop of onions ready for harvest. I believe we took green onions to the market once last year. They sold like hot potatoes. So all in all, not a complete crop failure.

This year, sometime in early May, we decided it was time to seed green onions again. So what did we do differently this year? Absolutely nothing. We, silly farmers, direct seeded a bunch of green onions in the part of the field where our most persistent grass is located. Obviously a momentary lapse of judgment. Needless to say, those green onions have again been lost in a sea of green weedy growth...and will likely never be found again (I plan to till those rows in once the sun returns). Don't worry. We plan to still grow green onions this year. They can be sown up until August. However, our tactics have changed. I seeded a bunch of green onion transplants this evening, which we will start in the hoop house. They will be planted out once they are at least big enough to detect amongst the weeds, giving them a much better chance of survival, and making our job weeding them much easier.

So what is the point of this long-winded blog post? It's not just to assure you that we will have green onions this year. In fact, who knows if we will have green onions...all I said is that we were trying another tactic. The point that I am trying to get at is that we, (we being new farmers), would never get the chance to learn these things if we didn't have the opportunity to make our own decisions (sometimes silly), make mistakes (twice) and learn how to do things the right way (the right way being the way that works for the farmers and the environment we are working within). We can try to learn all we want by reading books about farming, and we can try to soak up as much knowledge as we can from folks we talk to or other farms we visit, but until we actually get to make the decisions and experience the consequences of those decisions, we won't know how to farm in the way that works for us.

Learning experiences like our green onion debacle are all the more reason to support infrastructure like the incubator farm that Skeeter Farm is currently farming on. We, (again we being new farmers), need the opportunity to try things for ourselves in order to build the confidence we need to be the next generation of food providers for our communities.

Clearly we don't have any photos of green onions, having never successfully grown them. Rather, this is a success of Skeeter Farm - a beautiful eggplant flower which will be growing a nice eggplant soon. Possibly my favorite crop so far!

Happy Solstice!

2010-06-21T21:55:00.000-07:00

There is something really awesome and something slightly depressing about the longest day of the year. Its getting warmer, but the days are slowly getting shorter from now on. Too bad, I like daylight. In any case...Happy Solstice!

Hannah and I celebrated with a bit of a weeding marathon tonight. While weeding I got my first mosquito bites of the year (which is also slightly depressing). For those newer readers, our farm got its name due to the hoards of mosquitos that we endured last year. It's almost time to pull out the bug suits.

Mosquitos aside, I am so happy for summer...because its been a long spring.

Amy

Sweet times at Skeeter Farm

2010-06-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Finally a weekend to get caught up! A good work party happened this last weekend at the farm, equipment was working, beds were prepped and seeding was accomplished.

Thanks in particular to my friends and family who made the trip out to Abby to help.

One of the sweeter things to happen this weekend, was that one of Jamie's beehives split and formed a swarm up in the plum tree. I know nothing about beekeeping, but Jamie says this happens when a new queen is born and the hive splits. Basically there was a large swarm of bees high up in a tree all piled on top of each other that needed to be captured and put into a new hive. I got to help cut the bees out of the tree. A somewhat sketchy operation.

Here is some shaky photography of the swarm:

The bees looked like a gelatinous, mobile bunch of grapes.

Just some other shots of Jamie doing his beekeeping that I took earlier in the week.

The bees are doing double duty, helping to pollenate our crops and producing some pretty delicious honey which Jamie just made for the first time.

Signs Of Life!

2010-06-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is probably a little naive of me to say, being a new farmer and all, but I can't help my excitement. Yes, the farm has definitely changed from when I first saw it. Grassy, weedy, and surrounded by blackberry bushes-no more! Beautifully tilled beds, planted rows, and yes, signs of life! I was very excited when I caught a glimpse of the kale, broccoli, and cauliflower coming up, of which Amy and I planted weeks ago. Those 120 pepper plants I planted (ok, that number is an exaggeration, it just felt like 120!) have doubled in size.

Each time I come to the farm, what a change I see. I look forward to each and everytime I go back. Yes, even the hours of continuous weeding of leeks and onions brings me back. Hard to believe, but what a joy!

Cheers to this weekend!

Meet your Dole Organic Banana Grower from half way around the world

2010-06-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

It's Dole...so take it with a grain of salt. But they have come up with a really cool idea which I took notice of yesterday while eating an organic Dole banana (maybe this is not so new - upon further research this dates back to 2007, I guess I don't read banana lables all that carefully).

Each bunch of organic bananas has a unique farm code which you can use on their website to look up information about the farm/farmers that have grown your food. Mine came from farm #759 in Equador.

http://www.doleorganic.com/

Fantastic idea, maybe not executed so great (I would like to see more pictures of the actual farms and less of the Dole reps), but how sweet would it be if you could look up information about where your BC grown food came from. Imagine a website such as this, combined with the resurection of BuyBC program, showcasing the beauty of farms and farmers in BC...connecting folks with their food bought from the supermarket and BC farmers virtually. Afterall, BC is a big province and with few farmers, its hard to make that face to face connection with everyone.

Support New Farmers in Style

2010-06-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

The Barrowtown Agricultural Development Society are working to support young and new farmers in the Fraser Valley by helping folks find access to land to farm, organizing workshops and facilitating networking and community building amongst the new farmer group. They have big ideas about how to further support new farmers and revitalize the local food system, but first they need the funds to do it!

As a little fundraiser, the society is selling these awesome t-shirts (that just so happen to feature some artwork by yours truly). They are $20 each (with maybe a little bit extra for shipping if we end up mailing to you) and all proceeds go towards supporting new farmers in the Fraser Valley.

Shirts come in S, M, L and XL men's (greyish green and lighter grey) and women's (dark blue and black).

Please let us know if you would like one (skeeterfarm @ gmail.com) and we can figure out how to get it to you.

Always more to learn

2010-05-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

I am constantly surprised and impressed by the amazing diversity of things we need to know about in order to farm. The long list includes marketing and sales, accounting, food safety, machine maintenance and repair, and team work, not to mention vegetable propagation- incredible! I have more respect than ever for veteran farmers.

There is no question that we learned a lot last year. Each of us conquered fears and did things we didn't know we could do. But for better or worse, the same thing is happening again. We decided to be a little bolder this year, aiming for a slightly earlier harvest and adding a hoophouse. These choices have led to a multitude of new learning opportunities. There seems to be a learning curve for each piece of equipment we buy and each new veggie we plant. We are also dealing with a few types of weeds and pests that we didn't see last year.

So, we have had some frustrating days out on the farm recently. However, I think our little team is pretty good at rolling with the punches, staying positive, and pressing forward. When one of us feels down, there is always at least one other person around to keep us going. I am not sure farming will ever feel easy, but I know that I'll always feel good doing it and being part of a great team and farming in such a beautiful place certainly helps. Ultimately, the hard days make the good days even better.

We have come a long way!

Now that you're not watching hockey...

2010-05-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

watch a movie with us!

(click on the pic to make it bigger)

Barrowtown Agricultural Development Society is the group who hooked up Skeeter Farm with access to land to farm. All proceeds from the movie events will go directly towards building capacity to support new farmers in the Fraser Valley.

Any questions about the event, feel free to ask us...and we sure do hope you'll come!

Job Opportunity for Budding Farmers

2010-05-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

Friends and neighbours of Skeeter Farm have started their own farm in East Abbotsford this season. They are looking for two people to help them out this summer. Sounds like a fantastic opportunity to learn about organic vegetable farming and get even get paid doing it!

The job posting:

Farm Assistant Position

We are a new organic farm in East Abbotsford entering our first year of production. We are looking for two agricultural assistants to help in all aspects of farm production. Our main focus this season is on field vegetable crops broccoli, peas, potatoes etc. We will also be tackling longer term projects such as establishing compost piles, raising greenhouses and planting an orchard in autumn.

We are on a tight timeline and need all resumes in by May 14^th. Work begins Monday May 17th and will continue until September, 18^th. The ideal candidate would be available to work 40 hours a week, and be willing to work early mornings and Saturdays.

Prior experience working on a farm is an asset although not a necessity however keeping in good/moderate spirits during all types of weather is crucial. The ability to work well both within a team, by one’s self and to communicate openly with others working on the farm is very important. The majority of the work will include planting, weeding, harvesting and washing/preparing the produce. Many additional tasks will arise throughout the season. There may be an opportunity to sell at one of the Farmer’s Markets we are attending so openness to interacting with customers is also an asset.

We are highly focused on building a deeply sustainable farm operation which provides opportunity for local employment, creates habitat for wildlife and is economically viable as a business. The starting wage is $10/hour with the bonus of having access to plenty of fresh local produce.

Andrew Arkesteyn-Vogler

Please email resumes to cfvogler (a) hotmail.com

Praying to the Sun Gods

2010-05-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are wondering how things are coming along this year at Skeeter Farm (I know at least my parents are interested. So this post, at the very least, is to give them a little update)...

We have started planting with the first of our herb, onion and leek sets being put out last weekend (yes in the midst of the hail/rain storm). We are also praying to the plant gods that those little guys survived the subsequent hail storms earlier this week. We have high hopes for this weekend for getting some seeds in the ground, it just has to stop raining for at least a few days so the ground dries up enough to till.

Seeing as we start selling a bit later than most farm folks, we are a little behind the standard vegetable planting schedules. None-the-less we should be getting our root crops and brassicas planted out relatively soon and in a few weeks much more will be going in. We were trying to be more organized about our planting schedule this year, but organization and scheduling sometimes falls apart as you wait for the weather to make up its mind. Such is the life of a farmer...

Other than that we've got the plastic up on the new hoophouse and its all ready for planting. We just need to sort out replacing the stolen irrigation components and we will be able to get most of our transplants out at the farm. For now our little transplants are safe and sound in the Abbotsford Community Garden Greenhouse (which we are most thankful for being able to use).

With love from the Skeeter Farmers.

I can't remember life without kale chips

2010-04-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

Kale chips. I love them so much, I had to write a blog post about them. Right now is the time that all that kale you planted late in the summer last year is in flower. Kale is a great food to tide you over until the local greens hit the farmers market (soon if not already). The leaves are still great to eat, and to me taste best in chip form (but really...what doesn't taste best in chip form).

How does one make these kale chips you say? Watch this short instructional video:

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-03-30-ask-umbras-diy-healthy-junk-food-kale-chips-video/

If it were my video, I would bake the chips for about 1/2 the time that she says to and experiment with different seasonings. But you can't really go wrong with anything in chip form, can you.

We are not alone- thank goodness!

2010-04-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it feels like we are out here on our own doing something wild and crazy, but in fact, there are lots of new farmers out there in the world at the moment. I think we've mentioned The Greenhorns before but it definitely bears repeating- they are documenting the new farmer movement and helping us connect to one another.

Here in BC, there are new farmers all over the place! Amy and I attended an event of The BC Young Farmers Association recently and were amazed by the number of people in attendance. Although not all young farmers are new farmers (many young farmers have been farming their entire lives), there were plenty of new farmers in attendance. In Richmond, The Richmond Food Security Society has teamed up with Kwantlen Univeristy to offer a farm school, which was featured in the Vancouver Sun last week. In the Fraser Valley, Community Futures South Fraser has been helping new farmers connect. In fact, that is how Amy, Jamie, and I found each other.

This winter, we started an email listserve for new farmers in the Fraser Valley and began touring each other's farms. I've gotten to visit three other farms, which has been an inspiring and humbling experience. As new farmers, we share a number of challenges and it is invaluable seeing how others approach them. We hosted the group at our farm last weekend and gave them a tour of our site including our almost-completed hoophouse and various new areas that have recently been cleared of blackberries. It is good to know that there are new farmers close by that understand our issues and share our goals!

If you are a new farmer in the Fraser Valley, drop us an email at skeeterfarm@gmail.com and we'll add you to the listserve.

2010 Skeeter Farm CSA Sold Out

2010-04-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a bunch of local food keeners! We are really happy to have all of our customers nailed down and paid for the year - its been a bit of a logistical curveball so thanks for bearing with us.

If you didn't get to us in time for this year, you can check out a listing of CSA Farms that are offering shares on the Farm Folk/City Folk website http://www.ffcf.bc.ca/resources/kp/csa.html and remember you can buy from Skeeter Farm at the Farmer's Markets listed below as well as via email for bulk items like pickling cukes.

Thanks to everyone and we are looking forward to getting your first veggies to you in July (we hope you are looking forward to it too).

Fantastic Opportunity to attend Terra Madre

2010-04-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

Slow Food Vancouver is fundraising to send 10 farmers to the Terra Madre conference in Italy in October this year. The nomination form is up on their website http://www.slowfoodvancouver.com/index.php/Events/more/terra_madre_celebration/
and is due in by April 20th. Pass the message on...

Coming soon to a farmers market near you!

2010-04-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

I can hardly wait for our farmers market days- the shiny veggies, the smiling babies, the delicious baked treats for me to munch on...So, I am super excited to try out some new markets this year. We'll see how the smiling babies in Abbotsford stack up against the babies in the West End and Coquitlam- the competition is on!

Here is our market schedule:
July 31: Abbotsford Market
August 7: Vancouver West End Market
August 14: Abbotsford Market
August 21: Vancouver West End Market
August 28: Abbotsford Market
September 4: Vancouver West End Market
September 11: Abbotsford Market
September 18: Vancouver West End Market
September 26: Coquitlam Market
October 3: Coquitlam Market
October 10: Coquitlam Market
October 16: Vancouver West End Market

So mark those dates in your calendar and come hang out at our booth!

Weekend work party

2010-04-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like getting the job done to raise spirits and get the farming juices flowing. This weekend an amazing amount of work happened on the farm - with the help of our friends and family we managed to get most of the hoop house up, sort out an organize our storage container, take an inventory of what is left after our farm bandits got in, and uncover some of the perennial crops that were hiding under masses of horsetails.

Some photos from a fantastic weekend:

Our friend Andrew helping us out with some tilling. I have a serious case of tractor envy.

Hannah getting us organized. We are hoping all those canning jars will be filled with little pickles this year.

Emily's drafting skills came in handy while laying pieces out and she was pretty good at getting dirty too.

This was a highly technical operation.

Hannah and Dutch looking super impressed

Nearing the end of day one

New farmer Amanda and her husband Matthew came out for day two and kept things moving along nicely.

End of day two - just the plastic and the doors left to go on, then we're in business.

Some garlic looking good, and quite big already.

The fall rye filled in and is growing exponentially. It will feel good to get it all turned in to the soil soon.

The bees are out and seem happy!

We hope everyone has had a happy Easter long weekend.
With love from your Skeeter Farmers.

Roll with the punches...tomorrow is another day

2010-03-20T08:16:00.000-07:00

Okay so I stole the title for the post from the movie Jerry Maguire, which is not exactly my favourite, but the point of the quote seems fitting for the context of the blog post.

On our Skeeter Farm blog we have tended to focus on writing nice shiney, happy posts about things like sunshine, bountiful harvests and lady bugs, the sense of community, success of our business and hopes and dreams for the future. I would say what we talk about paints a 90% accurate depiction of our experiences farming thus far. What we have hesitated telling our readers about is that other 10% of the time where we are dirty, sweaty, sore, have feelings of frustration and defeat, unhappy about something or other and all the time spent scratching our hundreds of bug bites. These not so great things I think we have come to realize are part of farming, growing and running a business in partnership, and life in general.

Overall, we have managed to balance out the good with the not so great and come out on top which is really our motivation to keep on going. BUT, then something really crappy happens that in some ways knocks us back to square one.

This week we discovered that the farm had been broken into (for the second time) and most of our equipment that we worked hard to purchase last year is gone. Most of our irrigation system, our (borrowed) rototiller, marketing supplies, and other misc. items that are to us, very valuable but to anyone other than a small farmer, are probably worth very little, were stolen.

Now, its not really surprising that our site would be a target to thieves. We are pretty isolated with no neighbours in earshot of the site, and no one living on the farm. We thought we had taken reasonable measures to lock up our equipment but obviously what we had done was no deterrent for the thieves.

The more we talk about what has happened, the more stories we are hearing about how this is actually a pretty common occurrence in the farming world. Which, for any farmer I would imagine is really hard to deal with. It stinks to think about our profits being cut this year by having to purchase our equipment again. And if we do manage to replace what we have lost, how do we keep it from being stolen again?

Post break-in discovery we wallowed in our frustration and hopelessness for a bit but have now switched to problem solving mode. We are trying to figure out how increase the security of our storage, and come up with creative ways to replace what we have lost without going out and buying brand new shiny equipment. We scouring craigslist to see if our equipment turns up and trying to talk to as much people as possible to raise awareness of this issue that leaves new farmers and their potential success vulnerable to the motives of the thieves of the world.

Hannah said to me the other day that if this had happened to us last year, she wouldn't be farming. I think that may be true for myself too...having our equipment stolen in our first season would have been enough to turn us away from trying to start a farm business forever. With that, I am thankful that we have had a season under our belt and have been able to experience the joys that come with growing food for our community and I am thankful that this didn't happen midseason in the height of things and I am thankful for all of the things that we do still have, like our seeds, that we will need to continue this season. We are all thankful for the support folks have offered us in these trying times.

I would imagine that the farm bandits who took advantage of Skeeter Farm are much less cute than us.

-Amy

And then there were four!

2010-03-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hooray! We are super excited and thankful to have found a fourth person to join Skeeter Farm for this season.

Amanda Smith was one of the many wonderful folks who sent in an "application" to farm with us this summer and we would like to welcome her to our team! We were surprised and overwhelmed with the interest in joining us this season. The amount of emails we had about our posted position is really a testament to the growing interest in farming around the Lower Mainland, dispite what popular discourse may lead you to believe.

Amanda, like the three of us, has a full time job and resides in the Township of Langley. She has no prior "farming" experience but her passion for food and farming shines through when she gets talking. We will spend the next few weeks getting her up to speed on how we do things around the farm before the season takes off.

The addition of one more dedicated farmer is a real plus this year as we learned last year that our biggest limiting factor was time. Its one thing to have the time to prepare your soil, plant a bunch of seeds, and maintain your crops...but its a whole other ball game when it comes to getting crops out of the field, prepped and marketed. Amanda will be helping us in the field but is also very interested in the farmers market side of things. We are hoping that the addition of one more farmer is just the thing we need to help us reach our business goals this year.

Welcome to Amanda!

Lil' Update from your Farmers

2010-03-02T17:42:00.001-08:00

Although we have not be regularly communicating via the blog as of late, there has been a flurry of activity in the last couple of months to get ready for the season. A quick recap for those folks who are interested:

- we have launched our CSA program for the year and information is up a the blog on a posting below

- we are looking for a fourth person on for the farm. We have received quite a few "applications" from interested folks and have begun to meet people, but would still like to hear from more. Even if you don't become our next business partner there are still other ways to get involved in farming and we would like to talk to you!

- the seeds have arrived (for the most part), and we are way ahead on starting transplants this year when compared to last year. Getting an earlier start also means that we can grow a much broader variety of crops

- we purchased a 90' hoop house which has successfully arrived at the site. The next step is to get it erected. In the meantime we are lucky to have the use of two other greenhouses for our transplants

- quite a few building projects planned including bat houses, tables, some kind of sheltered area and a bit more storage for equipment.

- the garlic is 4" high!

- business planning, financial statements, time tracking, blah. I am so happy that Hannah has volunteered to be the business management lead this year. It means that I can concentrate on crop planning and planting and the things that I like to do.

- our website is up.... almost. www.skeeterfarm.com. It looks good if you use a mac. But PC users wont be able to view it properly. the problem should be fixed soon. it was my first time building a website so there were certainly some errors made on my part.

Thanks everyone for your support so far this year. It has been great hearing from some of our regular customers and also meeting some new ones!

Happy to be getting dirty again...

Amy

Spring Inspiration

2010-02-20T11:58:00.000-08:00

Winter is over?

I am super excited about the release of this documentary by the Greenhorns about young farmers in the US. The work they do and passion they exude is such a huge inspiration for young and new farmers beyond their borders...

Their blog is always filled with good stuff too. http://thegreenhorns.wordpress.com/

Enjoy!

Amy

GH_Peek in Progress from The Greenhorns on Vimeo.

We Want You to Join Our CSA!

2010-02-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

We have been hinting for some time that we would be introducing a C(ommunity) S(hared) A(griculture) program for this season. The program will build on the wildly successful harvest box program that we introduced in 2009, with some slight changes.

What is this CSA you say? Check out what Wikipedia has to say on the matter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture#Distribution_and_Marketing_Methods

For more details about our CSA program click on the poster below to make it bigger.

There are limited spots available to folks in the Lower Mainland (Abbotsford & Vancouver) so sign up now, or get in touch with us skeeterfarm (at) gmail.com for more info.

Happy eating!

Come farm with us!

2010-02-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

Given that we will be growing a variety of new crops and expanding our marketing efforts this year, we have started the search for an additional farmer.

If you are energetic and have a strong work ethic and a desire to farm, contact us! Although we all help out with every farm task, we are looking for assistance with vegetable production/field work in particular. We would also welcome anyone interested in leading value-added product development (e.g. pickle production) and/or special events and promotions for the farm. Given that we all have jobs in addition to our work with Skeeter Farm, we are flexible about work arrangements. Previous experience in agriculture is not required.

So, have you been thinking about giving farming a try? Excited to get your hands in the dirt? Send us an email by March 31st, 2010 at skeeterfarm (at) gmail.com with some information about your background, availability, and the type of commitment you are interested in.

Soups to ward off the scurvy

2010-02-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

Anyone else out there have a hard time buying vegetables at the grocery store this time of year? Especially since we started our little farm last year, it just seems strange to walk into a store and spend $4.99 on a pound of tomatoes shipped fresh from Spain.

Lately I have been noticing that my diet has changed significantly with the change in seasons. I eat much less fresh leafy greens and have switched over to root crops, namely potatoes but also beets, sweet potatoes, rutabagas and all that good stuff. Roots are great, but there are still a whole lot less veg in my diet compared to the summer months...and to be honest, its a lot harder to come up with things to eat when you feel a little pang of guilt every time you buy an pricey and not so great tasting imported vegetable. I wouldn't consider myself a hardcore locavore by any stretch of the imagination but I am trying this winter to be smart about what I am buying. Perhaps some of you readers feel the same way and might appreciate a couple good soups that you can make from mostly or entirely local ingredients. I shop mostly at Thrifty Foods and they happen to carry quite a bit of BC product in the produce department, even in February!

The following are a couple of lunch/dinner ideas which we fall back on frequently around our house. I have attempted to write recipes, but you'll have to just go with your judgement on quantities as I rarely measure.

1. Potato and leek soup: You will need - potatoes, leeks, yellow onion, some vegetable stock, butter and other seasonings like salt and pepper. I dice the potatoes and slice up the leeks and onion. Sautee the leeks and onion in butter til the onions are clear. Then add it to a pot of vegetable stock (although any stock will do) with the potatoes, add your seasonings. Bring it up to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are soft. Run it all through a blender and top it with some fresh chopped rosemary.

2. Pear and parsnip soup: This one came from a cookbook demonstration night that my friend took me to back in November. I had never cooked parsnips prior to making this soup, but now I'm hooked. I even eat them raw - they are like a sweet, earthy carrot. Another cool thing I learned at this cookbook night is that pears (which we grow a lot of in BC) keep for months in the fridge. Also, they ripen from the inside out, so when you are selecting from a tree or from the store, you can pick them really hard and they will ripen with time. So load up on pears while you still can. Okay so for this soup you need: 1 pear, a yellow onion, 2 large parsnips or more if they are small, about 4 or 5 cups of veggie broth, butter, flour, rosemary, seasonings like salt and pepper. I start by sauteeing the onions and parsnips (which you chop up) in butter in a large stock pot. Do this for about 5 minutes until the parsnips start to get soft, then add a few tablespoons of flour and cook a couple minutes more. Add the stock, and then the pear (cubed) and chopped rosemary. Simmer for about 15 minutes until parsnips are soft, then run it all through a blender and eat.

Both soups are pretty hearty so we just serve with bread and its a pretty good meal!

We are alway looking for new recipe ideas so please send us yours if you are willing to share.

-Amy

We are doing something special

2010-01-26T19:01:00.000-08:00

Winter is the time for...banking! This year, we have decided to establish leads for each category of farm task in order to increase our efficiency. Under our new structure, I am leading our business management and marketing activities. So, I've been working on various spreadsheets and documents as well as talking with banks about business banking. It may sound boring, but I am loving it!

Anyway, I was recently in a conversation with a friend of mine who is a financial advisor. I spent a long time explaining our business model. Although we are a for-profit business, our plan is to slowly sell our equipment to the Barrowtown Agricultural Development Society so that it can be shared with other new farmers. We also have to think about succession planning so that our land is shared, either through incorporating new business partners or by welcoming other farm businesses onto our site. After awhile she stopped me and said, "You guys are doing something really special!" I had to agree. Even if it is challenging to set up, at the end of the day it will be worth it.

I feel very lucky to be part of such an exciting and unique project. This year feels much less scary to me and I can't wait to get seeds in the ground again!

Like Kids in a Candy Store

2010-01-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

Last week Hannah, Jamie and I sat down for a planning meeting over some pizzas and managed to plough through our 2010 seed order.

There's something about doing a seed order that gives me that kid in the candy store feeling (or perhaps more appropriately, the Amy loose in an online shoe store type feeling). Its January, and it seems like the possibilities are endless as to what we can do this year. Last year we literally did not get seed in the ground until after June 1st, and we still managed to pull off 10 weeks at the market and even more for our CSA customers. This year, the seeding has already started with the garlic in the ground last October, and the first of our transplants will be started sometime in February if all goes well.

With the addition of a hoop hoop house on the site we have expanded our crop selection quite significantly to include things that should grow well under plastic, as well as added many more crops that for us will be experimental. Our main train of thought(s) when going about deciding what to plant is first, thinking about what we, and our foodie friends, want to eat. Then we reflect on what have seen at the markets in abundance, and what (if anything) we thought was missing from farmers markets. Jamie then adds in fancy knowledge about industry trends and new and unusual crops, and then we also consider that we have several different marketing streams - CSA, farmers markets, and bulk sales to customers for pickling and other needs. Lastly we take into account our previous growing experience. What crops did well on the site, held up well at the market and were worthwhile, financially, to grow.

I wont go into the varietal details of what we have decided to grow this year, otherwise this blog post would be far too lengthy, but for those who are interested here is a run down of the crops we have decided upon for 2010.

Lettuce, greens, beans, swiss chard, summer squash, scallions, storage onions, cabbage, carrots, peas, cauliflower, potatoes, beets, broccoli, kale, cucumbers for slicing and pickling, corn (eating, popping and decorative!), some lovely oriental vegetables like choi and daikon, spinach, winter squashes, pumpkins (this time ones that are good for eating and carving), brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes

and for the new stuff

eggplants (we only managed to grow a few last year), garlic, tomatoes, tomatillos, cape gooseberries, hot and sweet peppers, fennel, parsnips, celery, okra, collard greens, watermelons! cantaloupes! honeydews! turnips and leeks.

We are also doing cut flowers which are great at the market, but also for the bees and several varieties of herbs.

The list is long...and somewhat daunting. But this year already seems so much less scary than our first year and I am pretty confident that we will be able to pull it off. The beauty of starting off is that everything is one big experiment, so if we screw up somehow, we can just chalk it up to a learning experience and do differently next time round.

The pic is of Hannah diligently taking notes which no doubt helped us in our planning for this year. (Photo by Dave P.)

-Amy

Wintery Farm

2009-12-24T10:17:00.000-08:00

I haven't been out to the farm at all in the last month so it seemed like a good idea to head out there yesterday to check things out.

It looks so different with all the leaves off the trees, but still beautiful.

Still some food left - kale, carrots, cabbage and broccoli

Jamie has been busy tapping some of the maples on the farm. He is hoping to make some maple syrup and I am hoping to eat it.

December was a bit of a lull in our farming year with Hannah away and both Jamie and I taking a break from veggie planning. Come January the work starts up again and we are hoping to have more of a head start than last year. More updates then.

Happy Holidays!

Amy

We Are Gourd Enthusiasts

2009-11-25T17:02:00.000-08:00

So I have to make a confession. We planted WAY too much squash in our first year. So much that some of it has ended up in a compost pile. I know...I know. It's embarrassing, especially when we know that there are people who would want and need it. Anyways, what's done is done for this season and we will smarten up next year, I promise.

To be honest with you I didn't know all that much about winter squash this spring when we were planning what to plant. Gourds, to me, were somewhat mysterious vegetables that pop up for awhile at the grocery store in the fall and mostly old people ate them. The only winter squashes I think that I have ever eaten were spaghetti squashes, which my mom forced on us as an alternative to pasta when she went through a Suzanne Sommers diet phase, and butternut squash, which I liked mostly because I imagined they tasted like butter.

So this year turned out to be a big squash experiment. It turns out that one squash plant produces A LOT of squash. And you can imagine what that translates to when you plant over 1000 square feet of winter squash. Although we did our best to sell, give away, pawn off, and eat all the squash we had, we just couldn't get it off the field in time.

Needless to say, next year our strategy for squash will be much different. For one thing we certainly won't plant as much. I am thinking one or two 100' rows per variety.

I have also been trying my hand at saving seed and collecting some different and unusual varieties of squash that will look beautiful on the market table. Thanks to my partner Bryce, who found this awesome little farm stand in Richmond, we have managed to collect Red Kuris, Shamrocks, Carnivals, Delicatas, Cinderella pumpkins and these gourds that when dried have a hard shell and are good for crafts.

This is certainly a tasty way to acquire seeds as we are eating our way through each squash and saving the seeds as we go. My favorite so far is the Delicata squash which tastes similar to a sweet potato when roasted and has a thin skin that you can eat.

The other awesome thing you can do with all winter squashes (not just pumpkins) is roast the seeds with a bit of salt and eat them. We have gotten really into this around the house lately, so much so, that Bryce made us take home a bunch of orphan pumpkins from the farm last weekend just so he can keep eating seeds throughout the winter.

If any of you happen to get your hands on some leftover pumpkins or end up buying any winter squashes I highly suggest you save the seeds and eat them! I soak mine in a salty brine overnight and then roast them on a cookie sheet for 45 minutes or so at 250 F. Delicious.

So it turns out that there is more to winter squash then we thought. Live and learn. Next year we will aim for less volume and more diversity. Hopefully by then more people will catch our gourd fever and give this awesome winter vegetable a chance.

-Amy

Giving thanks #2

2009-11-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

We had our wrap up dinner for the 2009 growing season last weekend at Jamie's home. Our families, who have all helped us out a lot, and ourselves celebrated with a delicious menu that very closely resembled Thanksgiving dinner #2 (and dinner #1 for Hannah and Dutch, our US counterparts).

-a local turkey from a friend/farmer, skeeter farm butternut squash soup, skeeter farm delicious indian spinach, sweet potatoes (not from skeeter farm because we ate all of them already), stuffing, cranberry sauce etc etc and a chocolate zucchini ganache cake. The cake was one that I made many times throughout our growing period this summer and its definitely the most delicious way to eat zucchini that I have found. I felt pretty silly going to the grocery store to buy zucchini just so I could make it for this dinner considering the ridiculous quantities of zucchinis we had just a couple of months ago. Cake recipe here - try it next year when we start pawning off our squashes on you. http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/2009/09/chocolate-zucchini-cake.html

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year including success growing vegetables and flowers that most of us hadn't tried before. Our only crop that failed to produce was Okra (although we got some beautiful flowers), some crops had mixed results, but overall we were pleasantly surprised with our growing abilities.

Another thing to be proud of and thankful for is the financial success of our business. In our first year of business start up, we have almost broken even. We have done our best to keep our costs low, but still needed to invest in some critical infrastructure for the site including irrigation, hand tools, site clearing and preparation, etc. I think we were surprised at the amount of revenue we were able to pull from the field this year, and we certainly think that we will be in the black next year with the combination of enhanced growing and marketing techniques as well as reduced capital expenditures.

We are also very thankful for the amount of community support that we have received this year, from customers, farmers, and other community members alike. Most recently, the BC Healthy Living Alliance recognized Skeeter Farm by awarding us an Innovative Community Capacity Building Award. The award, which speaks to our efforts in trying to support and encourage new farmers just like ourselves, came with a financial award which will be put to good use in building up the infrastructure on the site. We are hoping to purchase a used hoop house which will allow us to extend our growing season, plant a wider range of crops, start some transplants and allow us to properly cure some vegetables like winter squash and garlic.

It is pretty clear that "wrapping up" one season just means that it is time to start planning and working on the next. This last week we put our heads together to work on planning for the 2010 growing season.

We have decided that it make sense to assign each farmer a lead on certain farm tasks so that we aren't all expected to be working on everything all at the same time. Some of the categories for leads that we came up with are: business management, marketing, communications, site maintenance, vegetable planning and field work, as well as value-added processing and events/outreach (the latter two categories would be a new area for us). It has become clear that the three of us won't be able to tackle everything that we want to see happen at Skeeter Farm and so we have made the decision to start looking for a fourth business partner for the next growing season. Stay tuned as we will probably have more to say about that in the near future.

There are many things that need to be accomplished between now and the start of the next growing season including: writing a business plan (we were just winging it for the first year), planning for our CSA program which we will be introducing in 2010, planning crops and making our seed order, revamping our market booth, creating new communications materials, hopefully conning someone into making us a website, and working on securing some equipment and more infrastructure for the site. I don't think we are going to twiddling our green thumbs too much this winter!

Hopefully we can continue to update readers about what is going on during our offseason but if you are curious, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us at skeeterfarm (at) gmail.com

Creative Work With Vegetables

2009-11-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

Some of the results of our first pumpkin patch! Submitted by some of our more creative customers...

Putting our Field to Bed

2009-10-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

It has been a race against the clock as we get ready for winter! Just a few weeks ago I could head to the farm after work and still have plenty of hours of daylight to get things done. Now I run out of the office and arrive at the farm with only about an hour of light left.

I have been surprised about how much work is involved with putting the field to bed. We have busily been pulling out finished crops, tilling, planting garlic, seeding cover crops, and talking about our plans for next year. I am also surprised about how many veggies are still out there and looking excellent- our broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, and carrots have never looked so good!

This past weekend, we invited people out to the farm for our pumpkin patch. It was wonderful showing off our beautiful site and watching little ones pick out their favourite pumpkin and play in the mud. We also got lots of work done!

Top 10 Reasons Why I Like What We're Doing

2009-09-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

The growing season is drawing close to the end for this year. With only a couple more weeks left at the Farmer's Market and maybe a couple more weeks of harvest boxes after that we have begun to wrap things up at the farm, and have started thinking/talking about what the future holds in store for us Skeeter Farmers.

One thing is clear - all three of us want to continue on this business adventure, at least in to year two. To me that means that despite the low returns experienced in the first year of a business start up, we are all getting something out of this experience. I know for myself, I get a lot of things out of farming the way that we are doing. So here are my top ten reasons why I like farming like we are out at Skeeter Farm.

1. I get to hang out with cool folks like Jamie and Hannah and everyone else that has come out to the farm to lend a hand or offer advice or support in some way. Farming and food has certainly proved to be a common love that brings together folks, who wouldn't necessarily find common ground in other situations. Farming and food has and still is building a community of local food supporters and enthusiastic eaters some of which have gathered at Skeeter Farm.

2. We get to eat like farmers. There is nothing more satisfying than a meal made mostly out of things that you grew yourself, and the rest sourced from places you know and trust. Between produce from the farm and our home garden we have spent less money on food from the grocery store than I can ever remember. I should add that I have significantly upped the amount of Timmys in my diet, but that is excusable when you are a farmer, right?

3. As small business owners we are doing it all. We make all the decisions about what happens on our farm and how our food is produced, and although we get advice from many different people, we are ultimately get the say in how the farm and business is run. This really speaks to the independent side of my personality, which sometimes can get lost in the typical work setting.

4. More on the business front: in addition to learning (sometimes by trial and error) how to do the actual farm work, we are doing our own marketing and promotions, communications, product pricing and facing, financials, business planning and showcasing, team building, reflections and all the other fun stuff that comes with running a small business. All of these aspects are made more exciting when business meetings take place outside surrounded by pretty plants and tasty food to snack on.

5. People think we are cool(er than we actually are). But honestly, people think that because we are selling them vegetables or have a little dirt under our fingernails that we are really interesting or doing something that so few people do so it must be really hard and worth some sort of hero status. Jokes on them because we actually think THEY are cool ones for buying our stuff, we are just dorks who like vegetables and digging in the dirt.

6. There is a lot to be said for working with your hands. In general, I don't think that we get to do enough of it these days. There is nothing more satisfying than doing a hard days work and being able to actually see your results.

7. This next reason is probably more specific to our farm - but I have had some pretty cool wildlife sightings this year so far. The most recent one was a black bear that came sauntering down the laneway to the farm. There has been little otters frolicking in the canal, eagles and hawks daily, and amazing amounts of dragonflies, bees, lady bugs, butterflies and other little critters.

8. I haven't had to wear business casual much at all this summer. And that is a beautiful thing.

9. I am exercising my body in ways that results in more than just toned muscles. And I haven't had to pay for a gym or try to work it in to my schedule. Similar to those folks who ride a bike when they commute, staying in shape just becomes part of your lifestyle and it all just starts to make sense.

10. Good, clean, fresh, and delicious food is one of the only things I think I would feel good about selling to people I like and love. If I could find a way to make it my career, I feel like it would be an honest and important living, which is all I could really ask for.

Box vs. Market

2009-09-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

There is no denying that something magical happens at farmer's markets. Friendly folks set up beautiful booths showcasing items that they produce and people of all stripes show up to look, chat, sample, and of course, purchase things. I have loved almost every moment of being at the market- arranging our veggies in little baskets, smiling at babies, explaining to little girls why they can't just plant one of our big sunflowers in their yard and expect it to grow taller...

However, doing the market well takes a lot of time. To prepare for the Abby market, at least two of us have to spend a full day harvesting and then a full day setting up and staffing the booth. In addition, keeping the booth looking good throughout the market means bringing more veggies with us than we will sell.

Filling veggie boxes is not quite as magical as being at the market, but it sure is efficient. We get to give our box customers whatever is convenient for us to give (while honoring some special requests) and we make a guaranteed amount of money for each sale. Most importantly, we get to fulfill the weekly veggie needs of each box customer, providing a real alternative to other sources of food. There is something really satisfying about that.

Ultimately, I think it makes sense to continue utilizing both marketing methods. Having a presence at the farmer's market is a great way to market our veggie boxes, not to mention that the booth itself makes a great veggie box pick-up/drop-off location. Certainly, different methods suit different types of customers. Luckily, our veggies taste delicious regardless of whether they come out of a bag or a pretty little basket!

Pretty Things at the Farm

2009-09-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Indulging in a particularly lazy Sunday and will continue that trend with a lazy blog post filled with photos of the farm.

A couple of photos by Betty Johnston, a lovely photographer who came to the farm the other week.

Corn is an amazing and delicious grass. Did you know that the silky part at the top of the ear is actually a flower?

2 of our 17 potato varieties.

What seems like acres of winter squash thriving at the farm. (Photo by Jamie).

The scenic laneway onto the farm. Watch for bear scat. (Photo also by Jamie)

Skeeter farmers/documentary stars. Stay tuned for Jayne's documentary on our first year farming. (Photo by Gavin).

Retired parents make great farm labourers. My mom and I planting sweet potatoes (Photo by Jayne).

A regular market goer enjoying the fruits of our labour. (Photo by Dutch).

Breaking down the veggie box

2009-08-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

When I moved from Seattle to Vancouver almost 3 years ago, I was amazed by the strength of the local food movement and shocked by the lack of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms.

Those of you that are unfamiliar with the CSA concept should definitely check out this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture. In brief, eaters pay one lump sum for a share of veggies/fruit/meat/eggs/etc. that they then receive regularly during the growing season. CSAs are great for eaters because they provide an easy way for folks to get all of their fruit, veggie (and sometimes meat) needs met by a local farm that they become an integral part of. CSAs are great for farmers because they have a guaranteed income that they receive at the beginning of the season. The idea is that eaters help farmers shoulder risk and benefit accordingly- when the harvest is bountiful the weekly share is gigantic, when the harvest is slim or a crop fails, the weekly share is smaller.

Back in Seattle, it took me awhile to convince my partner Dutch that we should get a CSA share at Growing Things Farm (http://www.growingthingsfarm.org/index.html). But once we did, there was no going back- we both loved it and it totally changed the way we ate. The Seattle area has dozens of CSA farms and there is a fair amount of diversity among them. Some do home delivery, some leave shares at designated drop-off spots (often at farmer's markets), and some require that customers pick up at the farm. Prices and box sizes also vary. However, one thing is constant: farmers are paid directly by thier customers.

After arriving in Vancouver, we were frustrated to learn that there were very few CSA farms and that most foodies got their vegetables through a few delivery companies that act as middle men between farmers and eaters. Dutch and I tried a few of these services and even found one that we liked, but they all paled in comparison to our CSA.

I am very proud to say that many friends in Vancouver have begun putting a hold on thier delivery service to receive a weekly veggie box from Skeeter Farm. Yay!

Of course, we didn't feel comfortable running a full-blown CSA this year at Skeeter Farm. The long and the short of it is that we had no idea how many veggies we would actually be able to grow. But the demand for our weekly veggie boxes is growing and it may make sense for us to head towards a full-meal-deal CSA next year...Regardless of what path we take at Skeeter, I am very happy to be familiarizing people in the Lower Mainland with the concept of making a committment to paying farmers directly for their produce throughout the season.

Veggies-A-Plenty

2009-08-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

Someone close to me, who is also receiving one of our weekly harvest boxes, said to me the other day "Amy, I don't know if I can keep up with this veggie marathon..." I took slight offense of course, and told them that it the harvest boxes are optional and you shouldn't feel socially obligated to buy what we're growing. Despite saying this, I know that they probably still do feel socially obligated and they will likely keep on trucking, trying to consume $20 worth of our veggies a week.

This got me thinking about this whole eating local thing which has become quite trendy as of late. This time of year is, quite literally, a veggie marathon. We do have the ability to produce year round here with climate and technology being the way that it is. But right now, we are at the peak of our growing season and the veggies are aplenty.

Folks who have/are making the decision to eat locally are signing up for more than just the enjoyment of good, fresh food; they are signing up for a lifestyle change. When choosing to eat locally, for the most part, you cant go to your local Safeway and pick up your habitual grocery list that results in the same 7 dinners each week. You probably can't pick up a recipe book, and pick out whatever sounds delicious, regardless of time of year.

Eating locally requires creativity: you need to work with what you can get, what is fresh from your local farms. It requires the forgotten art of real cooking. To eat locally you need to know how to serve up an ever changing roster of seasonal ingredients. You must be fearless in trying out a plethora of new dishes in order to make use of what its produced around you and to rely less on the "normal" foods shipped in from around the world. And, until more restaurants catch on, you probably need to eat at home a whole lot more.

We live in the middle of a breadbasket where we produce an amazing diversity of delicious and healthy foods. What would happen if each person put themselves up to the challenge and made the lifestyle change necessary to eat what is grown and produced around us, supported our local farmers and reduced our impact on other people and places?

I want to give a big thanks to my friends Colleen and Will who, since choosing to receive a weekly box of veggies from us, have managed to slip Skeeter Farm veggies into each and every meal they are eating at home. They are truly inspirational. Swiss Chard for breakfast anyone?

First Market Day

2009-08-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

Here we are at our very first time at the Abbotsford Farmers Market. We had a great time! Sincere thanks to those of you who came out to support us.

Finally...we get to eat!

2009-08-06T22:01:00.000-07:00

It's always somehow amazing when you actually grow a vegetable that you haven't managed or tried to grow before. If you have gardened you may know the feeling when that cabbage head finally starts to form and you realize that might just get to eat that large cabbage plant that has been occupying space for some months, or when that scraggly transplant that you neglected to water for too long manages to set its roots and take off by some miracle of the plant gods.

I have had that same feeling with almost everything that we have managed to grow out at Skeeter Farm. We pulled out a beet a couple of days ago to check it for cankers and holes. I wasn't expecting much considering that we knew our soil was Boron deficient and we applied the nutrient late in the plant's life. Man was I wrong. It was...beautiful. I might even have to eat it (N.B. beets are my least favourite veggie).

Beets and more from Skeeter Farm this Saturday morning at the Abbotsford Farmers Market in downtown Abby. Come check us out!

It's a farm, not a garden!

2009-08-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

Amy and I should confess that one significant advantage we have is working at an agricultural agency. This has given us the opportunity to share our ideas and problems with a large group of people that are very knowledgeable about agriculture. However, many of our co-workers work with big farms. I think that might be the reason that some of them (you know who you are!) have gotten into the habit of referring to our farm as a garden...

The other night I was out late at the farm wrestling with our irrigation pump, which was acting up. I showed up at work the next morning sun burnt and covered in mosquito bites. A co-worker came up to me and asked, "how is your little garden doing?". It took all of my will power to smile politely and explain that we are calling it a farm out of respect for ourselves and each other.

Now, we know they mean well and I realize that our farm is pretty small in the whole scheme of things. But, we are definitely a farm- this year we have two cultivated acres of vegetables that we are selling!

There are some amazing days out there, with beautiful birds circling overhead, little seedlings looking healthy, clouds rolling over the mountains and everything seems easy. Then there are days where it feels like everything goes wrong and nothing gets done. I love talking about both types of days and in fact, we rely heavily on feedback and input from others. Just don't ask us how the garden is doing!