First harvests, first markets, first baskets

After what has been a mostly grey and rainy spring, these last days of sun and warmer temperatures have been greatly appreciated on the farm. Our crops have been doing okay, even though they would have benefited from warmer temperatures to accelerate their growth.

Our polytunnels are playing a fundamental role at this period of the year for our hot crops: we close them at the end of the day before the sun goes down, allowing the plants to benefit from the heat trapped and have warmer nights. 

The end of May has signalled the beginning of our markets in Lunenburg, hence the beginning of the harvests! It’s always an exciting moment for farmers. Harvesting, washing, and packing imprint a different pace on a day compared to field work and it’s fun to have both in a week.

We are still adjusting our numbers when packing for Lunenburg as it’s a substantially bigger market than the one in Liverpool we attended last year. We enjoy it very much.

Typical harvest morning

Lots of greens to process

We are harvesting and washing, amongst others, a lot of greens. Our manual salad spinner is becoming inadequate for those quantities and we will soon build a much bigger one. Industrial salad spinners are very expensive so we plan to turn a washing machine into one of those.

Hacked washers have become a classic on farms and we do have access to all the information to achieve this project - even though I’m still a bit nervous about it! We will keep you posted.

Jessie and Raphaëlle checking on the bees - both the hives looks healthy.

Basket deliveries

As we enter June, we have also started our baskets deliveries. What a joy seeing our consistent customers again, and meeting the new ones. It made it completely worth it for me (Raphaëlle) to come to Halifax despite the traffic and the little rush of stress slowly realizing I would have 5 minutes for my set-up at The Grainery before the pick-up time.

Jessie and Julie attended the pick-up in Bridgewater at the LCLC that is welcoming us this year again. We will have a few veggies for sale every week at this location in case you drop by for a class and feel like stocking up on fresh greens. 

An easy way to eat fennel

One of our favourite spring delicacies is baby fennel. This versatile vegetable has characteristic flavor notes of anise.

A quick and delicious way to enjoy it is to grill it on the barbecue. You just have to sprinkle it with sea salt, olive oil and lemon zest. Cut it into slices ½ inch thick and leave it on the grill for a few minutes, until it gets charred marks.

Add shavings of parmigiano if you feel like it and it will be the perfect side for any grilled meat or fish.  

On this tasty note, I wish you a great day!

Until next time,

Raphaëlle for the Spring Tide Farm team.