Spring 2022

Hi all, it has been a while since I did a blog post, not for lack of things to write about but for lack of time. Spring started with a slow melt this year which helped replenish the ground moisture from last years drought. The early garden is coming up nicely, asparagus and orach are getting close to ready to start harvesting and we have peas, lettuce, and onions up nicely. The snow gave us good starting moisture but we are needing some rain for the gardan to realy take off.

New for this year we are growing cabbage with new covers to prevent insect damage. We are hoping that we can add cabbage to the orders in the coming years if this works well this year.

We look forword to keeping you posted on what is new on Largo farm this summer.

Johnny

Small update and early signup deadline

HI all

I have been working on updating some of our info pages on the website and would like to share some of it with you. Also, just a reminder if you are interested in signing up to the CSA our early discount deadline is coming up fast!

What is a CSA:

community shared agriculture is a way for farmers and consumers to connect and share in the bounty that our land has to offer. It demystifies where your food comes from by forging a relationship with the farm and land where it is produced.

Why would you join a CSA:

CSAs are one of the best ways to support local small farms and develop a relationship with where your food comes from and get fresh vegetables direct from the farm with no middle man.

What we offer:

We are a year round CSA with two seasons: summer (June to September) and winter (November to May). The summer season starts with asparagus/root vegetables from the last year(potatoes/carrots)/greens(orach/spinach/herbs/)rhubarb etc. As the seasons goes on we have peas/beans/lattices/carrots/beets/potatoes/tomatoes/corn/and more. The winter season starts with the fall pickup where you will get tomatoes/carrots/beets/squash/spaghetti squash/pumpkins/potatoes/corn/ greens(if we have not had a killing frost yet) etc. Throughout the winter you will get potatoes/carrots/beets/parsnips/etc. As spring comes we end the season with asparagus.

How a share works:

We have sigh up for your order in the spring before planting. You pay for the share you have chosen We offer two different shares(full and half) for the full you get up-to two cloth grocery bags per order with a mix of what is in season.

How pickup works:

Before each season we have a sign up for pickups where you can sign up to do a pickup. Summer is once a week, winter is once a month. On your pickup you will come out to the farm and pickup all the orders for the ring, bring it back into town and everyone will pick up their order from your place. Full orders are expected to come out for two pickups a season and half orders once but that can depend on how many orders we have for the season

Fall pickup:

For winter orders the season starts with fall pickup. At fall pickup everyone comes out to the farm for a work-bee and to pickup their first winter order. The first order is a big order where you will get a large quantity of fall produce that we can’t keep (tomatoes/squash/spaghetti squash/pumpkins/corn and greens/etc.) for preserving for the winter.

Other:

We also produce and sell dry beans/eggs/meat and will be adding other items in the future you can check our website at www.largofarm.wordpress.com for updates.

Sign-up for 2022 CSA membership

The gardens are still blanketed in snow as I write this, but the sun is getting higher in the sky and it’s time to start planning for spring planting. We have a lot of new projects we hope to work on this season. One that I’m looking forward to is making cabbage cages and hopefully adding cabbage as a staple to our orders. Flour is another product I hope to start producing for sale this year. We have had a grain mill for about 5 years and I have been working on setting it up. If we had not had a crop failure last year I would have been able to start selling flour, so let’s hope this year is a better year for the crops. With this little update here is the CSA pricing for the 2022 season.

We are looking for new members in both the Battferds and Saskatoon so if you or anyone you know may be interested, please send us an email.

This year’s prices are as follows:

Full share:
$1450 full year ($1363 with 6% discount before March 1st )
$800 for one season, summer or winter ($752 with 6% discount before March 1st)
Half share:
$850 full year ($799 with 6% discount before March 1st)
$475 for one season, summer or winter ($447 with 6% discount before March 1st)

If you have any questions feel free to send us an email at largofarmsk@gmail.com

Fall update

The fall work is starting to come to an end so I can finally find the time to do a blog post.

A lot has happened since the last post, The biggest change on the farm this fall was the wedding of Johnny Burns to Rowan Sanford Beck on Oct 16th. We had a small celebration with friends and family on the farm, the weather was beautiful so we were able to have the ceremony outside.

In the last post, we were pretty pessimistic about the garden but we ended up having a late fall and getting a good enough garden harvest in. The upside of a poor year is harvest was fast and we have the gardens in probably the best shape for next spring we have ever managed. We were not so lucky with the field crops this year so we will be downsizing our chicken flock over the winter. The hay crop was down but we got all we needed for the winter and some extra so if the pasture is late this spring our cows will have food. We are planning on fencing some more of our land for pasture in the spring in case it’s dry next year too, It’s always best to be ready for anything on the farm.

One of the big projects this year is we are moving in an old granary, half for a hall and half for lumber storage with a sleeping loft above, or that is what my plan is at the moment we will see how it ends up when I have the building here and start working on it.

We have also been working on the recipe page on the website and will be adding more recipes in the coming months. check them out and let us know what are your favorites!.

As I’m finishing this up we have just had our first snow of the winter. In reflection, it was a year of ups and downs but in the end, we have a cellar full of food, a new couple on the farm, and the fields are under a blanket of snow resting till spring, As for us, we have butchering, getting firewood, milling lumber and all the little repairs to keep us busy till springtime.

A vary difficult year (garden update)

My mother always said, “If you can’t say somthing good, don’t say anything at all.” I’ve refrained from doing a garden updates. With the drought, it was hard to feel cheerful about our garden. I did feel optomistic about the Americans; the potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cukes, melons, and squash. After Thursdays’s hail, I do not feel optomistic about any of the garden. Time will tell. This is normal for us. I’ll share some of my garden journal.

1995 – Worst garden. No rain until July 15. First delivery July.

1996 – Wonderfull garden!

1997 – No comment.

1998 – First pick-up June 11 – lettuce, spinach, herbs, radishes.

1999 – Best garden ever! Luxurious.

2000 – Very, very dry. Hot, windy, no rain. Good rain July 1. Hail Aug 6.

2001 – Poor garden. Cutworms destroyed 2/3’s for the lettucs, onions, spinach. Maggots destroyed cabbage family, Crows eating corn.

2002 – Worst garden ever. Cutworms and drought. Very cold spring.

2003 – Bad garden.

2004 – Wonderful lush garden but cold and late.

2005 – Good garden. Cool, late, and damp fall , so difficult harvest.

2006 – Great garden. Wet fall, so miserable root harvest.

2007 – No commets.

2008 – Wonderfull garden! Lots of fun!

2009 – Cold dry spring. Slow but late fall thus wonderfull Garden!

2010 – 2019 – Good gardens.

2020 – Best spring and summer garden ever! A total pleasure.

2021 – Too soon to say. So far, a difficult year.

Judy Ternier

Chicks

A lot is happing on the farm this spring, we had a incubator for the first time this year and had 25 chicks hatch (photo above). I learned a lot and hope to hatch out a lot more next year.

My mom (Judy) has been busy in the garden. We still haven’t had any rain so we are working on doing some irrigation for the spring seeding (I will post some photos of the garden in my next post).

I have updated the bean page on the website and we are taking pre-orders for the fall beans, so check it out if you are interested in Dried Beans.

Johnny

An update on what’s new on Largo Farm.

It’s been a while since I did a post and I said I would try and do them more often so here it goes.

We have some very exciting new projects on the farm this spring.

I have been thinking of getting a sawmill for a while but with the price of lumber doubling this year I thought it was time and ordered a Woodland Mills HM 126 (shown in photo).

It came in mid-March and has been a lot of fun to figure out and has opened up a lot of new opportunities on the farm.

In March we got two roosters and an incubator and will try hatching our own chicks on the farm now that we have a big solar system in my shop. I will do a post about it when they hatch.

My other project is working on a new website for Largo Farm.

I want something that I have more control over than a wordpress site so I’m learning to code one from scratch. It’s a big job but I hope to make a site that better expresses who we are at Largo Farm.

And with all these new things there is still all the spring work to keep us busy.

The gardening season is almost upon us, all the snow is gone and we will start planting soon.

We look forward to continuing to produce the best food Saskatchewan can offer to all of you!

Johnny.

P.S we are also still looking for new members for the coming season. we also have beef and eggs for sale. if your intresed let me know Contact Us.

Looking back at the 2020 year

The 2019-2020 CSA year has been one of many changes for us.
Covid-19 challenged many of our ways of hospitality.
We could no longer invite you to share a meal, a potluck, or larger gatherings.
We miss that, but the smaller fall-pickup/work bees worked well.
We got a lot of work done and I actually got to visit with more of you.
When life returns to “normal” we hope to incorporate what we’ve learned from this lock-down.

Covid-19 also terminated tom and my retirement travels.
All the energy for dancing went into the garden.
I love field scale gardening.

The second big change was that Janice and Shawn decided to return to saskatoon after seven years on the farm.
I enjoyed gardening with Janice (we had complementary styles of working) and was sad to lose her as a garden partner.
However like with Covid-19 there is a positive side.
johnny has taken over the administration (I think he is having fun.) Tom is happy to be my new “garden partner” (he is pushing me to take stock of seeds, something I always procrastinate about).
I am enjoying a closeness with my family which compensates for the loss.

The third change is the end of my ten years of seed growing for Prairie Garden seeds.
This frees us more space, time, energy, and creativity for our CSA.
Johnny did a cabbage family cage prototype last summer.
Maybe we can grow enough cauliflower, cabbage, and brocoll to share with you!?

WE look forward to the 2021 garden season.
Tom did lots of manuring of the gardens last fall (with a new-to-us horse drawn manure spreader).
Johnny and tom worked all the garderns (after the garden harvest and clean up that most of you helped with. Thank-you for your help and good company.)
Thus we are ready to garden when the spring comes.

Judy Ternier

Marry Christmas from all at Largo Farm

We wish you all the best of christmas’s and a happy new year.

A New Season

It’s been quite the year, lots of change in the world and on the farm. As you may know, the Sanford Beck family is moving off the farm for other opportunities. It’s a big change for the farm and so it will take a while to see what it means for the work and life here. I’m taking over the blog from Janice and am hoping to start adding content on a regular basis again. ~Johnny Burns

Largo Farm Fall 2020.
photo credit Sacha Roy