a farm evening.

There is fear of a possible frost on Sunday night, so for the next few days we're harvesting as much of the remaining crops as possible up at the farm. This evening a few of us went up and picked lots of tomatoes, as well as some peppers, watermelon, strawberries (yes there still were some!), and beets. Erick and I will be up again on Sunday afternoon. We like the farm. Erick loves going after a day cooped up in the hospital. I love it after a day crouched over knitting/the computer. Such a wonderful relief to be outside doing some manual labour. Thank you farm.

fall harvesting.

Sometimes iphone photos just have to suffice.

Yesterday a bunch of us went up to the farm. It was such a beautiful day to be out in the fresh air pulling weeds and harvesting food. Sunny, with a nice breeze to keep us cool. September is a bountiful month. Tomatoes, squash, melons, peppers, broccoli, beets, and zinnia. There was even another round of delicious strawberries!

And farm days have their own signature drink now. Fresh squeezed lime juice by Amanda, plus gin. Most excellent.

a hot day at the farm.

Drowning evil potato beetles.







Sorting good potatoes from bad, planting good potatoes. And weeding carrots. And removing strawberry flowers from plants so they redirect their energy to becoming big and strong. They can save their strawberries for next season.




Hoeing the weeds around the rhubarb.



Planting tomatoes.

signs of spring: a seedy saturday at the dining room table.

On Saturday, Erick and I paid a visit to William Dam Seeds in Flamborough to pick up a few more packets of seeds, some soil, and peat pots. Neither of us had ever started seeds indoors before, so it was an exciting adventure. Dam Seeds is great, I wanted to buy everything! Flowers and vegetables alike! I'm looking forward to the day we have our own home and free reign of the garden.

We have a bunch of seeds already, but we picked up some more tomato and lettuce seeds, as well as more zinnia and craspedia seeds for the wedding. My mum already started some, but I wanted to get some more to be safe. Better too many than too few!

I'm insanely excited for this summer for so many reasons. Wedding prep (fun for me)! Cottage weekends! Biking around the city! Beehive crafty adventures! Picnics! Canning! Wedding! Honeymoon! And a new endeavor: farming!!! We were invited to participate in a super awesome community farming intiative that has been going on just north of Hamilton for the past couple of years. Jane and Hollie have blogged about it on Love It A Lot a fair bit. Gary's parents have a stall at the farmer's market, and a farm near Waterdown. A group of awesome young Hamiltonians have been sharing the work involved in growing food there. They go when they can to plant the seeds, weed, harvest, etc. In exchange for the work, everyone can bring home veggies to eat and preserve. The remaining produce is sold at the farmer's market or at pop-up markets at Art Crawls. This year there are going to be beehives too! And adventures with new crops.

I'm so so SO excited!