Loco for Local

Gael Glen Farm's CSA Program is now accepting families for our 2020 vegetable boxes.

We are looking forward to providing fresh and delicious vegetables, eggs and artisan bread to neighbourhood families from June to September.  With the uncertainty in the world right now, we have expanded our CSA Progam this season and we are offering porch pick up as well as local delivery. 

Check out www.gaelglenfarm.ca for program details and email us to enrol.

We cannot wait to partner with you for a scrumptious summer of healthy and local eating.

Preparations for the Big Day

As April 1st quickly approaches, we are putting the final preparations in place to begin our outdoor planting.  After this rain storm passes, we will be able to transplant our broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage seedlings outside under a protective plastic dome.  We will also directly sow cold weather crops including peas, spinach, lettuce, chard and radishes into our pallet and box gardens. 

During a break in the rain, Seamus helped me erect our plastic hoop gardens.  It was very muddy work but I firmly believe a little mud is soothing for the soul.

Once some of seedlings have been moved outside, we will have room under the indoor grow lights to start our tomatoes.  The beginning of gardening season is such an exciting time on the farm!

Mitigating the Worm Stench

When your dog picks the middle of a pandemic to roll in the most vile rotten smelling worm carcass imaginable, it becomes necessary to take matters into your own hands. 

Emily got the Gael Glen Farm deluxe dog grooming package.  Shampoo and conditioning treatment to remove the rotten worm stench, fur trim, and mani/pedi.

Charlotte was stinky by proxy and was subjected to the same spa treatment.

Charlotte is still not pleased about being soaked down and clipped up but Emily is in full relax mode now that she is sweet smelling and fancy again.

Just call us Gael Glen Dog Groomers extraordinaire or Gael Glen Worm Stench Removers...we answer to both.

The Poultry Palace

Ian, Liam and Seamus have spent several days demolishing and then reconstructing our Poultry Palace.  Last year, a rogue raccoon staged a coup, breached the palace's defences and attempted to massacre the entire Royal Family of Hen.  There were only five survivors.

This spring, the Royal Guard has taken it upon themselves to construct an impenetrable fortress guaranteed to protect this year's royal youngsters. 

With the palace renovations almost complete and spring just around the corner, we need to find ourselves some fertilized eggs containing our future royal family to place in our incubator.  In theory, we could use our own eggs but I am less than confident in King Beemster's abilities as a flock fertilizer.  His Majesty's modus operandi is to sidle up to his hen of choice, proposition her and then wait patiently for consent in the form of an obliging crouch. 

If consent is not immediately forthcoming, Beemster is perfectly content to either strut along on his way or fall asleep while he waits for the hen to make up her mind.  He may be a looker and who doesn't like a polite gentleman of a cockerel?  But as far as ensuring that his genetics are passed down to the next generation, I am not sure that this is Beemster's forte.

Come on Spring!

You know Spring is on the way when you have to wrestle your kids off their bikes and out of the dirt.

Liam remembered how to ride but I think his bike might now be too small for him.

Alistair is not digging riding in the green car. 
He just wants to roll around in the dirt.
He is strapped in and still managed to get into this position!

Trading Sticky for Dirty

Our maple syrup season is winding down.  The sap is still flowing but we have passed the torch (or taps as it were) on to the family who owns the maple grove.  Given recent events, they are now home much more than they anticipated and so we thought that it might be a nice distraction for them to fire up their evaporator and finish up the season by making some syrup of their own. 

All that is left for us to do now is to finish boiling the last of the sap we collected and then strain and bottle it.  Once the sap dries up we will return to the maple grove to remove the taps from the trees and collect all our buckets and equipment to bring home for cleaning.

It has been an incredible maple syrup season and I will be sad to see it come to an end.  The forest walks during sap collection have been the high point of our day for weeks now and I will miss them.  We sincerely thank Georgia and her family for sharing their maple grove with us.  We are most grateful.

Thank goodness the warmer weather is on its way and we will soon be back to gardening.  As much as I love mapling, I would trade sticky hands for dirty ones any day.  In fact, I planted my first seeds today in our highest raised box. 

Olympia spinach for the win!

While not yet warm, the soil was definitely workable.  This weekend's chores include covering some of my garden space with hoops and plastic to make mini greenhouses and then transplanting some of my cruciferous vegetable seedlings outside.  And so, when one door closes another one opens...

Chicken Chase

One's evening sure passes in a blur when you spend half of it chasing a rogue chicken who refuses to go into the coop.  Next time I will call in the expert chicken catcher sooner.

Thank goodness for Seamus.  He saved the day (well, the rest of my evening anyway) with his quick feet and lightening fast reflexes.  Rogue hen did not stand a chance.

Sharing the Stars

There is nothing like having green, lean or fuzzy things around to occupy my day and help keep the anxiety at bay.

Green: my seedlings

Daikon and red clover microgreens.
These are excellent substitutes for lettuce.

Peppers.

Onions.

Pea shoots.

Lean: my big boys

Liam and Seamus did the sap collecting almost entirely by themselves today with only minor supervision
and help carrying the full buckets.  They are growing up!

Fuzzy: my dogs

Charlotte

Emily

Ava

I spent a long time outside tonight.  I took Ava on a thorough perimeter walk around the property and stargazed while she took a good sniff of absolutely everything in the barnyard.  As it turns out, deep inhales and exhales of the chilly twilight air while considering the vastness of space helps curb anxiety too. 

I hope everyone reading this had something comforting to turn to if, like me, you needed a breather today.  If not, I am happy to share the stars.

Things are Getting Crazy

Things are starting to get a little crazy around here!  And by "things", I mean "us".

So, we really appreciated the tokens from the outside world that recently came our way.  We were gifted a big beautiful tea cup that matches my kitchen, homemade artisan soap and a gigantic cookie!  Of all the things one needs during a pandemic these pretty much hit the spot.  Thank you Jayne and Grandma, we are grateful to be in your thoughts.  And hopefully, these gifts bring the crazy down a notch...even just one notch would help.  Sigh.

A Shout for Maple Syrup

Alistair has an announcement to make...

...beats me if I know what he is saying.  All that is going on around here is MORE MAPLE!  We are boiling, pouring, straining, and filling jars and then doing it all over again.

It has been an exceptional maple syrup season so far but we are very grateful for the past few days of cold weather so we can catch up on boiling before the sap starts running again!

Sending Some Love Your Way

Sometimes you just need a smile,

a hug,

and a kiss

to get you through the day.  Sending love from our farm to you. 

Because friends make everything better.