Moving of Blogs

We have now moved our blogs to our EDGARFARMS.COM web site. This will keep everything in one place. 

Baby Pea plants in the field

The first planting of our peas are up and we can see the rows very well now. They are looking great. Peas are a cold weather corp and can handle a few degrees of frost much better than asparagus.

Frost last night

Unfortunately, it got down to -3 last night so any aspargus that was up is frozen. The one I am holding is not froze, see the difference, the three in the background are transparent from the frost.

The frost does not hurt the roots of the plants and there will be lots of new tips poping up just as soon as we get a couple of warm days.
This is why asparagus is not meant to be grown in this climate.

Rhubarb

We checked the rhubarb patch today, too. The stalks have about 2" of delicious red rhubarb showing now. Can hardly wait to make some spring rhubarb sauce and serve it over ice cream.

Peas are up

Checked the peas we planted on April 11 and were delighted to see rows of very tiny green peas just coming up. They are very hardy in the spring so should stand a couple of degrees of frost.

Got another good sized planting in on April 26, just before the rain.

We will be picking fresh sweet garden peas hopefully by early July.

Removing the old fern

Doug helped me get the combine started and out of the shed today. I use the grain combine to cut all the old fern off as close to the ground as possible. After the fern is cut off the combine cuts it up into short pieces, then blows it back onto the ground for mulch. Now we have the field ready for asparagus season. We need lots of sunshine and a few warm days and we will be picking sweet, tender aspaaragus. I can hardly wait!!

The first new tips

I found the first tiny little tips poking up today. We need frost free nights before we will start picking. Every night when it freezes, any tips that are up get froze back. then the plant sends new ones up.

Once I find the first tips, that is my cue to get last years fern off the field. Too bad the weather forecast is cold and snowy on Friday. Here's hoping that this will be the last snow of the spring.

Row Cover on Pea tendrils

Today we put row cover over the pea tendril patch that we seeded on April 11. The peas are just starting to germinate and with the warm weather and the row cover to protect them, we will soon have baby pea plants pooping through the soil.

It takes many hands to put the row cover on. Makayla was a great help sitting on the edge until we got some soil shoveled on it. The material is very light weight and the least little breeze and it is like holding down a giant kite.

Innisfail Trade Fair

Picture is of Doug & Elna at our booth at the Innisfail Trade Fair April 20 & 21. Lots of things happening at the Trade Fair this weekend. There are demonstrations and many exhibits to look over. It is lots of fun getting out and seeing everyone. We are offering samples of our asparagus realish, pickles and apple butter. Yummy!

Farm Store will reopen May

Although our open air Farm Store is now closed until next May, our delicious homemade preserves, homemade pies and grass fed, hormone & antibiotic free beef are still available. Please just phone ahead if you wish to come to the farm. Also all of our products are at the Innnisfail Growers booth at The Calgary Farmers Market.

U-Pick Peas by appointment

Doesn't get any fresher than that!!

Great experience for the kids and grandkids.

Price is $1.00 per pound and snacking is free!!

Please phone ahead 403-350-0659 for availability and an appointment 8AM - 8 PM Monday - Saturday.

Sorry no U-pick Sunday or pets in the field.

Picking Peas

Peas are now ready, we are picking super sweet garden peas daily for our farm store and the

Farmer's Markets at the Innisfail Growers booth.

We will have fresh peas until the first frost, barring severe weather issues.

Our farm store is open 8AM - 8PM, seven days a week.

Asparagus Crowns

For anyone wishing to plant their own patch of asparagus, we now have a few Jersey Supreme Aspragus crowns available at our farm store, Downtown Market on 104th in Edmonton and the Calgary Farmers Market. We will only have them for a couple of weeks. ,

Asparagus

We have just started picking yesterday and it tastes DELICIOUS!!!

Asparagus is starting to grow

Our granddaughters are thrilled to find the first spear of asparagus poking out of the ground. We walked over our field and found enough delicious little spears to BBQ for supper. As long as we do not get any frost, we will be picking within a few days.

Seeding Garden Peas

Finally, we were able to find a small dry area in our field and get the first planting of peas planted the other day. This is the latest we have ever got started planting peas since 1986 when we first started growing them on a field scale. Please note the snow on the background. I was really suprised when I looked at the planted peas today and they have already started to sprout. They are going to come fast!! Can hardly wait for that first tiny baby pea!!

Farm Store now closed for the season

With the colder weather now happening we will be closing our farm store this weekend. For the last couple of weeks we have not had the preserves out on the shelves as they could freeze during the nights.
We are still open by appintment for preserves or beef at anytime so just call and we can arrange a time. 403-227-2443

Asparagus Fern

We are so very pleased that we made the decision to stop picking our asparagus field early this year. The growth of fern that has come up since we stopped picking is amazing, the best we have seen for several years. This means that the crowns are now very healthy and busy storing energy so that they will produce a great crop next year.

Now Picking Peas

July 15. Peas love cool weather and our pea crop is looking fantastic. We have just started picking our delicious, sweet garden peas. We should now have peas at our farm store right through until the first frost in the fall. Pictured here is our granddaughter showing off her peas. Our two granddaughters love to go out to the pea field with us so they can pick and eat peas right off the vines.

Asparagus Crop Update

The last year has presented difficult growing
conditions with the very hot and dry summer and fall of 2009, then the sudden turn to winter in 2009 (even the trees didn’t go into winter properly and drop their leaves) followed by the extremely cool wet spring this year.
Our asparagus is very stressed and is producing
extremely thin spears. Asparagus experts state that you must quit picking asparagus when it is thinner than a pencil in size. We are seeing the majority of the spears emerging extremely thin as indicated in the picture plus our yield is much lower than in previous years. These two factors are telling us that it is time to quit stressing the plants. Asparagus is a perennial plant and we are looking toward the next several years of production in our decision to stop supplying the markets earlier than usual. We will have asparagus at our farm store for a few more days, yet. We regret this situation but it is out of our control.