September 2016

NEW FARM STORE INTRODUCTION - FROZEN FOCACCIA/PIZZA ROUNDS View this email in your browser FOR YOUR HOME CREATIONS -- READY FOR THE OVEN -- FOCACCIA/PIZZA ROUNDS Beginning Thursday, the 8th of September the farm will begin carrying Focaccia/Pizza rounds, ready for the oven from BODHI'S BAKERY, with organic flour purchased from Vancouver Island Grain and Milling. We have wanted to do this for ages, and with the help of Bill and his staff at Bodhi’s Bakery we are ready for the launch. This is truly the time to start. We have an abundance of fresh fall produce and local add-ons. It’s a great way to support local vendors and create a unique culinary offering. Help us collect a selection of the best local recipes to pass along to our customers. OUR NUTRITIOUS FALL VEGGIE BOX PROGRAM begins Friday September 9th. Pick-up is at the farm from 2:30pm-5pm. You are welcome to come early and take a walk about the farm. Proceeds from this Fall Veggie Box will pay for staff salaries into the fall and winter to enable us to complete all manner of season chores. You will receive fresh produce directly from our fields; products from fellow farmers in the area; and produce which we have dried or frozen for late season eating. Contact us at neorg@telus.net if you would like to sign up or check out our website NanooseEdiblesFarm.com Now is the time to stock up on GARLIC for the winter months. We will have our garlic packed for gift giving, and in various sized lots for fall planting. It is now time to prepare your planting location and have your garlic purchased and ready to go into the ground. Planting date Thanksgiving Weekend, depending on the weather conditions. We are blessed with some short and long-term volunteers – some who may have gone for good and others planning to return as time becomes available. We were recently blessed with a visit from Lorne’s nephew Don from Eugene Oregon. He is the nicest and handiest guy you can imagine. It was great having him with us and we are happy to report that he intends to return. Don helped us with the farm and built a new drain board for the farm store. MARKETING HAS BEEN DIFFICULT this year, possibility because of the numbers of new farmers entering the market, not enough people buying local and little improvement in the development of secure markets for certified organic produce. Coupled with difficulties in finding staff with good farm experience, and the farm having not enough income to pay them what they deserve and need to live in this area. It is a demanding job and deserves a high rate of pay and greater appreciation by the community in general. We have enjoyed our teenage staff – Holden, Spencer and Cam, all working full-time for us this summer. With so many tasks automated these days, we find ourselves constantly passing along skills that might be missed in modern everyday life. Farms are good for skills testing, as the have heaps of challenging tools to try out on the job. STRAWBERRIES have been splendid. We all agree that growing fruit of every sort is a pleasure and something we should consider concentrating on in the future. The taste of our strawberries gives folks a lot a pleasure, and the farm has sufficient berries for freezing for the winter. Berry production is an acquired knowledge and we are constantly discovering new methods of production and varieties to try. It ties in well with the farm’s U-pick weekends which have worked well for us this summer. It is lovely to have children, families and friends stop by to visit the farm and enjoy stocking up on winter fruits and veg. Currently we are picking table grapes, delicious Canadice, a small seedless pink grape for snacking on or tossing into a nice salad. Some interesting crops have produced well this year. We have grown Artichokes for the first time in ages. It is interesting to grow and is popular with our restaurant folk. We also have replanted asparagus, plus more varieties of specialty fruits. Artichokes for example turn out to be seriously beneficial to your liver and is a bile booster. Seems crazy, but there you are. The Romans knew this and grew them in abundance. I’m off to Victoria later this month to do a local sustainable gardens workshop at Marla’s HOLD GENERAL shop on Craigflower Rd in Victoria. More information following shortly. Also I've been invited to present on Food Sustainability From Your Home Garden in November in Whistler at Nourish Cornucopia. This is an exceedingly important topic for me and I wish everyone to take it seriously and use our natural and technical resources to teach ourselves about food sustainability, for ourselves and our community. Check out our bi-monthly produce list guide. BUSINESS HOURS AT THE FARM WILL remain the same for the time being, Tuesday to Sunday 10am-5pm. Likely we will not change until Thanksgiving Weekend. We are continuing our u-pick hours from noon until 4 Fridays, and from 10-1 on Saturdays and Sundays. See you at the farm! Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*