It’s looking like a rainy start to the week and with the above freezing forecast for the next while that means we are behind on field work and planting. First there is some equipment to get home, and some figuring on how to get by without our normal planting tractor until it is done repairs. Anyway, it’s been an adventure of a week so we will just have to live with being a little bit behind for now and go forward from where we are.
This week we are at Montgomery’s Inn in person, so no deliveries. On Saturday we will be outside at the Stop’s Market so find us in our old spot by the courtyard. We look forward to seeing you there.
This week in CSA we have Lettuce, Bok Choi, Radishes, Parsnips, Carrots and Beets.
Lambing continues. Soon it has to let up because there just aren’t as many ewes we are still waiting on as what we have already had. It all blurs together by now especially with the two weeks of sleep depravation it has contributed to, but the short version is we are now up to 43 lambs. At least we are getting it over with quickly, but it is a lot to handle for a few weeks.
Hopefully sometime this week we can finally get the broiler chickens out to pasture. The beginning of the week doesn’t look overly encouraging weather wise and we seriously don’t need another project this week what with needing to get crops planted, but that’s just the way spring is. Everything needs to be done at once.
Last Wednesday was a bit of an adventure. The day started normally enough, just hectic. Chores to get through, lambs to deal with, while getting the van ready for Nathan’s day of deliveries in Toronto, and the car ready for Aleta to go to egg grading. So we are already a bit later than might have been ideal, but not terrible. Well, still ok if it wasn’t for construction. But then being late means modifying the route to prioritize reasonable timelines for locations with fixed schedules. The end result of all which being that instead of normally getting home around 3:30, he was still making his last delivery at about 4:00pm. Since there is normally time after deliveries, he had also arranged to pick up our seed potatoes before coming home since it saves time relative to a special trip out. Since 7:00pm pickup still worked for the potato farm he continued on. Made it there, got the potatoes loaded, and was ready to leave, but the van wouldn’t start. Half an hour work with tools and help form the potato farmer got it started, but to say the least it does not inspire confidence. We took the truck and trailer on Saturday. While this was all happening, Aleta was getting eggs graded, taking a dog to the vet, and looking after ewes lambing. While hauling around a toddler.
In last week’s update I shared that the asparagus was up. Predictably it froze off early in the week right through the row cover we put on to protect it. From previous experience asparagus freezing can be a bit like a groundhog seeing it’s shadow. It won’t be coming out for a bit now after that happened, at least in those parts of the patch. So once again I doubt it will be ready for the end of this week, but possibly sometime the following week. We’ll see.
Well that’s about everything for this week.
Until next week,
Happy ordering!
Nathan and Aleta Klassen
https://www.localline.ca/nith-valley-organics
