Fiddle Foot Farm

Tomorrow (May 11th) is Opening Day at the Orangeville Farmers’ Market.  We are looking forward to seeing familiar faces and reconnecting with the market community.  We are busy harvesting today so that we can bring: Arugula, Spicy Salad Mix, Red Russian Kale, Green Garlic, Leeks and Parsnips (over-wintered in the field) and many varieties of Tomato Seedlings.  We will also be featuring a new product – Fresh Stone-Ground Flour and Rolled Oats from our friends Heather and Paul of LoonSong Garden.  We missed the timing for fiddleheads, but will instead be bringing lovely wetland flower arrangements for Mom!

For those in the Creemore area, the Creemore Farmers’ Market will be starting next weekend, Saturday May 18th.  We would also love to see you there!

With spring right around the corner, we are planning our crops for the season and are now accepting registration for the 2013 CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) membership.  For those who are interested in eating locally grown produce at its best, fresh and in season, consider becoming a CSA member.  The support of our CSA members plays a vital role by providing not only up-front financial security but also the value in knowing for whom we are growing food!!

If you are interested in finding out more about our CSA offering, please review the material listed on our CSA Registration Page.  We have also put together a list of FAQs to help answer some common questions.  If, after reviewing the information provided, you have any further questions, please be in touch – fiddlefootfarm@gmail.com

Thank you to all those who have been ordering vegetables from us throughout the winter.  We were happy to be able to offer as much as we were able to without a root cellar.  But alas, the time has finally come when we must say that we have sold out of winter vegetables.

We are making plans to build a root cellar this year which would allow us to grow and store a greater supply of winter root crops, knowing that they will keep well into the early spring.  It is our hope to be able to offer a Winter CSA share next winter as well.

So, for now, we are perusing seed catalogues, planning and imagining the garden for the upcoming season.

Stay tuned, we will be posting CSA 2013 registration information very soon.  We are finalizing the on-line registration option, which will be on our CSA Page.  If you would like to be added to our contact list to make sure that you find out when it is time to sign up, please send us an email and let us know – fiddlefootfarm@gmail.com

We are happy with the way our vegetables have kept thus far and are also happy to be able to continue offering them to local restaurants and to anyone brave enough to make the trip down our road to the farm!

At this point, you are welcome to put together your own selection of vegetables for pick-up from the farm.  Here is a list of the vegetables that we have available at this time.  Place your order by sending us an email (fiddlefootfarm@gmail.com) or by phone at least two days before you would like to pick up.  Vegetables are available while quantities last, we will update this list to reflect what is available.

We have had a great first full season here at Fiddle Foot Farm and are now enjoying the fall bounty of vegetables.  We still plan on offering a Winter CSA in future years, but this requires a large root cellar, which we were not able to construct this season. As a result, we will not be able to store vegetables into the winter months.

If you are feeling the natural urge at this time of year to stow away food for the fall and winter and your local Farmers’ Market has ended, you are in luck! Here at Fiddle Foot Farm, there are still plenty of delicious vegetables growing in our gardens. We just need to find a way of getting these vegetables to you!

Our Fall Harvest Baskets is a way to extend the market season both for you and for us.  Fall Harvest Baskets are different from our CSA program in that you can order just one if that is all that you need.  There is no commitment to pick up a basket each week.  Place an order for a basket for whenever you would like one.

WHAT? (Revised List – slightly different than the photo)

Regular Basket – $40

Deluxe Basket – $80

WHEN? Baskets will be available on Tuesdays and Saturdays starting Oct 27th until the supply runs out!  Orders must be placed at least two days before pick-up, but the sooner the better to give us a sense of demand.  We will send this email weekly as a reminder.

WHERE? Fall Harvest Baskets can be collected:

1. In Orangeville on Saturday mornings (+ $5 delivery fee)

• Between 9:30 – 11am in the STAPLES parking lot

1. At Fiddle Foot Farm (directions on our website) on:

•   Tuesday afternoons (3 – 7 pm, or by appointment)
•   Saturdays (2 – 4pm, or by appointment)

Custom Orders: 

In addition to (or instead of) a Fall Harvest Basket, you can place an order for any individual items on the list below.  Please note, we are asking that orders be made in 5 lb. increments.

TO PLACE AN ORDER

Simply send us an email, providing us with the following information (we suggest you cut and paste this list and fill it in):

1) Pick-up Date

2) Pick-up Location (On-Farm or Orangeville)

3) Size of Basket (Regular or Deluxe)

4) Number of Baskets

5) Custom Order (if you choose this option)

6) Payment Option (cash or cheque made out to Fiddle Foot Farm)

Should you have any questions or need for further clarification, please be in touch with us by email (fiddlefootfarm@gmail.com) or by phone (519-925-3225).  If you know anyone who might be interested in this opportunity, please let them know.

Thank you,

Amy & Graham

Garlic is one of our favourite crops, making the harvest an exciting time for us.  This year’s crop is the first garlic we have grown here at Fiddle Foot Farm and it is looking great!

Once we decide that the garlic is ready to be pulled, it is all hands on deck to gather bundles and hang them up in the upper barn to dry and cure.  The curing process takes three weeks and improves the storability of the garlic.  Only after it is cured, when we sort through it all, will we truly know how the year has been.  But, coming in from the field, we have a good feeling about most of this year’s crop.

We saved all of our own seed garlic (14 varieties) and planted it last fall.  The only additions in the seed stock were some special varieties (17 more varieties) we found at the Garlic Festival in Toronto last fall and decided to plant out to see how they did in our fields.   Most of the garlic we grew is a Music variety of Porcelain garlic which is very well suited to this region.  It divides into four large cloves making it very easy to work with in the kitchen.  The disadvantage to this characteristic is for us as seed savers – while you get large cloves to plant which produce vigorous plants, you can only save four seed cloves from each head as opposed to the Rocambole varieties which each have approximately 7-10 cloves per head.  For this reason, and because of our appreciation for diversity, we continue to plant many different varieties of garlic.

We will be selling our garlic at both the Creemore and Orangeville Farmer’s markets for the remainder of the season.  If you are a garlic lover and would be interested in placing an order for a specific variety, please let us know – fiddlefootfarm@gmail.com.  Our price for garlic by the pound is $8 – remember that it is worth paying more for garlic that has more flavour since you’ll need to use less!  Consider sharing locally and organically grown garlic with your friends and family.  We are happy to provide an alternative to buying dried out garlic from halfway around the world that you find in the grocery store.