It's Officially Spring

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It's hard to believe, but it is now officially Spring. Given the weather, we've certainly not been able to get as far ahead as we did last year. In fact, it was rather frustrating to see us finish the week with another light snowfall.

Sunday morning and the Growing Dome is enduring more snow.

On the other hand, we've had a couple of days where our Maple sap has begun to run and this meant we could begin our syrup production.

The Maple syrup is rapidly taking shape.

Boiling sap is like watching paint dry. We find we have to keep an eye on it because of our set up. We use a propane burner and it has a tendency to blow out when the winds are strong coming up the ridge. Energy (propane) is the biggest factor in determining our production cost, so wasting gas is not at all desirable.

We eventually want to set up a wood fired evaporator since we have plenty of fire wood, but the work that still needs to be accomplished around the barn is preventing us from implementing a good sustainable long term solution.

Although the Maple sap has been coming in large volumes, we cannot say as much for the Black Walnut. So far, we've not recovered sufficient sap to begin a batch of Black Walnut syrup. We're starting to think that tapping Black Walnut may be better later in the Season (like our Birch which is done immediately after the Maple).

This being officially Spring, we decided to continue our preparations for seeding and planting.

Although the Growing Dome is consistently some 15 deg. C above external temperatures, we are waiting a bit before starting on our seedlings. This week will see night temperatures going to well below negative 10 degrees, so that is a concern.

This however did not prevent us from preparing our growing trays. Filled with a good potting soil, they are now laid out on our shelving on the periphery of the dome....waiting patiently for seeds.

Our trays are waiting patiently for seeding in the Growing Dome.

Getting in the Spring time mood, we decided to also start work on our new raised beds. The concept is to dramatically increase our produce production for the restaurant, for ourselves and even for sale at the market.

Our ideas for the new beds are based around the construction of much larger containers. So  we purchased large planks (16 feet by 12 inches in width) and started our first bed by simply using wood screws and 1"x 1" joints at the corners. The beds were made 6 feet wide which is quite reasonable for more than 2 rows (our past limitation) of most vegetables yet where most plants would be accessible from the edges. The 1x1 joints were extended just a bit longer than the 12" planks so we could use these "legs" to anchor the bed into the ground.

Our first of the new raised beds.

Once we get our hands on some good top soil, the next step will be lining the base of the beds with newspaper or cardboard. However, since we want to use the tractor to fill the beds, we can actually only do one of these at a time.

Thinking of Spring, this week we were also visited by another local farmer. He was keen to grow Kiwis. We shared a lot of what we had learned and provided him with enough cuttings to get started. In exchange, he provided us with some of his Grape cuttings: Baco Noir.

Baco Noir cuttings...let's see if we can get them started.

Baco Noir is probably the most American of viniferas. It is a hybrid that has been grown on this continent since the early 50's, however Baco Noir was the target of a vine-pull program in the early 80's, which means that there are few older plots of this variety in Canada.

We opted for Baco Noir for 3 reasons:

1. it is hardy and will very likely survive our location (atop the Niagara Escarpment)
2. it requires little if any spraying to survive
3. it produces a decent wine

Now we probably have to explain our third point. Baco Noir wine is often terrible. BUT it can be done right and a good example is the Baco Noir wines of  Henry of Pelham. This estate winery is some 10 minutes from our location and they produce one of the best, if not the best, Baco in the country. It is consistent and in our minds often better than other high end wines produced in the region....furthermore it is inexpensive.

So, we are going to be planting Baco in the hope of making our own wine... for home (since liquor restrictions in Ontario are quite a hurdle to any commercialization).

Finally this week, Chef was thrilled as we continue to upgrade our Tea Room kitchen. This year, we decided to invest in a new professional top loading dish washer. Now it's all a matter of installation.

Now we need to install this 300 lb. monster.

I will end this week with a photo that bring us back to nature. The farm is often home to deer (lots of them). They seem to enjoy the corn fields. It's always been difficult to get them on picture, but Skye was very patient this week and managed to get some amazing shots.

The Deer at Ridge Berry Farm