sosnicki organics

This is the type of dream weather you hope to have to get your seeds sprouting! Gorgeous full sun, higher evening temps -  stuff in the greenhouses are just thriving! My heirloom tomatoes are rooting down, growing dark green and loving the heat in the houses! Onions and lettuce are up and going too! (they actually prefer it a bit cooler!!) Our first broccoli plants are up, same with baby kale, and Asian greens such as Tatsoi and Bok Choy pop and grow very fast!  Some of these plantings will be for our 'covered fields', others will venture out into the field but also be covered this year.  Amaranthus, Sweet Peas, Petunias, Summer Thyme, Millet, Tomatillos & Snap Dragons just to name a few other varieties of fun stuff we've got started around here too!  Pepper seeds are swelling and germinating loving this heat!  Peppers love the heat like tomatoes! Our radish and green garlic have sprouted in greenhouse #3, a pic included of Ben watering those crops! Enou...

Time to showcase a few varieties of heirloom tomatoes!  It will be a neat way to learn about some of the different kinds we grow, what they look like, how they taste, where some of them came from before they get to market! A teaser for those that cannot wait for local vine ripened organic old fashioned real tasting tomatoes!! The early ones have now been transplanted into larger pots for individual thriving growth! The neat thing about these tomatoes is that even the foliage of the plants differs from variety to variety!  Some with potato leaves, some stocky, some bright green, some almost a greyish colour (Pink Zapotec).   Some new ones we are excited about are " Azoychka ".  This heirloom is orangy yellow, delicious and rare! ' Tobolsk ' is 100 years old "originally from the Urals near the city of Tobolsk, Russia - Sweet, Rare & Precious" says Gary Ibsen, the man I look to for neat and new varieties (www.tomatofest.com). I cannot wait for this one!...

We grow especially early tomatoes, as we need them to be especially large to transplant into our large glass greenhouse come April for June sales. It is such an amazing thing to gently roll your hand overtop them and smell 'tomatoes' when they are such young seedlings!!  I'm transported back to the field!! This is still a new thing for us, so it will be  'fingers crossed' that we do everything right to offer this type of thing so early with flavour integrity intact. I really have a need to bring back the old flavour of tomatoes.  The flavour the ladies talk about while making perogies.  The flavour of tomatoes before 'chemical, shelf life generic red tomatoes' took over a long time ago and ruined what this amazing fruit/veg truly I S!!  When you sliced a tomato and could smell a TOMATO!  Most kids now a days have no clue what this means and that is sad.  Stay tuned as I will have LOTS to talk about regarding tomatoes in the near future......

We are happy to be able to offer an abundance of our own produce this winter!  There is still lots of room for improvement and many years a head to do this!  We would really like to offer as many certified organic , local  and our own further into the spring months as well! Many new things coming in the next few years! For now available at Toronto markets:  Winter Cabbage -small, tight heavy heads suitable for cooking with, making sauerkraut or fresh slaws. Excellent peppery flavour! Celeriac - celery root is excellent shredded with cabbage and apples for an amazing coleslaw, dice and boil with potatoes for 'celery flavoured' mashed potatoes, make a creamy soup & excellent with roast chicken!! Potatoes - we have Superior whites, Yukon Golds and Cheiftan Reds in all sizes!!   Onions - cooking onions left! Not a great onion year and we are tossing close to half the crop out while grading.  Too wet last summer and a lot of rotten in the centre... C...

We are proud to point out that we remain a Certified Organic produce farm. We have updated Certificates of Conformity for Canadian Organic Products Regulation, USDA National Organic Program and European Organic Regulations. The outside-of-Canada certificates come in handy if we need to export grains. We will have the Canadian certificate PLUS the Organic Production Summary available at each market for peace of mind. The production summary lays out all acreage and also lists all products certified, rather than just the 'general' listed on the certificate itself.  We certify each year for these 5 reasons: We feel we have an obligation to our consumers buying 'organic'.   It is cost effective, basically an expense that is 1/3 the cost of year round vendor fees at ONE market.  The certification process has very fair and basic rules and regulations regarding vegetable and greenhouse production.  Paperwork that takes maybe 5 minutes a day to complete and is essen...

What a year! It went fast and I can honestly say I am not too sad to see it almost over! I have fingers crossed for a REAL summer 2010! (heat? Sun?!) A goal of mine was to have heirloom tomatoes for Xmas and we did it!! Just a trial run, so full speed a head for next year!! All our Dufferin customers on Thursday can expect to enjoy some RIPE HEIRLOOMS! We will also have our VEGETARIAN CABBAGE ROLLS along with our perogies of course for quick holiday meals. Vegetables available from us for the Christmas markets will be Brussel Spouts (harvested this Tuesday morn.) , Celery, Carrots, Celeriac, Potatoes, Onions, Beets & Cabbage. We've celebrated some milestones this year: the matriarch Sophie Sosnicki is officially a senior and we celebrated her 65th with a big pig roast on a beautiful evening in August. A bevy of friends, neighbours, relatives all joined together to eat and drink and have a blast together to celebrate with Sophie.....My stepdaughter turned 16 in Novem...

I am absolutely enjoying the use of Facebook ! Not only for personal use to keep tabs on family and friends, but for our farm business by the creation of the public page: " SOSNICKI ORGANIC PRODUCE ". I've been on facebook for years but just recently 'opened it up' by becoming visible for everyone to find me, view my friends etc. This lead to the quick creation of our farm fan page and what a riot! Within a few short weeks it is obvious of it's success and we've got dozens of familiar faces becoming 'fans' of our business! I've witnessed the media giving facebook a pounding on occasion by casting fear towards the use of it which I feel is very unnecessary. Unless you are creepy or conniving it is a great tool for your personal life AND your business! With so many privacy features you can manipulate it as you wish. A LOT of teens have family and parents as 'friends' but can totally hide anything they wish be it pictures or conver...