Garlic Harvest

Last year we began to grow Garlic on the farm. Not just any garlic, this is a red skinned extremely strong garlic that blows that Chinese stuff out of the water.


Garlic is a fun crop which is grown a little differently than most vegetables on the farm. Instead of planting it in the spring, we must harvest, cure, clean and re-plant the whole crop in the fall before the ground freezes.

The picking does not take too long, four of us were able to pick 1/3rd of the crop in 3 hours Friday Morning.

We then take the garlic into our shed to prep for the next stage, Curing. We trim the garlic a little then place it on these drying racks that we blow air through. During this process we are preparing the garlic to be stored throughout the winter.

All of what I have just explained does take some time, but is no match to the work we have ahead. Once the garlic is cured we then have to go through bulb by bulb trimming roots and cleaning the dirt off to prepare the garlic for market. For the garlic that we will be re-planting we have to individually break each bulb apart into it's individual cloves so that in Mid September we can re-plant for next season crop.

If anyone would like to help us out please send me an e-mail at john@eaglecreekfarms.ca

Sunflower Maze Prime Time

It has been a challenging year for many crops on the farm. When this first pictures was taken only 2 weeks before we opened I wondered if there would even be a maze.



But as the days grew closer, the sun began to shine and the sunflowers started growing at 2-3 inches each day. In the last days of July less than a week before the Lily festival on August Long, the sunflowers began to bloom. It has turned out to be one of the best years for yellow sunflowers in the maze due to the slow germination of half the crop at the beginning of the season. Typically all the seeds germinate at the same time and flower at the same time. This year there will be great colour throughout the field until the end of August.


With views and photo opps like these I have completely forgotten the slow start we had to the season. It is absolutely stunning in the maze & our U-pick gardens are full of flowers and vegetables as well.

Lily Festival 2009

Our second Annual lily festival was a success, over 1300 people visited the farm over the weekend during 30+ degree temps on saturday and sunday, then a high of 15 degrees on monday. Thank you to everyone who venture out to the farm to celebrate the beauty of our rural setting.

Nearly 200 vases of flowers were picked over the three days of the festival and over 600 people ventured into, and found their way through our mazes. We are still looking for the Anderson Family, but hope they are feeding off the sunflower seeds at the moment.

For those who were not able to make it out, the farm will be open 6 days a week in August, Closed on Tuesdays, 11-7 every other day of the week except Sundays when we close at 5pm
Every day that we are open there is a concession, play area, farm animals, picnic area and a large collection of sunflower, corn, rope, bale, patio, arrow & finger mazes to challenge your navigation skills





The Lily Festival would not have been a success without all the help from the volunteers and staff helping me out for the weekend.

Don't worry if you were unable to make it to the festival, there are still over 10,000 stems of lilies left to bloom on the farm this summer.

Thank you to everyone who helped visited the farm for the weekend and Thank you very much to all who helped make the festival a success. We hope to see you on the farm this year in our u-pick or next August Long Weekend for the 3rd Annual Lily Festival.



Farmer John

I had many comments saying that I do not look like a farmer, but I assure you that I am. Just look
I am on a tractor, isn't that proof??

2 days to Lily Festival

Lots of things have been happening on the farm these past few weeks. The Lilies are now in full production, the Sunflower Maze has begun to bloom & we have started a few markets on our own.

Here is a picture of the sunflower maze taken on tuesday, I am expecting it to be about 30-40% in bloom for the Lily Festival on Sat.



In the past we have only sold our flowers on the farm or with Innisfial Growers, however this year we are trying a few markets on our own. Airdrie on Wednesdays 3:30 - 7:00 Sundre on Friday 5:30 - 8:00 and Bentley on Saturdays from 1:00 - 3:00. This week our selection of flowers has really taken off. Come visit myself or on of the friendly ladies I have helping me out at markets.

We now have around 25 different lilies on the farm, this is one of my favorite new varieties this season which will be ready for picking for the lily festival Aug 1st - 3rd. You may have noticed the weed in the picture. I left that in there so you know I am not telling the truth when I say we do not use any chemicals in our u-pick gardens.



Finally I have a picture from the Bowden Days Parade Last weekend. We always dress up in corn suits and run around in the streets handing out lilies. We will be in the Olds Parade doing the same thing August 7th, hope to see you there.


Oh and one more thing, Lily Festival August 1st - 3rd. Lots on info on the website click here

Vegetable Update

We started the season back 4 months ago, in our basement, while there was still snow on the ground. Many of the crops have such a long growing season that in order for them to mature here in Alberta we need to start them inside and then transplant them into the field after the risk of frost in May.

And now after 4 months of work we are just now starting to harvest. The radishes only take about 30 days to grow from seed to maturity and is the first crop we harvest on the farm. You can find them right now at an Innisfail Growers booth at on of your local farmers markets.

In the picture Roberto is pulling back a white fabric that we use to prevent the bugs from getting at the radish.

Generally any plant in the Brassica family requires insecticides to prevent the root maggot from damaging the radishes. We hope that we can eliminate the use of chemical by using this row cover.

All our cabbage, cauliflower & broccoli are grown this way to meet our goal of not using any chemicals this year in our Gardens.

For a full update of the Vegetable Garden visit our webiste. www.eagelcreekfarms.ca/vegetables.htm

Hail Season = Construction Season

I remember 3 years ago when I moved back to the farm, someone asked me if it was a good idea growing to grow flowers with all the hail we get here. As my memory served me at the time I could only remember hail 1 out of 4 years. As it turns out for the 3 years we have been growing flowers those numbers have been switched with 4 hail storms each year.


Many flowers are very durable and will stand up to a bit of abuse, but when it comes to the lily, one piece of hail is too much hail. Here are some pics of what a 2 minute hail storm did to our lilies back in 2007. There are small brown spots on the lily buds where the hail stones hit the plants. These spots cause the buds to deform when they finally open




So to combat mother nature our most delicate flowers, the lilies are grown under plastic tunnels. This year we are currently putting up our second set of tunnels. The first step is to order and receive delivery of the metal early enough in the season to construct the tunnels before hail season. Although we started planning back in January it was just 10 days ago that we picked up the metal. The pictures above were from a hail storm on June 25th, so we are already running on lost time.


One really nice feature about the tunnels are that they are designed to be temporary and will be moved when when it is time for the lilies to be divided in 4-5 years. This is a pic of my dad and our worker Roberto screwing the posts into the ground.

The next step is to put the hoops on the posts. You may notice the plastic is wet from a rain storm that came through. We were a little worried the clouds might drop hail, but we were lucky this time.


Finally the plastic will be pulled over the hoops and left on until September. Each winter we will pull the plastic off the tunnels and where it will be wrapped in black plastic to protect it from the UV rays and winter snow storms.

The lilies are a little behind this year with our cool spring, but should be ready for picking by July 7th. You may come out to the farm or find our bouquets at an Innisfail Growers at one of your local Farmers Markets. We will also be attending two markets on our own this year. Friday evenings at the Sundre Farmers Market and Saturday Afternoon at the Bentley Farmers Market. Hope to see you there.

Farmers Market Season

I attended my first market of the season today. Unfortunately none of my products were ready just yet, although the radishes are only a week to ten days away. I work with a neighbouring co-operative of vegetables growers called Innisfail Growers. Each Grower specializes in a different product. We grow the Cut Flowers, Radishes, Garlic & Sweet Corn.

So although I do not have anything ready yet there was plenty to sell. hanging baskets from the Jungle Farm, Asparagus from Edgar Farms, last seasons potatoes from Upper Green Farms and Tomatoes from C & J Greenhouses.

I will be sending product to about 12 markets a week with Innisfail Growers for a complete list visit the website and you will find me at Northlands Market every Tuesday from 3:30 - 7:00pm and most Sundays at the Calgary farmers market at the Currie Barracks . Just look for the really tall guy, that will be me.. Farmer John.