February 17, 2009 at 4:22 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Many of our customers ask about the history of the farm and what all is involved in growing the food they eat. This blog provides information, photos and stories about the farm and our growing practices. We hope it will give readers a glimpse into our lives and the daily happenings of Lincoln Gardens.
We will post info about the Local Food Movement, events in the area and anything else we find interestng. Check back often as we will try to update this site regularly.
Also check out our official website at http://www.cornmaidenmarket.com
cheers
Kim & Wayne
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July 9, 2009 at 2:02 pm
· Filed under Harvest Notes, lincoln gardens ·Tagged farm fresh, Local Vegetables, Lumsden vegetables, market gardening, Regina Farmer's Market
The phone has been ringing off the hook! When will we have veggies? Well, this weekend we will start the harvest!
It will still be a slow start. We will have radish, lettuce, spinach, green onion, baby beets, herbs, and if weather permits we will start the pea picking! I know that is what everyone is waiting for.
The on-farm store will be open from 9 to 7 on the weekend and from 9-6 during the week days for now. We will increase the hours as we have more produce available and more staff. We are also taking orders for pickling cucumbers at this time so get your order in.
Our first day back at the Regina Farmers Market will be Wednesday July 15th.
If you are driving out to the farm this weekend, please don’t forget that it is the Craven Jamboree. Traffic is not too bad, but please beware of erratic drivers on the #20 highway between Lumsden & Craven.
See you this weekend!
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June 26, 2009 at 1:02 pm
· Filed under lincoln gardens ·Tagged Local Vegetables, Lumsden Garden Centre, Lumsden vegetables, market gardening
A number of people have been stopping in and calling the farm asking what we have available. Some years there may be a few early crops, radish and green onion ready, but this year and in general there is nothing to harvest until later.
So, for those of you wondering, there are no vegetables for sale at the farm yet. We don’t anticipate picking anything for a few weeks. This season has been poor growing weather. The spring was long and cold, then we had a lot of rain. It is finally warming up, but the plant growth is still behind. There is nothing we can do to change mother nature! This is the challenge of growing vegetables in Saskatchewan.
The staff have been busy weeding the veggie fields. This weather has been great for growing weeds! We have a few crops that need to be planted still. We plant several rotations of things like lettuce and cabbage so that we have fresh produce to pick through out the season. So some of the later fields are waiting to be planted and we hope to finish this up over the next week.
So what is available this week? Well, there are still a few bedding plants in the garden centre. All annuals are on sale at 1/2 price. We have a good selection of hanging baskets and container gardens to choose from also. It is not too late to get your backyard looking nice for summer, so take advantage of the sale and stock up on brightly coloured bedding plants!
We will update you as soon as we begin harvesting veggies. We will also post the u-pick schedule as soon as we know better when the first berries will be ready.
Hope you have a great weekend and maybe we will see you in the garden centre!
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June 25, 2009 at 1:53 pm
· Filed under buy local ·Tagged SVGA, Saskatchewan Vegetable Growers
Praire Dome u-pick
Kangro's greenhouse
Kangro's farmers market trailer
Parkland greenhouse
cafe at Parkland Greenhouse
Garlic growing 101
the Garlic Garden
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June 24, 2009 at 1:48 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Last week we had an opportunity to ‘get off the farm’ to attend the annual Saskatchewan Vegetable Growers Association Field Tour. Each year members of SVGA and the general public are invited to tour vegetable grower operations around the province. Lincoln Gardens has hosted this event several times in the past. This year SVGA went to the Yorkton area and toured several Horticulture and Agriculture businesses.
Our first stop was the Garlic Garden owned by Darrel and Anna Schaab. This is a relatively new farm but they have done wonderful things in a short time. The family grows only garlic and sells at their farm and at the Yorkton Farmers Market. Their farm is very well organized and growing each year. My only wish is that they grew enough to sell wholesale so that Corn Maiden could offer their great product to our customers!
The next stop was the Parkland Greenhouse for lunch and a look at their Garden Centre and Cafe. We were treated to a wonderful lunch with a delicious veggie soup (a special request as I am vegetarian and never get to eat anything on group tours!). The garden centre was huge and very well designed. Most of the people on the tour do not grow and sell flowers, but we do so it was very interesting for us.
After Lunch we went to the Kangro Gardening greenhouses and market garden. Kangro started as a retirement project, but owner quickly found out that there is nothing relaxing about market gardening and it has grown into a full time job! They grow tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and peppers in small hoop-house style greenhouses. Kangro also has a few acres of field crops. They have been selling their products in Yorkton and are now branching out to sell in the Regina Farmers Market as well.
Our last stop was Prairie Dome Seed Potatoes and U-Pick. Prairie Dome is a long established farm with a really well organized and landscaped u-pick berry operation. Lincoln Gardens has been expanding our u-pick for several years, so it was very interesting for us to see what another farm is doing. Prairie Dome has around 5 acres of strawberries and saskatoons. They require pickers to make appointments and come at schedules and supervised times. Like all u-pick operations, it is important to have order and rules for customers to follow and some of the practices at Prairie Dome may be implemented at Lincoln Gardens. We have been struggling with keeping our 10 acres of u-pick organized and maintaining proper picking practices because we have not required pickers to make appointments, but this may soon change. The family at Prairie Dome treated the visitors to homemade muffins at the end of the tour.
So it was a successful Field Day. I encourage any vegetable farmer to attend these events. Although Lincoln is larger than most of the farms we visit, there is still interesting things to see and no matter how long you have been operating your farm, there is always something new to learn.
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June 14, 2009 at 1:39 pm
· Filed under buy local, seeding ·Tagged vegetable crop production, Local Vegetables
Rhubarb is ready! If you are interested in purchasing some please ask one of the staff at the farm. We do not have the rhubarb cut and in the display cooler because it seems like a large waste of energy to start up these units for only one product. Instead, just ask us and we will go to the field and cut some for you right then. How much fresher could you get!
We are also starting to harvest some herbs. Garlic Chives, French Tarragon, small amounts of Basil and Mint. Herbs will be available on Thurs – Sun starting June 18th.
Other than this, it is a slow season. Our crops are a few weeks behind schedule due to weather. Please check our harvest shedule to become familiar with average harvest dates. Some folks have been looking for corn already. If you see corn in the supermarket at this time of year it is most likely from California or Mexico. Familiarize yourself with the growing season in Saskatchewan to understand better the challenges local growers face. We just want to remind customers that growing food in Saskatchewan is highly dependent on the weather! We do not enjoy the long season that growers in the southern parts of North America do.
We are finally able to transplant the tomatoes and peppers. We had to hold off on this until there was no risk of frost (which would kill the tender transplants and make it impossible to grow these products). There are a few more cabbage, lettuce and herbs to go into the fields and then we are finally finished planting. If this heat holds up we should start seeing some progress in the fields.
I will be posting some photos of the crops so that you are able to see how things are progressing.
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June 3, 2009 at 1:59 pm
· Filed under lincoln gardens, seeding
I hate to sound like a typical farmer, complaining about the weather, but it has really been a poor spring! Dropping down to freezing temperatures a few times a week has caused issues with the planting schedule. We still have lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, swiss chard, peppers and a few other things growing in the greenhouse because we can’t risk freezing them off in the field. Some of the cauliflower that was transplanted froze and we don’t know if it will make it or not. That was about 3000 plants, so we really hope they will come back.
The weather has been hard on the home gardeners too. We have heard from folks who have re-planted their tomatoes 3 times already. With the short growing season in Saskatchewan this cool weather is not making the season look very promising. It is one thing for backyard gardeners to spend $20 planting a garden only to have it freeze, but on the scale that we are dealing with it could be very bad for us if we can’t get a decent crop.
The one thing that is growing well is the weeds! So the crew will spend the rest of the week hoeing and “scuffling” between the rows. A scuffler is a walk behind implement that tills the soil and uproots weeds. I tried to find a picture of it online, but no luck. It is one of those old fashioned tools that people are surprised to learn we actually ’still‘ use on the farm.
There are frost warnings for Friday again, so planting is on hold for another few days. With any luck we will be able to finish next week and maybe, just maybe the weather will cooperate!
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May 28, 2009 at 1:53 pm
· Filed under buy local ·Tagged edible flowers, Regina Farmer's Market, vegetable seedlings
Well, I have attended the RFM 2 times so far this season. I brought veggie, herb and edible flower transplants/seedlings with me. These plants are grown by us, at Lincoln Gardens from seed. I make that distinction for a reason, but I am not going to ‘get into it’ here. What I will say is that as a consumer, you should ask questions at the farmers market (any market not just the RFM) and learn how much of the product is made or grown by the vendor. If you expect high quality, local and truly homemade products at your farmers market, then say so and vote with your dollar.
So far sales have been slow. But the market gossip/conflict is as high as ever! Great to be back, even if only for the entertainment factor. Did make a few new friends with vendors who were parked near me this past week. Heard the latest goings on, drank a lot of tea, and people watched. Scarth St has the greatest mix of urban professionals, city hippies, goth kids and the extra eccentric all in a 2 block span! I highly recommend a day of taking it in if you have the time.
I will be back at the market on this Saturday with more transplants. And then I will take a break until we have some veggies to sell.
For those adventurous folk that want to try edible flowers I encourage you to try nasturtiums. These flowers are bright orange and are beautiful in a salad. But they can also be battered and deep fried like a squash blossom. They can be mashed and added to cream-cheese for a dip, or added to rice for colour and flavour. I am selling them at the market and here on the farm in the garden centre.
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May 26, 2009 at 1:26 pm
· Filed under U-Pick Berries, lincoln gardens ·Tagged u-pick raspberries, u-pick saskatoons, u-pick strawberries
We are not done planting, but a rain day was welcome none the less. Wayne and the guys got a much needed break, and we had time to sit down and talk about some of the projects that are underway this season.
A few of the changes that are taking place this year is the addition of a larger greenhouse, that will serve as the garden centre and as the pumpkin patch display area. A parking lot to accommodate the ever increasing traffic on the farm. Expanding the u-pick berry fields. Landscaping & walking trail building are ongoing all year.
The U-Pick berries are going to take up most of the land close to the on farm store. We have planted more strawberries and raspberries. We have more Saskatoons and Honey Berries going in later this season. The grapes I planted last year need to be relocated and a few new vines are going in too. The cherries will still be a few seasons before they are ready to be picked, but we are planting more of those as well. The picnic area is being renovated too and if we have time we will build a gazebo for pickers to rest under.
So the rain day wasn’t a complete write off.
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May 20, 2009 at 1:07 pm
· Filed under Regina Farmer's Market, lincoln gardens ·Tagged garden centre, Regina Farmer's Market, seeding, vegetable crop production, vegetable seedlings
We have all of the onions transplanted and much of the cabbage. Wayne has seeded carrots, radish and corn. The potatoes are nearly all planted. We still have lettuce, swiss chard, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, herbs, peppers to plant and beets to seed.
The weather is still cold and it is very windy. I think the crop production will be a week or so late at time of harvest, but we will know better once it warms up and things start growing.
The garden centre is in full swing. People are finally feeling confident about planting their flower beds so plants have been swiftly moving off the benches. Our shipment of Mexican pottery was delivered yesterday so it will be unpacked by the weekend.
Saturday May 23rd will be my first go at the Farmers Market for the season. I will have cabbage, lettuce, tomato, herb, celery, and pepper seedlings and edible flowers. Someone mentioned to me that they don’t know what to do with edible flowers so I will make a info sheet about it to give away with each sale. I have a small vehicle so I will be limited with the amount I can bring into the city. All of these things are available for sale at the farm too.
We have a few WWOOFers lined up for July and hope to have the yurt set up by June 1st. Any interested wwoof volunteers should apply at least 2 weeks before their planned arrival so that we can have the cottage or yurt ready for you.
Lets all hope the weather gets better!
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