sosnicki organics

Vegan cabbage rolls are easy for us to make.  With a bit of planning through out the summer, ingredients are easy to come by.  They differ each year depending on what crops did well and how much extra time I had during the summer to can or freeze.  This year was awesome for tomatoes and peppers so I was able to squirrel away a lot of roasted red peppers and roma tomato sauce! Kale is new this year in the filling and it turned out excellent.  We are still harvesting fresh kale out of the greenhouses and the fields. The ladies at the hall are always interested to see what new ingredients I will be incorporating! Above Anne washes and preps the kale for cooking down. I pretty much just stir fry the kale with a bit of sunflower oil in a big pot to render it down to add to the rice mixture. Above, my grandma and Sheila are busy peeling our cooking onions.   Onions are a staple in all cabbage rolls I make .  Stella peels lots of our garlic.  The...

Because it's disappointing when I am 'sold out' and it's hard to gauge how much of what to bring to each market, I'm taking orders for our holiday food this year!   Please note that these food are available after these holiday dates as well. We'll keep making these foods well into February, so please feel free to enjoy them for the next few months :) If you have a special event and need to order quantity for dates not listed, email me a heads up and I'll see how I can help you :) Simply email me at jb@sosnickiorganics.com with your preferred market for pickup and the  foods your heart desires and I will make sure you get your goodies :) Markets : Dufferin Grove Organic Farmer's Market: 2:30pm until 7:00pm each Thursday. Taking orders for December 13th  & December 20th. Evergreen's The Brickworks Farmer's Market:   8:00am until 2:00pm each Saturday. Taking orders for December 15th, December 22nd. Wychwood Farmer's Market : 8:0...

November has been quite a decent month weather wise! The October rains made it very hard for us to harvest our storage crops and there are ruts in the fields to show for it. We were not able to get everything off while our workers were here, but we managed to get the cabbage in and garlic planted. Once the snow flies we'll definitely have less variety than last year. But these warm temps the last few weeks have made it possible to keep field harvesting. Ben and I have been very busy out there! Currently at markets you will find our field harvested Beets, Spinach, Broccoli, Kale and Tatsoi. From storage we have a few Leeks left, lotsa Cabbage, Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts, Onions and some Garlic. We've just made the first batch of Perogies and also have raw Sauerkraut available as well as frozen Sweet Corn and Green Beans :)) We also still have some Heirloom Tomatoes in the greenhouse! Nice treat for this time of year for sure :))

As the days get shorter and weather cooler, we all seem to sleep better and our appetites increase! The markets are bustling this time of year as the fall crops hit the stands. Ben and I went for a long field tour to check the crops and are happy with what we see. There are some losses, as with the dry summer it was hard to keep everything alive and well. Success stories: our Broccoli is amazing! We planned this last year - have fall broccoli! The worms are also not insanely bad. Still some, but cooler temps I will thank for the lack of an infestation. Spinach and Tatsoi are impressive. Leeks are decent - planted less this year. Brussel Sprouts got topped a bit late, so they are throwing smaller sprouts but to put a positive spin on it - they look like 'christmas trees' and customers and kids dig it! Cabbage will prove to be our winter staple, and time permitting, we've got a lot of beets out there to eventually top and bin up. Celeriac is not as plentiful as last year, but...

What a weekend! My sister was married on Saturday and I've been planning a farm tour for today, Sunday to celebrate Organic Week! You know, because I like to complicate things for myself! We pulled it off and it was fabulous! I'm tired tonight but reflecting on both events leaves me smiling. The day started early as I prepped some veggie platters and made some coleslaw for an after tour snack. The cabbage carrot slaw made with olive/sunflower oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, sea salt and pepper is always appreciated. COG (Canadian Organic Growers) were first to arrive and it was lovely to meet Tan Mayo and the other ladies! Once the bus from The Big Carrot arrived, and folks got settled (after petting Lady Bug the horse who was almost sticking her head in the bus!!) we loaded the wagon for the veggie field tour. Everyone enjoyed seeing where their tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other summer veg came from! Then on to the big strawberry patches then the fall crops like spinach,...

So it's been busy! Roma tomatoes did fairly well for us this year with the hot dry weather. This has helped level out sales with the lack of beets and carrots. Orders were at an all time high along with the compliments. Hopefully we can have them again next year but it's always weather dependent. So with fall just around the corner it's time to jump right into preserving the seasons and getting ready for winter. This past week we hit the kitchen and blanched, packaged and froze all our sweet corn and green beans for the winter. Freshly picked, tender new croppings, nicely frozen for winter feedings now. I absolutely love this time of year!

Because of this hot, dry weather our Organic   'Viva Italia' Roma tomato crop has no disease! We have been able to irrigate when needed during the cool evenings, that combined with these hot, Mexico-like days on this dusty, dry farm the tomatoes have flourished! It is definitely what I like to call a 'tomato year'!  We have enough this year that we can sell wholesale for all your Sauce Making Needs!! All wholesale cases are 25lbs for $25. (25lbs is a half bushel amount). These tomatoes are the thickest, meatiest, tastiest, organic sauce tomato around!  It's simple. All you have to do is email me your order. (You can also head to our website at www.sosnickiorganics.com and use our contact form to place your order.) Let me know how many cases you need, which market you want to pick up at and a phone number to either call and text you at as a reminder.    Feel free to visit me at market where I make the time to talk to all my customers and can share recipes an...

It's dry. Very dry. The last few nights Ben's been up until after 3am irrigating. He's completely hardcore this guy as even during the intense heat of the day when all the animals are passed out in the shade, everyone else is in the barn, Ben is hauling ass out in the field cultivating under that hot July sun. He just doesn't stop. A very hardworking dedicated farmer. I am pretty glad we've got so many appreciative customers because Ben deserves it. Ben's one of those guys that can take a beating and just keeps on going. Never complains or whines and even on the worse days has the biggest smile you've ever seen! He's a good man and deserves nothing but the best. As we trudge on through the next few years paying down the debt, I am hopeful Ben can learn what a holiday is all about. It's funny, as we always say we'll take a break in February but it never happens! We have many obligations at this point in our lives and working the farm to honor th...

We've got fresh Basil coming!! More Heirloom Tomatoes for EBW (and a few Peas and Broccoli) Garlic, Sweet Onions, Beets, Swiss Chard, fresh cut Cabbages, New Potatoes too! Oh, and tons of Kale! Green Beans start next week! Besides being SO DRY, I am enjoying harvest this year! See you at market! ;)

We planted strawberries today, washed out cabbage bins, topped the basil (remove the top so the plants gets 'bushier') and cultivated and hoed some more! Layed pipes and are getting ready to irrigate again. I went for a wander around the fields today to scout the crops and was excited to say the least! Found a ripe oxheart tomato out there, Roma's are absolutely gorgeous too! I think it may be a 'tomato year'!!! Cucumbers are vining out nicely and I actually found a few for supper!! Peppers are sucking in the heat and I found the first jalapeño and hot banana peppers out there! Green Beans are blossoming, watermelons are vining, eggplants are growing like crazy!! They endured a lot of pest damage as they always do, but we used some Entrust and got rid of the pests so the plants could continue to thrive! Usually something negative catches my eye out there, like I spot a possible infestation, the onset of some disease, weed pressure that makes me wince- but you know w...

Time for a quick crop update with a bunch of photos I took today. It is dry out there.  Very dry and irrigating has become essential for the future development of the crops.   Potatoes are doing well, but we noticed as soon as they began to get 'thirsty' the potato beetles started moving in fast and hard! Nature and her creatures always have this way of being able to tell when stress sets in.   Our lettuce is pretty much finished.  With the heat a lot of our hardy heads bolted.  There is nothing to do about that. Just the year. Our peas are also not that great - again the heat.  The kale is doing fab as shown in the above photo. Kale is a very easy crop to grow, and is so, so good for you!! The broccoli looks like it's melting in the summer heat! We'll have nice heads at market tomorrow, but I am sure glad we didn't go hog wild and plant a lot of it this year.  Broccoli is another crop that doesn't love the intense heat.  Now,...

(***Hey Smashy! Just a quick note to say 'hi' and that we're all thinking about you and really missing you! Laying in the yard, petting big Panzer eating Strawberries would sure be great to share with you! Lady Bug really likes Strawberries too, like tomatoes! She 'grumbles' with flared nostrils for them! Adventures yesterday as Dennis's damn cows were loose in our vegetable fields when we came home from market! Oooo, I was quite 'angry'... Bug was freaking out, doing that blowing smoke, pricked tail storming around at them. More of a guard horse!.... Dad mentions you almost every day and always smiles and says 'Austin'....Babca is just very sad now and doesn't understand. Please be well and come home to the farm soon!) So last year we spent a great deal of time planting and caring for this new strawberry patch! It's nice to see your hard work pay off with all the customers literally diving at the tables to snatch a few quarts of our fr...

Before I begin blogging about *Strawberries* I thought I'd sneak in a quick note about my obsession with avocados. I now frequent the website: World's Healthiest Foods and the write up about avocados is quite thorough. This is a healthy fat people! I'm so damn tired of all these fake 'fat free' plastic foods that are mainstream. Shopping in a regular grocery store makes me very angry. Ok, ok, no time to rant! I ate the most amazing Fish Tostadas at 'Cool Hand Of A Girl' cafe Saturday after market. Lucia, the owner has been buying our cabbage for ages at Dufferin Grove and it was time to sample her creations! Ben and I along with my market helper Toshimi and her husband Sam had an excellent meal! The tostadas were soo crispy! A base of yummy black beans, bed of Haddock fish, topped with the most amazing avocado topping! A side of coleslaw containing our beets and cabbage with a hint of curry, apple cider vinegar - fresh and delicious! Lucia came and sat with ...