A final flourish

Hurray we reached Thanks Giving without a frost...yahoo! And thanks to the inches of rain and hot weather we have experienced over recent weeks this meant we had a wonderful spread of flowers, decorated pumpkins and ridiculously shaped gourds to display at the market last Saturday and it turned out to be Jamie's best day ever. This was our last Saturday at the Seaport Market in Halifax (or so we thought!).

 For those of you who haven't looked at the Oliver Farm FaceBook page then I suggest you check out the Oh My Gourd album for a laugh at the brightly coloured funny shaped goblin eggs and the like that our land produced. We are still gathering in beans, tomatoes, potatoes etc. anything that we can salvage before a frost descends. I am digging a few herbal roots to produce muddy-looking decoction type things. We have both enjoyed some gorgeously warm, sunny and blissful bug-free days and it's come as a shock to us to suddenly have to put on the heating (or attempt to) and find a sweater. Would love to say that the to-do list was getting shorter now that summer has most definitely ended but am not convinced that we will get to put up our feet for a while since we have a schedule of Christmasy type markets on the agenda and garlic to plant on an incredibly soggy looking field.

 

 

 

You know it's fall when...

So, kids have gone back to school, Tata has flaunted her annual Labour Day parade, we celebrated my birthday, nights have turned cool and we've had to hunt out where on earth we put our socks for the last few months, so it feels like fall is definitely on it's way. Oh yes and sunflowers....lots of them, looking wonderful despite the winds and heavy rain brought along by hurricane what's her name down south.(The first of many I fear).

Plants are loving the rain and we are hoping this will give the farm it's final florish before we throw in the trowel at Thanks Giving. Or maybe I should re-phrase that, the only tools we might be giving up in October are the secateurs, we will still have garlic to plant and lots of farmy stuff to do...no rest for the humble land steward.

Pocket sized cantaloupe and over-sized aubergine

Not sure what we've let ourselves in for, this Sunday the farm will be officially open for visitors for the annual provinicial Open Farm Day, an opportunity for everyone to meet their farmer and in our case, stare at weedy fields where flowers once grew. We have a feeling that our crazy purple van from Berlin and pocket-sized Massey Ferguson will be the focus of attention for most people. Wish us luck!

Summer flying by

The fact that it's been a month since our last post surely reflects the general state of play for us and all farmers at this time of year...busy? - doesn't even come close to describing the frenzy of flower picking and selling. We are fortunate that despite the desperate drought, we still have a harvest, albeit slightly stunted and perhaps less abundant than last year. There are some disappointments but it's all ticking along as well as can be expected.

We've had a few volunteers staying, by far the most helpful and hard-working was Zophia, who produced home-made soups and bread while still managing to assist with harvesting, weeding and farm projects. She was particularly fond of the dogs who are now nicknamed Bertuska and Edzio and she did an incredible paint-job on our (very rusty) yard art. We will miss her!