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Showing posts from 2013

Buying organic and local is far from over!

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We've got a decent amount of storage crops this year to keep us pretty busy. Please don't forget about visiting the markets this winter! We need your support! Our farm will be at Dufferin Grove Thursdays and Evergreen's Brickworks on Saturday mornings. We grew our sweet carrots again this fall and have enough stored for Christmas sales. Same with Beets.  Celeriac (root celery) is also in abundance! Stored with roots and field soil, it takes a bit to clean these guys. Eat mashed, roasted, in a slaw or a creamy soup :) Bins and bins of cabbages! Our own winter staple should be available at markets until April 2014.  Also available are Potatoes, Onions (sweets, reds & cooking), Garlic AND we'll be field harvesting infamous KALE for as long as we can! Will be picking it out of the snow!! Bundle up and come enjoy real food!

Time to Order Organic Roma Sauce Tomatoes!

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Without further ado, you can now email me your orders for our bulk Roma's! They have been super, super slow this year...cold nights, cool days have stopped the ripening process in it's tracks.  Now they seem to be perking up again. They're are lots of beautiful tomatoes out there and I have a feeling when they are ready - they'll be ready. So for ours there will be a short window off time for the bulk. Probably two-three weeks at the most. We have a late patch but you never know what weather may bring in the form of blight.. We sell 1/2 bushel cases (25lbs each) for $30. Email me your name, phone number, how many cases you need, and the market you wish to pick up at, and the date you would like them to:  jb@sosnickiorganics.com   (Dufferin on Thursday; Junction-Wychwood-Brickworks on Saturday mornings).  We won't be shipping much bulk for this weekend, but get your orders in for the following week: Aug 29 and 31st and into September. First come, first served.  The

Cucumbers!

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The crop is decent this year! We are able to sell in larger, bulk amounts so visit us at market if you want to make pickles!  Cucumbers are tough to grow organically, but we've got lucky this year and no (knock on wood) powdery mildew issues so far! The crop is just kicking out cucs!! Tis the season to pickle cucumbers and make relish!! Really missing Ben's mom's fresh brined pickles and her cucumber salad :(   We are harvesting Broccoli this week, lots of Sweet Onions, Kale and lots more! First and second weeks in August we'll start with the Sweet Corn and Roma's. All is very busy on the farm :) I got a text from Ben this morning that said: "Kraut Avocado hot sauce coffee". Lol. This is Ben asking for his breakfast on the fly. He is working so hard and after 4 hours of sleep last night was almost home to the farm by 9am after doing another early morning veg delivery to Toronto. Ben wears himself down this time of year with long hours and less sleep, so hi

Beautiful July on the farm!

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I just love summer.  And all the work that goes along with it!  All the spring planning shows itself in the fields full of fresh veg!  And it's a time to play catch up and start paying all the bills that pile up during the slow off-season. We basically have half a year to pay for an entire year!  So it's go go go!  We took one day off and went to the beach thou.  Was beautiful and worth every second of relaxing!! We have been irrigating in the evenings.  It went from too much rain to nothing in a short period of time. We have seeded fall beets and carrots now too, so we keep them moist to aid germination. Our kale is doing well.  We grew this beautiful patch of darkibor curly and also have another patch of the Nero Di Toscana, the dino/black kale as well.  Alot of weeding, cultivating and weeding some more to get it to look this good!   Sweet Onions galore!  This patch took a hell of a lot of work.  First of all they were very late being planted because of th

#MarketBaby Sadie!

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It's awesome to have this little dolly out at the markets! Everyone adores her! A buddy on Twitter came up with the hashtag #marketbaby for her that we use when getting ready for the epic Saturday markets at The Brickworks down in the Don Valley... Ahh Sadie...what a time to be born!  So much to look forward too! You will be around the best people learning the best stuff ever! I promise to respect my little Sadie Bug and you will grow to understand that you have the most amazing dad ever! Organic life a head! And there is absolutely NO time for GMO's: Genetically Modified Organisms or the human kind of GMO's: Greedy, Manipulative & Offensive!! Full speed a head....

Happy June! This week on the farm..

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Rains, sunshine, cooler temps lately, no hail... we're doing pretty decent here! Currently cutting lettuce, picking Strawberries, cultivating and weeding. Also harvesting greenhouse Beets, Bok Choy and Swiss Chard.  Planting is not near over as we still have tables in the greenhouse full of our cabbage and also late kale, broccoli and we are taking a stab at cauliflower this year too! All the late crops will be field planted in a few weeks. The fields are full of moisture and crops are thriving. Flea beetle eaten kale is growing nicely now and our sweet onions are doing exceptionally well. We have spent a lot of time hoeing these crops to keep them clean. Our peas are in blossom and it won't be long until we're eating sugar snaps and sweet shelling peas again!  The mini lettuces are awesome! We'll flood the markets with this beautiful stuff this week! Mini dark red oak leafs, butter types, frilly kinds.. Salad rules this time of year!  And our strawberries!! We are tryi

End of May already?!

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Time for another update! Cannot believe how FAST the spring is flying by. We are so busy it is unbelievable! I always seem to post happy stories for the most part with pictures that make the farm look absolutely amazing... We are so, so fortunate to be 'food' rich! Our expansive market garden fields are such a sight to behold and be proud of! Being such micro growers, we still seem to make ends meet! That's all thanks to our awesome customers ;) We truly are fighting the weather again to bring on another tastey season!! Our lettuces are late, but steadily growing. Two weeks and it will be salad city!! The kale is infested with flea beetles (not to worry, these pests take off when the kale matures and the leaves get tougher. Happens ever year and we do nothing but wait them out). We are growing some new mini lettuces that will be enjoyed for sure! This is a shot of the nice mahogany 'oak stained' rich red variety. I can taste the antioxidants now :) Here's a new

Hello May!

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It's been a crazy spring here on the farm. With our baby daughter being born 6 weeks ago and Ben's mom becoming deathly ill and passing away this past week - it's been a whirlwind.... Sophie's empty chair in the greenhouse brings tears each morning...She will be beyond missed...She's living on in her little granddaughter Sadie, who will be an incredible little farm girl! We've the Lettuces in now, early Kale is in, Peas have sprouted. Ben's saying if we don't get more rain, we have to set up pipes to irrigate....already?! We're shipping plants out now and I must say - they are gorgeous!! I had to scale back because of the birth of my daughter, so I didn't grow the mass amount of herbs I usually do, so I concentrated more on the Heirloom Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucs, Zucs, Basil and cole crops including Kale, Cabbages, Kohlrabi and Cauliflower. If you need vegetable bedding plants head to EGM at EBW now!! Ben has been cultivating for weeds in the lett

Spring Farm Update!

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This year is certainly different than last year! Very cold and wet. We are officially set back a minimum of two weeks. Ben worked ground a couple nights ago, so the fields are now ready to go for planting. He's cultivated the garlic and the strawberries and both crops are looking fantastic!! On a typical year we like to begin planting our sweet onions by April 15th. By this time peas are ready to hit the soil, lettuce shortly after....not this year. We will just be starting this weekend and then hopefully full speed ahead next week - all depending on the weather. We've had lots of support this season as we've got the new baby this spring and unfortunately Ben's mom is hospitalized and won't be with us much longer. It's so sad as last year at this time she was helping in the greenhouses and was hoeing lettuce in May... she is one hell of a good woman and loves this farm. We are spending as much time as we can with her before she leaves us... We have a lot on our

2013's Spring has sprung at Sosnicki's!

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We've been busy trimming cabbage for the most part of early 2013, but we've now hit the greenhouses and full speed a head! Crops just sprouting and growing beautifully! We've decided to heat 1/4 of the big middle glass beast this year, instead of a whole half.  We started two weeks earlier, so to save on heat costs, less is best. We filled it up fast!  Now we are pushing cooler crops (onions, chard, kale, spinach seedlings) to the back half to make room in the warmer section for the seeding of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants etc, etc.  Below is some early mesclun mix we will be transplanting in cut sections to our other greenhouse - aka 'covered field' area.  Some early salad mix on it's way!  We've got a jump start on a lot of everyone's favourite: Kale!  Kale will be a biggie for us this year as we hope to really offer a lot of big bunches at a fair price. Everyone, and I mean everyone can enjoy a lot of kale this year! To your health!  Below, our baby