Lincoln Gardens ~ bringin’ you da’ beets

Rain and more rain. We had a majour downpour but luckily we missed getting any hail.

Lets keep our fingers crossed that we don’t get hail, because we do not want a situation like Tabor Alberta is facing with ruined corn crops.

Most people don’t realize that carrots as we know them have been carefully developed and selected for the orange colour. The purple or red coloured carrot was indigenous to the coastal regions of Southern Europe. In the 1500’s Dutch growers worked with a mutant yellow carrot from North Africa to develop the orange variety we are accustomed to today. White and yellow carrots, called Asiatic carrots, originate in the Middle East and Asia and are commonly grown in Afghanistan, Russia, Iran and India; and now at Lincoln Gardens!

We began the harvest of a vanilla coloured variety of carrot called “creme de lite”. The “Creme de Lite” is an F1 hybrid (ie NOT GMO), which means that it has been developed through Cross Pollination, a process which can be controlled for by seed developers and which occurs naturally in the wild. These carrots are a lovely cream colour and have a mild carrot flavour, perfect for roasting or serving with a warm olive oil & fresh herb dressing (french tarragon maybe?)

We are selling these carrots at the farm this weekend, and will begin to sell them at the market on Wednesday. Soon we will have purple carrots also. We will sell these both as mixed bunches (rainbow bunches) and regular bunches of each variety. Of course we still grow orange carrots of the Nantes variety. Nantes are bright orange, sweet and juicy carrots, packed with beta-carotene and have the highest level of amino acids of all the carrot varieties.

I will post a recipe for each of these carrots soon!
cheers

Saturday was intensely busy at the RFM. It is so amazing to see this many people come out to a farmer’s market in search of local, healthy food. Working with us was a wwoofer from Germany who said he has never been to a market that is as busy as the RFM. That is impressive when you think that Europeans regularly shop at the market.

I hope the other vendors are enjoying this upsurge in visitors to the market.

We are so busy that it is impossible to get down to the other end of the market to see what the other vendors have to offer. The market is 2 blocks long now so I will have to find time to make the trek down Scarth Street. I did have a moment to visit with the Lajord Colony vendors and purchase some of their delicious Saskatoon Berries which will be enjoyed with a little ice cream!

WOW…we went to market for the first time this year and it seems that all of Regina showed up! We were so busy all morning, even our new two cashier system wasn’t keeping up with the line. It was great to see some of our regular customers, people we have not seen since last year and talk to a few new customers.

I would like to say that we sold out of everything, we didn’t. But we did sell out of peas, so I hope we will be able to bring more to on wednesday. Those items that are not sold at market are brought back to the farm and sold at the on-farm store. This is one of the reasons that we are not inclined to barter; we are not going to throw it it out if it can still be sold and we won’t to sell our produce below cost. But, it is always our goal to come back to the farm with an empty truck!

We have been re-building our RFM sales over the past few years, trying to make the market experience better for our customers and ourselves. Many long-time customers have noticed the changes. We now have a canopy to keep the sun off the veggies, and we don’t just throw ugly transport bins on the table, we actually try quite hard to make a beautiful display that is appealing and easy to shop from. Taking inspiration from the vendors we visit on our travels to Mexico, we pile the veggies up high on the table. I have just ordered a banner to fly above our vendor stall so that customers know which farm they are purchasing from. I have to thank Wade for designing our new Lincoln Gardens logo, it looks great.

Tuesday will now be spent getting ready for tomorrow’s market. Our packaging crew will spend the day bunching carrots, onions and beets. I will pre-weigh and package the peas and baby potatoes, and wash all of the display supplies, table covers etc.

We have a few new staff this season, so stop by and say hello to Sarah, Ryan and Charlotte. Dana and Kim will be the ones at the cash register and occasionally we will have Carol and Justin joining us at market too. It takes a lot of people to make the market day run smoothly and it takes the cooperation of RFM customers too.

The pea picking crew started harvesting today and we will now have a good supply of peas available for purchase at the farm-store daily until peas are finished for the season.

We also have new potatoes, beets, spinach, swiss chard, radish, baby carrots, lettuce, green onion and dill.

All of these items will also be available at the Regina Farmer’s Market this Saturday, Lincoln Garden’s first day at the market this season!

beetscarrots 034, originally uploaded by kimsakundiak.

Fresh vegetables naturally grown in the Qu’Appelle Valley

Our first day at the RFM will be July 12th.

We will have beets, green onions, swiss chard, radish, baby carrots, new potatoes, and peas.

This year we are starting a check-out system with 2 cash registers in hopes that our line will move more quickly this way. We ask for customer patience and assistance with making this system work for everyone. We will also have some pre-weighed and pre-priced items available so that customers are able to more quickly choose the items they need.

Also new this year is our “Eco-savings Card”. Customers who bring their own canvas shopping bags will receive a punch card to be used each time they visit the RFM. After a number of visits to Lincoln Gardens’ vendor stall customers will receive a discount on their purchase. We hope this program will encourage customers to bring re-usable bags. Bio-degradable bags are also available from vendors at a small fee (so not unlike S-Store, we will ask you how many bags you want).

Over the season we will be introducing some gourmet varieties of vegetables that we have not previously sold at the market, so check in at our stall for interesting veggies to add to your “100 Mile Diet” meals.

As always, our prices are set and we do not barter. We cannot sell until the bell rings, so please do not attempt to make a purchase while we are setting up our stall.

Watch for us in our usual location on the corner of Scarth St and Victoria Ave. It should be an exciting season at the Market!

The U-Pick patch will open at the end of July. Please call ahead to ensure that picking is possible on the day you want to visit.

These berries are a variety called “day neutral” that produce fruit through the summer months. We are expanding the u-pick production so that more people will have an opportunity to pick their own berries. Other farms have had good success with this variety of strawberry and we are sure that our customers will like these strawberries as much as we do.

The phone rings off the hook with questions about 2 things; peas & strawberries!

We will start picking peas this week, likely Friday. We will also start to harvest baby potatoes, beets, swiss chard, green onions, lettuce and possibly baby carrots.

After this weekend the harvest will progress on schedule with more veggies coming in all the time.

We will also have fresh fruit available for purchase beginning this weekend.

The market shelves are stocked with everyone’s favorite jams & preserves made locally at Lumsden Beach by “Sweet Pea”.

We are accepting orders for dilling cucumbers also, so get your name on the list if you are wanting to make dill pickles this year.

Everything is still a little behind due to the cool weather this spring.

Right now we are picking raddish and spinach.

In about 10 days we should have carrots, beets, lettuce & green onion also.

Keep checking back as we will update the harvest notes regularly.