Octover Events

Summer has come to an end, although this past weekend of 30 degree weather made us think otherwise...  But it has, however, that doesn't mean it is the end of the season here at the farm.  October is a great time to visit the farm in Fall Harvest Fashion.  Our U-pick will be closing this week, however, we will have a great selection of vegetables in our farm store.

Pumpkin Festival - Weekends in October 


Until the 16th of October we will be hosting our fall harvest activities.  Of course the highlight is always our corn and sunflower maze.  Without a hard frost the corn is still green and the sunflowers have just finished their bloom.  Sunflowers are great this time of year because you can snack on the seeds as you navigate the maze.In addition to the mazes your families can enjoy wagon rides, our farm animals and face painting.  Don't forget we will have tones of pumpkins for you.

Harvesttime Country Drive www.countrydrive.ca

Also this coming weekend 7 Country Drive operations will be open for our fall Showcase weekend.  The  Country Drive is a collection of over 25 rural operations who open their doors to the public through out the year.  The harvest drive will showcase fall farm activities & harvest along with shopping at our unique rural stores.  The Drive runs from 11-5 October 1st & 2nd.

We look forward to seeing you all out this fall.

Preparing for winter

We have had our first couple frosts on the farm, which calls the end for many veggies, but not everything.  Now before the snow starts falling it is now time to get a few things in the freezer.  Last night we blanched and froze a bunch of swiss chard.  Really easy, we boiled the chard for
1-2 min, then cooled it freezing water for 5min.  We then froze it in round picks to be used over the next few months... Plans are to use it in soups, meat loafs and what ever else we may have traditionally used frozen spinach.

Straw Bale Chicken Coop, Day 1 & 2

 We have been planning to build a chicken coop all summer.  Well actually the initial plan was to have it started in June, but as long as we can get it up before the cold fall weather sets in we will be alright.

The coop is situated on an existing concrete pad, so we had to create a level foundation to set the bales on.  I think we started about 3 weeks ago with the foundation, creating the windows, rafters and top plate.  

Saturday morning we set in place the first bales.  Surprisingly for a straw bale building, there is very little straw bale work to do.  The bales go up just like legos, only a little heavier.

By 6:00 all the bales, windows and top plate were in place, one of the walls was braced and the tarps went up..


All was great until sunday afternoon when the winds picked up and blew over the north facing unsupported wall..   Fortunately no people or chickens were inside at the time.  Also the north wall was the most basic, no windows or doors, so it only took us 2 hours to but back up..