Market
and Farm Gates Sales
As our
fruits and vegetables are ready, we will offer them for
sale by individual orders. This summer we won’t be doing
Farm Gate. Our produce and fruits will be available at
Happy Tides Health Food Store. Please phone or email us
with any inquiries that you have. We look forward to
growing for you!
Sunday,
July 4th
We have
been invited to participate in Mayne Island’s Annual Home
& Garden Tour. You can purchase your Tour ticket at
Happy Tides Health Food Store. Please join us at our farm
Sunday from 10 - 3.
September
26 & 27
As part of the Good Life Festival that is on Mayne Island
this weekend, I will be moderating a discussion panel
on, Gardening
& Growing on Mayne at 2
o'clock at the Ag Hall. Join us to hear about what is
growing on our island. Also, from 2 - 5 on Sunday,
September 27 we will be hosting guided walks of our Farm.
This is a busy weekend and we look forward to seeing you on
Mayne!
Here is
some information about the apples we will offer at our Farm
Gate.
Calville
Rouge d'Automne
Parentage / Origin: France 1670
Description: Large, with characteristic ribbed shape. Skin
pale red with a tinge of yellow. Sweet, slight strawberry
or vinous flavor; tender, juicy flesh. Good fresh and for
baked apples, keeps its form with a smooth creamy
texture.Large, with characteristic ribbed Calville shape.
Skin pale red with a tinge of yellow. Sweet, slight
strawberry or vinous flavor; tender, juicy flesh. Good
fresh and for baked apples, keeps its form with a smooth
creamy texture.
Fruit Storage: Good
Surprise
(Also known
as: Red Core)
Parentage / Origin: England, 1831
Harvest / Season: Harvest: October
Description: Small, green winter apple with creamy white,
red stained flesh.
Ambrosia
Ambrosia is well named. It has a distinct honeyed and
slightly perfumed flavour hence the name, Ambrosia, food of
the gods - a delight to look at, to touch, to bite into and
to savour. The Ambrosia has a smooth skin, and is
bi-coloured, with a bright almost irridescent pink blush
over a creamy white background.
Ambrosia is a sweet, low- acid apple with a heavenly aroma.
Crisp in texture, its fine-grained flesh is crunchy and
very juicy! It has been called "a very civilized, refined
apple, destined to be loved. It is considered an
all-purpose apple, it is good for eating out of hand, for
dessert or with cheese. Ambrosia is slow to oxidize and
remains fresh and white for a long time when cut or sliced
so it is excellent for salads, fruit plates etc. Ambrosia
retains its shape when cooked so is beautiful in open pies
or tarts.
Egremont
Russet
The Egremont Russet is a cultivar of dessert apple, of the
russet type. It has a rich, nutty flavour and crisp, firm
and fairly juicy flesh. It was first recorded in 1872, and
is believed to have been raised by the Earl of Egremont at
Petworth in Sussex, UK. It was first popular in the
Victorian era and has remained popular ever since.
Russets are highly valued apples, with rough-skinned sweet
fruit noted for their nutty flavour and crisp dryish firm
flesh. An excellent apple for the cheese board. An easy
variety to crop and makes an excellent pollinator for Cox
and Braeburn. Harvest in October, and keeps well until
January.
Fuji
Wow! What a great snacking apple! Fuji apples have it
all--super sweet, super juicy and super crisp. This
Japanese apple has American parents, Red Delicious and
Ralls Janet, an antique apple that goes back to Thomas
Jefferson in 1793.
What's It
Like?Very
sweet,Very juicy
Very crisp, cream colored flesh
Best Uses
Excellent for eating
and salads. Good for sauce. Fujis perform
well when baked or frozen. Fuji applesauce needs little or
no sugar.
With
refrigeration, Fuji apples can remain fresh
for up to 5-6 months.
Golden
Reinette
An attractive apple with good fruity taste, similar to a
Blenheim Orange.
Use: Dessert
Flavour: Fruity
Origin: Europe 1600
A
medium sized apple. Deep cream flesh, crisp to crumbling.
Good fruity taste similar to a Blenheim Orange.
Jonogold
Apple
Malus
The Jonagold
Apple's name describes its heritage - a cross between a
Jonathan & Gold Delicious.They form a large sweet fruit
with a thin skin.
The
jonogold
apple is a crisp,
sweet, excellent eating apple,
is a creamy colour and has a lot of crunch.
The Jonagold
apple is excellent for sauce, pies and salads.
Liberty
Parentage /
Origin: Macoun x Purdue 54-12; New York, 1962
Description: MacIntosh type apple. Large, red blush
covering nearly all of yellow fruit. Flavor develops over
one month of storage. Very promising new disease-resistant
apple. Attractive, fruit 90 percent red blush.
Flesh is slightly coarse, crisp, juicy, and sweet.
Ripens in early to mid-October. Highly resistant to
apple scab.
Red
Fuji Apple
The apples of the Red Fuji Apple Tree are top choice fruits
in supermarkets. The fruit from the Red Fuji Apple Tree is
delightful, crunchy, has a sweet flavor and has little
acid.
Known for their exceptional eating quality and great for
baking.
Also, the sweetness of Red Fuji Apples makes it a perfect
snack. Even better when included in a salad!
The
juice is sweet and crisp, along with the crunchiness of the
apple are amazing..
Red
Gala
Excellent for fresh eating. A very pretty, medium size,
conical to round fruit with yellow skin patterned with
bright orange-red. Firm, juicy, fine textured, yellow white
flesh. Sweet slightly tart flavor. Red Gala apple is one of
the finest eating apples there is. The flesh is yellowish
flesh is crisp, juicy and fine tasting. It can be used for
all purposes. Good for pies, High dessert quality, Juice or
Cider, Canning or freezing, and .Cooking or baking.
Shamrock
Apple
Malus 'Shamrock'
Medium size firm green apple, good substitute to 'Granny
Smith', hardier. Good keeper. Excellent eating and cooking
apple.
Spartan
Apple
Malus domestica
Attractive, crunchy, sweet, easy to grow, and with the
characteristic delicate wine-like "vinous" flavor of the
McIntosh family of apples.
The Spartan apple is considered a good all-purpose apple..
The apple is of medium size and has a bright red blush, but
can have background patches of greens and yellows.. It has
a crisp, white flesh providing a uniquely sweet flavor. It
is a great snacking apple and cooks up soft, making it
excellent for applesauce
Winston
Apple
PARENTAGE:
COX'S ORANGE PIPPIN
AND WORCESTER PEARMAIN
INTRODUCED: 1900
This apple started life as Winter King but in 1944 it was
renamed Winston. It is a high quality, late-keeping apple
with creamy- white flesh, firm, juicy and a little sharp
but mellowing to be sweet and aromatic. Whilst Winston has
many of the flavour characteristics of Cox's Orange Pippin,
its horticultural characteristics - fortunately - take
after its other parent, Worcester Pearmain. Hence it
is resistant to most diseases, easy to grow, and crops
reliably.
A late
keeping, high quality eating apple..
Pinova
Apple
• The Pinova apple is a cross between the
Golden Delicious, Cox’s Orange Pippin and the Duchess of
Oldenburg varieties.• Piñnova apples are stripy red over an
orange background. A blend of high sugar and high acid
levels give Pinova a special flavor. Crisp and juicy,
Pinova has a classic apple flavor with a unique tropical
twist.
•Pinova apple flavors intensify in cold storage. Pinova’s
unique heritage gives the apple strong versatility. It is
excellent for
eating out-of-hand and also adapts well to cooking
temperatures, making it great for both baking and poaching.
Granny
Smith
Parentage / Origin: Australia, 1850
Harvest / Season: Harvest: late October; Season: October -
December
Description: Green, crisp and tart, and an excellent
keeper. They are perfect for
either baking in pies, stewed in sauces or eating out of
hand. They're also great in salads because once cut, they
keep their color longer than other
apples
Enjoy!
September
6
I have been busy picking,
preserving, canning and dehydrating fruits and vegetables
from our garden. I will offer many of my preserves at our
Fall Farm Gate when the apples from the orchards are ready.
I have been busy making Apple Pie In Jar. If you are
interested in purchasing this product now, just give me a
call.
September
2
Tuesday I picked and
prepped for my last Farm Gate of the summer. The garden has
given us a beautiful, bountiful harvest for many weeks. The
vegetables are pretty much done. There are still some
beets, carrots, leeks and onions that will supply our
family all winter long. Now we wait for the apples in the
orchards to finish ripening. Most of our apples will be
ready by Thanksgiving. I will have offer them at a Farm
Gate on a Sunday. I will post the date here and on my
roadside sign.
Although our oldest tree is just 6 years old and we have
carefully hand picked our bud sets, the trees are producing
well. Here is a picture of three of the earliest apples
that I had available for Farm Gate this week.
From the left is Arkane, Ginger Gold and Hall's Pink.
Delicious desert apples ready to eat right away!
August
26
This week our Hall's Pink apples are ready! These apples
are not great keepers but delicious to eat right away. They
are a wonderful choice for those school lunches.
We also have cucumbers
growing longer and longer. Get out those pickle recipes.
The garden is full of beautiful beets, too. We are now
taking bulk orders for carrots and beets. Just phone or
email if you are interested.
Billie our Bichon always participates in our Farm Gates.
She keeps a close eye on every thing that takes
place.
August
19
Now is the time to be
canning and pickling. We have lots of onions, garlic,
beets, carrots, beans
and dill to put up as some of your winter food.
I just picked our Dolgo Crab apples yesterday and made some
jelly. The jelly is the prettiest pink colour and so good
for you!
August
12
We are at
the end of some of the best lettuces grown! More are
planted and should be available in a few weeks.
The
sunflowers are growing taller and taller. In fact, I am
entering one plant in our Mayne Island Fall Fair, as the
tallest sunflower.
The peppers
just love all this heat and sunshine,
too.
Lots of
produce choices for everyone.
August
4
It was a
fun, busy farm gate, today! I had to go down to the garden
three times to pull more lettuces! People were waiting for
me to start so that they could buy those yellow beans! Next
week I should have more yellow and some green beans. The
garden is growing an abundance of food. It is exciting to
see so many people making the trip to our farm gate to buy
the produce.
July 30
Please
note, my farm Gate will be Thursday this week. I am sorry
for any inconvenience this may make.
Although, I was a day later, Farm gate was busy. Lots of
produce. The yellow beans were a favourite. My family just
loves yellow and green beans. Bring them on! This week I am
going to be canning White Chow Chow, a sweet cauliflower
relish. Stay cool
in all this hot weather. I drink green tea hot & cold
and of course water. Wear that sunhat,
too!
July
22
Lettuce, Lettuce, let us lettuce! Lots of lettuces! Today
was a great Farm Gate. I enjoy chatting with everyone. In
fact, my new challenge is going to be to create a Blog on
this website called, Farm Gate Chats, so that we can have a
forum to discuss farming and gardening ideas. I am getting
the benefit off all these chats and I would like to share
them with all of you, too. Today I added beets, carrots and
onions to the Farm Gate selections. With all this heat the
peppers are coming along just fine. Enjoy those greens and
I will see you next week!
July
15
This week
I had an assortment of jams, jellies and relishes made from
the fruits and vegetables grown here on our farm. Canning,
freezing, and dehydrating fresh local foodstuffs is a
wonderful way to ensure that you and your family eat well
all year long. We
continue to have a variety of lettuces, rainbow swiss
chard, dill, dehydrated herb packages, garlic braids,
garlic scapes, black currants, red & white currants
(frozen), broccoli, beets, green cabbage, and cauliflower.
I am going to add two new recipes. A Swiss Chard relish and
a Turnip Pickle recipe. Two vegetables that are very good
for you, but sometimes challenging to feed your family. I
will be offering the relishes at Farm Gate next week. See
you then!
July 8
Although,
today was rainy it didn't interfere with our selling. Even,
Leo our cat joined me at our Farm Gate!
A
variety of lettuces, spinach, swiss rainbow chard, garlic
braids, garlic scapes, raspberries, red & white
currants (frozen), and assorted jams & jellies.
I am always amazed at how people always ask what to do with
swiss chard! We use it like a spinach. It has a milder
flavour than spinach. It is delicious steamed with
butter!
July
1 Happy
Canada Day! We had our first Farm Gate Sales today. We had
lettuces, spinach, rainbow chard, radishes, baby turnips,
broccoli, red & white currants, strawberries,
raspberries, garlic scapes and an assortment of jellies and
jams. It was great seeing everyone. See you next week!
June
As our
herbs ripen I am picking them and dehydrating them. I am
putting together packages of seasoning/herb blends for our
Farm Gate Sales. I am busy canning some of our own frozen
fruits as jams and jellies to be available for our Farm
Gates Sales, too. So far, I have apple jelly, red and white
currant jellies, raspberry/red currant jelly, black currant
berry jelly, dandelion jelly, blackberry jelly, and
raspberry jam. We will also have chow-chow ( an
old-fashioned cucumber relish.) The strawberries are
beginning to ripen. They should be ready in a couple of
weeks. We will do our first Farm Gate the first Wednesday
in July. See you then!
May
Good
growing news for you! We have just planted in our potatoes,
broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, and onions. The garlics
are growing tall. Our seeded lettuces and spinaches have
sprouted. The apple trees are beginning to bloom, the
currants are in flower, the raspberries and strawberries
are greening and the kiwis are sprouting. By the middle of
May, we will have all our vegetables seeded. We are working
hard to get our produce ready for you for early July. See
you then at our Farm Gate!