The Good, the bad and the dusty

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It has been a very interesting few weeks. The construction that they said would take 3 weeks is nowhere near finished … with no real end in site.  I’ve always thought that assistant directors should run all projects. Things would be done on time, on budget and run super smoothly. That said, the construction crew has been super friendly and really great with helping our customers to get themselves, strollers, and bikes into the shop. One bonus is that all the kids reeeeeally love all the construction so feel free to come sit in the window and watch the snails pace progress happen. It’s kinda like a built-in babysitter. Just saying.

Our new pastry chef Corey Chin-Yick has been hard at work developing and baking new delicious summer treats for everyone. Welcome aboard Corey, we are so happy to have you on the team.

We want to continue to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for braving the fences, trucks, caution tape and at times noise and dust to come grab bread, coffees and other staples. Please remember we are here every day baking delicious bread. Thank you so much for your continued support and patronage. We are so lucky to have the best customers.

Despite being in the epicentre of construction, we got a great mention in the “Best of the City” Bakeries in Toronto Life. What fantastic company to be in! We are so proud and thankful to be noticed. We swear we did not pay or sleep with anyone to get it. So that must mean YOU are talking about it and loving what we are doing so thanks for that. Let’s all keep up the great work – baking and enjoying delicious bread!

We hope everyone is having a fantastic summer. There are so many beautiful and fun things to do in Southern Ontario. We are truly blessed to live in such a wonderful part of the world.

Attached is a slideshow of whats been happening this July

Peace Out

 

 

An Italian Garden

One of our lovely customers, Diane Bruni, connected us with her parents, Gina and Pasquale who have been gardening this plot of land for 60! years. We have the incredible fortune of planting a rather giant garden this summer in the most beautiful soil and dreamy space. We’ve somehow managed to get almost everything in the ground – here are a few pics.

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Prairie Boy Angels

This week has been a challenging one but we are feeling more optimistic…kinda like we are “winning” again. We have been watering round the clock. The latest planting of beans is germinating, the tomatoes are doing really well, we’ve saved some squashes, cukes, and watermelons from complete bug annihilation, the lettuces are growing and perking up, the pride chard is bouncing back etc. We bought a water pump so we can water the plants at a much faster rate which is really helping and last but not least we were visited by some Prairie Boy Angels. The “girls” showed up this long weekend with a passion for weed killing & tomato mulching like we’ve never seen before. We cannot express the deep gratitude we have for all your hard work, sweat, and company. We will hopefully express it better with tomatoes in August. Thank you Stacey, Christine and Emily for everything. We are touched by your efforts and well timed help. Mwah x 1000. And thanks to Tico for swooping in and helping with the moonlight harvest. Tomorrow is Tuesday. Market day & CSA pick up/delivery day. Our favourite day of the week.

Prairie Boy Angels

Vive Montreal! dinner pics

A giant Merci to everyone who came out to the Depanneur for our last dinner. It was a great night filled with some serious heavy hitting food. Classic, Canadian, Old School, comfort food.

Also thanks to Scotch Mountain Meats & Sanagans Meat Locker for the various versions of Pork, Sunrise Organics for the turnips and cider glazing, Marc Pierce for making the cheese curds, to the fine restaurants in Montreal that inspired the evening…and to the Quebecois who keep these recipes alive.

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The MenuWild Mushroom and Wild Rice Tourtierettes with Red Cabbage Slaw
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Sugar Shack Beans with Smoked Onions and Maple Syrup
Bacon, Sausages, and Roasted Pork Shoulder
Cider Glazed Turnips
Fairmont Bagel Chips
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Maple Pets-De-Soeurs (nuns farts) with Marc’s homemade Cheese Curds

Cuban markets

I’ve always been fascinated with markets whenever  traveling. They are always such a hub of activity and creativity. On a recent trip, I noticed there was a lot more food in Havana than in the past. More markets and vendors which was very nice to see. The produce there is essentially organic as they don’t have the same access to pesticides and herbicides as the rest of the world…which is a happy accident i suppose.

The other thing i noticed on this trip was the design of things in the market. We are forever trying to think of interesting and affordable ways of displaying and distributing our produce, with minimal environmental impact and I was very inspired by Cuban ingenuity. Necessity is the mother of invention after all.

Here are some images from markets and street vendors in Havana.

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Terra Madre Dinner Pics

Here are some pics from the Terra Madre Day dinner. It was a really great night from beginning to end. Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us and to our fellow suppliers Sunrise Organics, Scotch Mountain Meats and Montforte Dairy. Last but not least thanks to Len for co-hosting such a great evening at The Rusholme Park Supper Club. We hope to have many more great nights at your wonderful space.  

We made The Grid weekly!

Garlic Planting for Dummies

Measure out a bunch of 100′ rows

Dig 2400 holes

Take a clove of garlic

Put it in the ground pointy side up

Cover clove with soil

Be happy you only have 2399 left to plant

Wait til Spring

New pics

As the summer rolls forward, we just wanted to share a few pics from the last few weeks. It has been really busy and also alot of fun. We’ve made so many new friends this summer and are having such a great time talking about and eating great healthy food.
Special Shout Outs to:
   • Mark and Joyce from Sunrise Organics for their mentorship, wisdom and patience with us.
   • Len Senater from The Depanneur , our new neighbourhood food hotspot where we are a part of “interesting food things” happening.
• Everyone who has been a part of the experiment and experience we call Prairie Boy. You continually inspire and encourage us. 
Sincere Thanks,
Grant and Lainie

Grant bragging

Lainie’s gigantic farming hat

Prairie Boy Food Terminal

Garlic Angel, Mark Grahlman

Kelli Grahlman, Son of Garlic Angel

Carrots, being carrots

Nosey Cherry Tomato

Siamese Cherry Tomatoes

Beautiful Sunflower

 

Letters to the Editor?

One of our main reasons for growing food is that we LOVE to cook and eat and yet, ironically,  it feels like we havn’t had any time to cook or eat lately.  The lowest we’ve “sunk” recently was me spoon feeding take out roti to Grant as we drove back to the farm at 11pm. The opposite of “slow food”. hehe

We’ve since promised each other to make more time to cook and eat together and with friends or at least leave the other some leftovers.

In contrast to us eating take out in the car, we have been receiving amazing and sometimes hilarious feedback, pics, texts and recipes from everyone. It is so inspiring to hear and see what everyone has been cooking up with the veg we grew. It’s making me hungry just thinking about it. Here are some samples from the last few weeks. 

 Grilled Tomatillo Salsa

 “Thanks for the beets, lettuce and garlic fronds… sauteed the beet greens last night. SO delicious! Having the beets roasted on the BBQ tonight. The butter lettuce is yummy with simple oil and vinegar dressing. We are spoiled…” 

“daddy i met a real farmer”

“just picked up the beets. I left ten bucks under the green bucket at the bottom right of your back stairs”

“farmer lainie and her mister – wow. what an abundance of joy you dropped off at my house . thank you thank you thank you. good eatin xx”

 Lasagna using zucchini and eggplant instead of noodles

“Made an indulgent breakfast: squash blossom and pecorino-fresco frittata with garden herbs. Thank you Prairie Boy and MonforteDairy”

 “awesome basket”

 BBQ roasted beets and jalapenos

“i just unpacked the crate and it was like a treasure chest of goodies…i can’t wait to start using and experimenting…it’s truly a bounty of riches”

Mixed greens, green and yellow beans, anchovies, capers, roasted beets and bbq’d salmon kebobs

 Zucchini and Squash Blossoms with basil and peccorino Pizza

Thanks you everyone for sharing your enthusiasm and dinners with us. – Grant and Lainie xo

10 days in pictures

It’s been a crazy 10 days filled with harvesting, cleaning, drying, growing, delivering, friends. visiting, dinners, sunburn, mosquito bites, laughter, tears, helping, sharing and some serious cases of weed back. Self diagnosis of sore back from weeding. Here is a peak into our last hard, rewarding, busy 10 days. -Lainie

 Free Farm newbies Lisa and Julian

 Julian in the neighbours’ Soy at sunset

 Julian picking beans

 

friends coming for dinner

 

 sweaty farmer Grant

Grant, Jim and Olen harvesting garlic

 Jim and Olen Lesson 1: cleaning garlic and putting dirt in bucket

 First veg boxes/stockings for delivery

 Espelette Peppers from Spain

 Ripening

 Ah Houston, we have a Tomato problem

Squashes

 Big A** Heirloom Tomato

 Zucchini Blossoms-new and old

 Corns – something has been knocking down stalks

 Crookneck Squash

 Baby Watermelon

 Green Tomatillos

 Cylindra Beets

 Fennel

Rainbow Swiss Chard