sosnicki organics

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all! We wish all our customers a happy, healthy new year a head filled with lots of organic food!  We are growing another new crop for 2016....Baby No. 3!!!  Due right at the beginning of strawberry season too! Imagine that!  It's going to be a very happy and busy year at our farm! And of course, we have decided to make some big changes to operations around here.  New infrastructure, new crops....YEP, why NOT go big when you are in the midst of raising babies?? Haha, that's how it goes! So, once again I will promise to blog, but only when I get a chance.  Best bet if you keep tabs on us: Instagram.  It's a very easy tool for me.  Snap a pic with my phone, add some info, post, done. Pictures worth a thousand words... These crops I graded out/harvested TODAY and will be available TOMORROW at the Brickworks Farmers Market. All minus the tomatoes, I am hogging the last of the last to myself! We are finishing up at the markets

The fall harvest started out awesome and ended up pretty crappy.  Just with cabbage and cauliflower thou, all carrots, onions, potatoes are great!  Cabbage is a main storage wholesale crop, so that failure will be felt, but we will weather the storm.  We always do.  The cauliflowers are little baby mini's.  And they. are. cute. !!!  Making the most of it.  The baby romanesca's hold a nice green colour when steamed and an amazing light nutty flavor.  My kids are gobbling them up when cooked and tossed with butter.  And some small white cauli's too.  Only available for the next couple of weeks. Then cold weather and possible snow will shut down harvest. Our cabbage will still be available all winter long at Evergreen Brickworks market and at select retailers like The Big Carrot We have a new home at Evergreen Brickworks!  We are located in the Welcome Center, the middle room of the site.  Tucked away in a warm corner you will find our farm this winter. We will be

Harvest is going great this season.  Now, that's easy when you've got stellar help like we've got!  Our helpers are awesome! And this brings peace of mind when you happen to be chasin' kids around all day long! Ben and I came to the realization that the best babysitters in the world are mom and dad. period. So it's completely awesome when when you can rely on helpers to pull together the crops and help maintain the farm you've built up over the years.  A team you can completely trust! I will say it again - every farm business needs reliable workers. period. And we love our crew! Speaking of help, my buddy Tanya Fraser is another super helper, friend and an amazing holistic nutritionist!  I encourage all to visit her website and engage with her! She is SO happy and cheerful and awesome around my kids!  Even offered to babysit and dance and play now and then so I can hit the office or escape outside! What a gem.   It's her lifestyle and what she EATS

It's a warm fall on the farm.  And it's time to rip around in the fresh air, eat the best of what's in season! Home grown goodness! And our two children are frickin' awesome and making life all the more special and worth working hard for! I don't social media the hell out of the kids, and keep my zillions of photos of them private, so when I post pics its usually because I really, really want to share.  Sadie and Nate are growing up fast and Ben and I are holding on for dear life!  Nate is almost walking! They both eat so amazing! Like, I mean raw sauerkraut, onions, peppers and Sadie dips a lot of things in mustard. Garlic, fruit, no white sugar period...tomatoes like apples....making sure they get a good head start on a world of crap out there! Playing in the dirt, eating dirt off of freshly harvested carrots, bellies full of those probiotics. Nathan is catching up to Sadie fast! She actually tries to coach him to walk now! "Come'on brother! I

Dare I say it?  It looks to be an organic tomato year!  Considering last year was a bust, hopefully we can have a great harvest this year.  You just never know, so now is the time to get your order in and make plans to make your sauce within the next few weeks.  Perhaps we'll have tomatoes until fall frost - who knows. But with organic tomatoes, you have to act fast I've learned. Information on how to order follows...  They're are lots of  beautiful tomatoes out there!!  We have a late patch but you never know what weather may bring in the form of blight..so don't hesitate to order. We sell 1/2 bushel cases this year (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; Brickworks on Saturday mornings).  We will start shipping bulk, next week, August 20th (Dufferin) and August 22nd (Brickworks) and go from t

Well, the cucs got downy mildew so we thought it was game over. Then the temperatures took off and we got a spectacular stretch of hot and dry weather! So the plants continue to produce! I was told that temps 30 degrees and above kill spores...so, we have cucs for a short time yet! The roma tomato patch looks fanrastic! Knock on wood. Maybe we'll have a bevy of sauce tomatoes this year?!? Would be nice to make up for the craptastic romas last year. Weeds!!! We are weeding. Then hoeing. Then weeding some more. Basically it's half/half harvest vs weeding. In the picture my guys are tackling baby fall carrots. Sweet Corn! Whooo she's tasseling nicely. Should start harvest within two weeks! Can't wait! If the weather stays nice and warm it should be so flavourful and sweet! Enjoy the rest of your summer, its speeding by once again!!

Sorry folks, our organic cucs have downy mildew so we are unable to sell bulk. We have a late patch, but I'm not going to both taking orders as its too dicy. We'll try again next year! We do have some if you are truly desperate but the price will be retail. Sorry ...!

Ok, our cuc crop looks decent so far! This can change fast as we have no way to combat mildew issues, so if you want organic cucumbers for pickling - don't hesitate! First come, first served and I currently have a list started from my first blog posting. We are charging $30 for a half bushel case which is approximately 25lbs. A full bushel order is 2 cases for $60 firm. We are doing a mix of the small sizes, so they will fit nicely in your jars. We do not harvest the tiny size of no.1. You can put in an order by simply emailing me at jb@sosnickiorganics.com . We will deliver cases to Dufferin Grove farmers market on Thursdays and Evergreen Brickworks on Saturdays. Hopefully for the next 4 weeks, maybe longer. (Google the markets, they are easy to find - I can't respond to all the emails we get with directions etc)  Let me know how many cases you'd like and which market/date you'd like to pick them up. Sending me a phone number I can text to confirm is easiest.

Well, it's still raining and staying soggy out there.  As much as we'd like to have all our fall crops planted - they are not.  Dries up enough to just get out there and then it dumps down again!  Then with the cool night temperatures our patty pan zucchini just stopped growing! So, now we have to wait for this patch to start kicking out again! And just when everyone starts to enjoy them too! Before much longer we'll have tons and everyone will be sick of them! But PEAS!  They are in full swing and our patch will be last for 2-3 weeks. We've got sweet, sweet 'worth the work' shelling garden type and the edible pod sugar snaps. Both are worth picking up and savoring this time of year! Just starting this first week in July are our heirloom tomatoes and fresh dug potatoes !  A new variety..so so so good! The smell of the soil is so awesome digging up the first tasty spuds of the year!  Me and my boy. He's the sweetest, happiest little farm b

Man oh man, did we get a lot of rain!  We did need it, so despite the fact that we couldn't finish planting for two weeks - we didn't have to irrigate! But the crops are really starting to fire up!  Lettuce and zucchini are going strong now.  We have copious amount of the 'Patty Pan' summer squash. And stay tuned for squash blossoms and recipes! The lettuces are once again awesome.  Huge crisp, sweet Romaines.  A new variety we love this year. The big frilly Red Leaf heads, the soft Butterheads in red only.  Everyone loves the red oak-stained Butterheads! Oodles of smaller Mini lettuces too.  Then we are going through and picking some baby Kale, Chard and the spinach too.... We've also planted a NEW big patch of strawberries! So 2016 will be another berry year around here for us! It's a bit of work, as you plant the new strawberries, then have to make sure they get lots of water and root down nice, then pull blossoms.....then straw...but so worth

So a documentary we participated in is going to be released in a few days on Food Matters TV! Very exciting!  Here's a link to information about the documentary called 'Of The Land' .  In the Vimeo trailer you can see some awesome sunset/sunrise pics of our farm and our horse running around and meet us briefly and our organic dairy neighbour, Karl.  It's going to be very informative look at GMO's, including our opinions and how we farm organically.  I encourage everyone to check it out!  It airs JULY 14th on fmtv.com

Just like we do with Romas (and I will blog about those too in a couple weeks!) I'll be taking orders for bulk organic cucumbers this year. Ben and I try to do a good job with these fantastic cucs each year but they are so susceptible to mildew, the weather has to be hot and dry (like a tomato year) and we can offer them.  We've planted a lot...  So here's hoping for a great 2015 crop! TIME TO GET PICKLED!! If you are interested in a bulk order, shoot me an email to jb@sosnickiorganics.  I will put you on our mailing list and keep you updated regarding 1st harvest (will be early July if all goes well) and price as the season progresses. If you have an idea of how many lbs you need and what size of cucumber you want, I can send you a quote.   All orders can be picked up at Dufferin Grove farmers market on Thursday afternoons or at Evergreen Brickworks Market on Saturday mornings.   SEND ME YOUR FAVOURITE PICKLE RECIPE!! Email me your favourite recipe to jb@sosnickior

We got spoiled a bit ago with some mega warm temps.  Now we find ourselves more seasonally cool with a chance of frost this weekend.  And even with the new moon on June 2nd, another bout of frost could happen as well.  This is why we are holding off on field planting all our tenders, like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers etc.   Our cool loving crops like our peas, lettuces, onions, kale, chard, spinach will all hold their own if the frost hit. We will take precautions and cover our zucchini though, just to be on the safe side!  The above pic is Ben cultivating the peas.  We have hoed the onions and all these other spring crops twice now!  We have irrigated all the early crops too, as it was getting dry. That hot weather spurred zillions of tiny weeds to emerge!  We are on top of it! Red lettuces and our sweet, crisp Romaine lettuces are growing away nicely!  We did not use ground cover to cover anything early on this year!  Because of those crazy hot temps, they need

Busy day..cold outside but the greenhouses are warm and green! Our workers arrived today, so the next few days will be spent working hard at getting some crops in the ground!! Every day is Earth Day around here as we adhere to organic growing practices and respect our planet and the mega awesome mother - the soil! Our heirloom tomatoes are huge and ready to be planted! Kale is a sea of majestic green - also ready to hit the dirt! Enjoy your day and respect your planet ;)

What a whirlwind month so far!  Now that we've finally got some heat out there, crops are up and at 'em.  Transplanting, seeding fall crops, amending greenhouses, the actual idea of working some ground is upon us.  Busy, busy, busy!  The greenhouse is on fire today and I am enjoying sweating while I bake out there watering the sun-hungry plants!  Big tomatoes ready to go into the soil within days now...onion seedlings still a bit slow, but kale is ready! Lettuces, chards all sizing up nicely.  Not jumping the gun because I feel the cold lurking around the corner again.  If these guys are in the field within two weeks time, they will certainly be wearing a cover cloth! And the kids are enjoying this warmth outside more exploring their world! Sadie likes to mimic everything I do these days, and watering the plants is one thing she freaks to do!  She is an awesome, awesome child.  Happy, healthy and does the funniest little things constantly. An absolute joy. It is such a

Our family is trying hard every day to eat the best we can - even during celebrations! For Sadie's birthday I made an organic fresh fruit cheesecake (It was so nice to enjoy a little bit of organic imported fresh fruit after such a long winter).  And when you use organic cream cheese, dairy and eggs in baking - man oh man is it good!! And I kept the cane sugar content low in the cakes. A peach punch with my canned peaches from last summer; my homemade salsa seasoned with spices and my dehydrated basil leaves enjoyed with organic corn nachos. A garlicky hummus with our colourful carrot sticks for dipping; organic cheeses, humblebread... etc etc were feasted on while we celebrated Sadie turning two! My mom jumped on the 'healthy but yummy' bandwagon too and made organic chocolate covered oranges and a killer guacamole! So birthday parties don't have to be a giant fondant mess of refined sugar, artificial colours and flavours but instead really really yummy and healthy!

Lil' Sadie-Bug is 2!! Can't believe it! And daddy bought her her first set of wheels - a tractor! She is a mega joy and makes us laugh constantly! Man oh man we are looking forward to all the fun we are going to have with these two kidlets! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE FARM PRINCESS!!

Speeding right along here! We were able to start seeding mid March and are happy with the progress! We continue to grade out and sell Carrots, Cabbage, Beets, Onions and Potatoes! Busy, busy, busy! This seasons crops may be a tad late, but so far so good! Repairs on the greenhouses are also keeping us going! Spring is here and we are happily gearing up for a fabulous growing season!