Market Season is officially here!

Our apologies to those that have been diligently checking our blog for updates on what is available at the market but found no updates till now. We won't make any excuses but will try our very best to be on top of the updates from now on. 

Come visit us at the Haney Farmer's Market every Saturday from 9am to 2pm. Our friendly market staff is there to help you with all your grocery and gardening needs. 

Products we always have at the market:

Free range brown eggs - large $5/dozen; jumbo $6/dozen

Free range Araucana blue eggs - $4/dozen

Free range duck eggs - $6/dozen

Enoki mushrooms - $2/100g & Emperor mushrooms - $3/140g

Hosta (assorted variety) - $4 per 1 gal pot

Products we currently have for the June market:

Spinach, gai-choi, gai-lan, yu-choi, pac-choi, Shanghai pac-choi - $2 / lb

Romaine lettuce & green leaf lettuce - $2 per head

Kale, arugula, rapini, dill - $2 per bunch

Geranium & Fushcia - $2 per 4" pot or $9 for 6 pots

Sweet Basil or Thai Basil - $5 per 6 plug tray

Specialty herbs (cinnamon basil, mint, thyme, or rosemary) - $1.50 per 4" pot

See you at the market! 

Spring is HERE....Already?!?

The farm has been quite busy during the winter. Here's a look at some of the new additions to the farm just after the 2012 market season ended....

We got cattles now!!! Here's Molly and her 3 adopted calves. 

Molly is not camera shy at all...or rather as it gets dark Molly always knows to hang by the fence and MOO really loud to get her new bale of hay. These photos were taken back in November of 2012 when they just arrived on our farm for 2-3 weeks. Now the calves are double the size of the ones in the photo! 

Molly hanging out in her little shed. 

At the end of the day, as farmer Chris muck out Molly's shed  and pasture...

Molly gives him her sincere "thank you." 

The cool weather sure made the chickens HAPPY! On the top, we got jumbos and XLs from our regular brown egg hens...middle 2 rows are from our specialty chickens such as Silkies and Araucanas, bottom row are our duck eggs which has been staying at a steady jumbo size.

According to BC Egg Marketing Board, eggs heavier than 70g or more are considered jumbos. Here's one of the typical jumbos from our hen house weighing in at 82g. 

Then comes the monster....XX Jumbo weighing in at a whooping 145g! 

And here they are the Jumbo beside the XX Jumbo.....makes the jumbo look rather small doesn't it?

Just before spring sneaked up on us...we got GOATS! Meet our new weeding team. They munch on the weirdest stuff! Blackberry vines are their absolute favourite. I think we'll just let them eat the perimeter of our property clean before rebuilding our fence. 

Now We Are Rounding the Bend....

Summer has been a very busy season for us. So busy that the blog has fell behind somewhat.

Here's a look at what happened in the past 3 busy months....

These are Bantam Cochins. Very cute birds with feathery feet!  

Here's a look at the cute fluffy feet! 

Other new chicks on the farm....

Buckeyes....when they were this small they got picked on by the mice.

Now they are huge birds, the mice get picked on by them. 

These are Moto Java....not for breakfast use Java. Their favourite game of the day?

Fly out of the coops and make the dogs go for a wild chicken chase!

It often takes both dogs to work together to round them up again. 

Here are the Silkies. They are white and fluffy on the outside but black to the bones on the inside! 

Baby chick brooder getting the final check up before the temperature drops for the night. After 2 weeks it was a completely different scenery in here. All the chickens grew up to the size of a cantaloupe melon...it got too crowded the brooder had to go.... 

Ta Da! Nice perfect egg.

Hey! Where did my egg go? 

(Don't worry Miss Hen, your perfect egg went to the market and is well "used"!)

7 pm on the dot the pest patrol heads home to check if their coop has been cleaned or not and search for someone to tuck them in for the night. 

Spring is Officially Here!

Spring is finally back. Even the cherry blossoms are in bloom! 

All those pretty flowers....

hopefully we'll get some share of the cherries this year. 

Hmm...what's growing in the field? 

Oregano! Yep, they've officially taken over a good section of my flower bed. I've dug some of them up and repotted about 12 smaller oregano hoping to control the size of this green monster but it was a failed attempt. The original plant grew bigger and stronger after the "resizing". 

Rhodos are in full bloom as well. 

Though they don't produce anything for the market...

they are certainly pretty to look at. 

The peonies are coming into bloom as well. In another week or so, we will have a lot of Festiva Maxima in  bloom and ready for the market.

Not only plants have been busy growing....so have the chickens! 

Soon they will need another new home. 

Otherwise, they'll need to sleep on top of one another.   

Got some interesting purple and red potatoes for the field this year. 

So far the plant looks really good. 

 Spinach...the pain in the rear end in our field. They are SUPPOSED to be really good for cooler weather area but for some reason, all other lettuces grew really nicely in our field just not spinach. Of the 300+ seeds I sowed in April, only 10 sprouted and grew to this size. Go figure.....

We've also got Pac Choi growing nice and strong. These should be table ready in another week or so. They probably can't make it to the market since slugs have been punching holes all over the leaves. 

 Other interesting colours for your salad mix....Darkness is a new plant we are trying for this year. It's got nice curly deep red leaves. It's a little slow in growing but hopefully it will be very cold tolerant and suitable for use as winter crop.  

 Brunia is also a new addition to our field. 

It's got really nice red tinted green leaves but 

the germination rate is really low. 

Hope to see some of you at our stall at the Haney Farmer's Market this year. 

If you do visit our blog, please do leave a comment. 

Mozart in the New Year

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! Did I mention....let it snow?

Snow is good for head plunges and body roll. Too bad the 1' deep snow did not stay around for long otherwise Mozart would have made many doggy angels in the snow!

Holiday season is over. All that feasting...really need to keep an eye on the weight. 

Even Mozart is doing regular check-in on the scale.

During holiday season its hard to find good fibre source....so Mozart decided to take after the noble beavers...wood floor board does provide some good source of fibre doesn't it?

Got the Ducks, Got the Dog, Of Course There's Got to Be Chickens!

A little late on the reporting... These cute little puffballs were acquired on Dec 1. The Duckies moved out and in moved the chickens! All 54 of them! Geez, those duckies sure took up a lot of room. First night, no chickens wanted to go upstairs. They have to be manually moved upstairs. About 2 weeks later, no chickens want to be on the first floor....they get pooped on if they are on the first floor!

 Stand and sleep. Very efficient use of space. 

 Peck, peck, peck. Everything is worth a peck or two. 

 Within 1 month time, the chickens also outgrew the brooder the duckies had passed onto them. Better get cracking on the next level up! The chickens are becoming stinkies in the house. 

Today the chickens officially moved out into their new coop. Some like it cold and stayed away from the heater...most just hogged around the heater....roast chicken anyone?

Looky here! There's room for everyone to spread their wings! Still, these chickens prefer to squeeze together to keep themselves nice and cozy. 

The up and downs of chicken vs. ducks.... Chickens make DRY poop (unless they have diarrhea) and they don't play with water. Ducks make WET poop and splash around a LOT but they don't need heating system outdoors. 

The SHEEP dog

We thought we got a sheepdog...but he was more of a SHEEP than a dog.... Favourite thing to do outdoors? Eat grass. Favourite thing to do indoors? Eat paper! And of course the training pad...

Favourite entertainment outside is run run run! Then roll in the frost! Here's the Sheltie dash! Look at the form! Such beauty!

 Yet, the sleeping pose is....not very aesthetic.

 Well, the chicken are too small right now to be herded. The ducks....a bit too big for Mozart now. So what should the doggy do? Mozart has designated himself to be the kitchen guardian! 

 Yep, guard the kitchen...all food leaving the food prep area need to be inspected and taxed!

 It's all in a days work!