Moose & Bean Farm

Welcome to your first weekly farm update

Weekly Summery at Moose & Bean

We were able to spend some time this week at our new leased Cassidy plot with the previous farmers chatting about their practices, and getting feedback on what worked and didn’t work for them. They have been very helpful during our take over process, and we will continue having a working relationship with them through the growing season (and further into the future as well). The photo above is the main cultivation area, and the big greenhouse in the back where tomatoes and other heat lovers will eventually live.

At our Ladysmith plot we have been building beds, cutting back A LOT of overgrown trees, prepping an area for four new 50 ft beds and supervising seedlings germinate and start growing in our prop areas. Spring onions, cilantro, broccoli, romanesco, lettuce, kale and kohlrabi all started showing their faces from previous week's seedings.

And of course the biggest going on of the past week - we announced our CSA program on Wednesday Jan 18, and got our website up and running. We presently have a wait list for families who are still wanting in the program that we just aren’t able to accommodate at this point. If you have been sent an invoice and are no longer interested in the program, please contact us as soon as possible so we can offer your spot to a family who wants it. If you have sent in a payment, you should have gotten a receipt automatically (if you didn't please get in touch for one) and all you have to do is count down the days until you see your first box! A few weeks before the program begins we will be sending emails out detailing more specific delivery-time windows. We are doing our best to expand the hours that we can have picks ups done at the farm(s) and will have any updated information in that same email.

Island Roots Farmer’s Market in Nanaimo gladly accepted our application (the enthusiasm in the response email really made my day) and we will be weekly vendors there (again) starting in April. We will be doing the occasional Wednesday before April, depending on harvests. Although this is not new as of this week past, we are also weekly vendors at Qualicum Beach Farmer’s Market on Saturdays starting in March.

CSA Dollars at Work

No CSA dollars have been used. Next week will bring several purchases that will be made with these funds, which i will go into detail about in the next section.

Next Week at Moose & Bean

The first big news. “Bean” turns 3 today. “Moose” & “Bean” are the nicknames of our two children, for reference. :)

Hot peppers are being started in the prop house this week. We have 8 types - Buena Mulata, Datil, Jay’s Peach Bhut Jolokia, Biquinho, Aji Mango, Aji Charapita, and Apocalypse Scorpion. Some have heat similar to cayenne, all the way to over 1 million Scoville heat units (Bell Pepper = 0 units, Jalapenos = 2500-8000 units, carolina reaper = 1.2 milion units). We will have some of these plant starts available for purchase to grow at home, and hot peppers will only be included in boxes that request it - the email will go out before harvest to see if you want them included (it will be on our social media as well). We are waiting on a shipment of seeds to arrive that we will be starting some seeds from as soon as it arrives.

We have to keep a pretty close eye on seedlings for the next week and a bit with this cold snap and snow coming.

Purchases planned for this week - more seeds. Carrots, spinach, various microgreens, herbs, brussels sprouts, zucchini and likely a few others. Although we have several hundred strawberry plants, we will be getting a few hundred more, more raspberry canes and asparagus crowns. We are finalizing our decision between getting hatching eggs, day old chicks or pullets and pre-ordering for arrival in late February. We are getting supplies to make a bubbler (for cleaning/mixing salad greens).

An email will go out to those who were interested in the work/veg exchange later this week. We need to have a conversation with our insurance company regarding what folks can and can’t do while at the farm ;)

More phone calls with VIHA regarding the regulations on non-veg items we are producing (soups).

Lots of planning is happening on when to start seeds, crop placement, succession plantings etc to streamline work later in the season.

Until Next Week’s Update..