Blog • Page 2 of 7 • Polka Dot Hen Produce

July 7, 2019July 5, 2020

Did you want to visit the farm last season?

pasture lambs chicken Birds Nest Garden Farm — Lambs and chickens roam the pasture at Birds Nest Garden Farm.

Maybe we talked at market, but the timing just didn’t work out. Or maybe you were too shy to ask. Or maybe you didn’t even know it was a possibility.

Well, this year we can officially remedy that.

Our farm is a member of Rural Gardens of Grey and Bruce Counties. We refer to ourselves as being members of a “garden tour,” but it’s more like a choose-your-own-adventure story than a scripted tour. It’s up to you which gardens you visit and when you visit them.

Continue reading “Did you want to visit the farm last season?”

April 6, 2019November 21, 2019

5 Tips for a Successful Backyard Garden

Fresh red and golden beets — Harvesting red and golden beets fresh from the garden.

Preparing for a local Seedy Saturday today has me thinking about my journey as a gardener. On reflection, I realize that I am entering my 27th year of growing veggies, herbs and flowers. Wow. 27 years!

Growing in downtown Kitchener, then growing in small-town Wiarton paved the way to growing on our rural property and finally growing for market. I guess I might have a little to share with budding enthusiasts, after all.

Continue reading “5 Tips for a Successful Backyard Garden”

April 1, 2019November 21, 2019

Winter whammy

sunrise winter hike Cape Croker Neyaashiinigmiing — Hiking the Neyaashiinigmiing bluffs on a beautiful winter morning.

It’s been a wild winter. A mild December lulled us into believing we would get a break this year. Silly, silly us. By the end of February–when we often have a thaw, but not this year–our daughter had missed a record sixteen days of school because of cancelled busses. We even saw the weather website post ‘Blizzard Warning,’ which was a new meteorologic category for many of us. In the midst of this, our physical access to the outside world was throttled.

I’m stealing from Peter’s letter/essay that he shared with several family members in February about the experience.

My Personal Groundhog Day

By Peter

I sometimes tell students the proverb: “There’s no such thing as bad weather—just poorly prepared people.” That perspective has been intercepted and tasered the past two weeks. Even slightly decent weather has been an exception.

Continue reading “Winter whammy”

January 18, 2019December 17, 2019

The Holistic Homestead?

snowfall birds nest garden farm — An early snowfall blankets the perennial garden.

Review last year’s ups and downs?

I just feel like tossing last season in the bin and not looking back.

It was a summer of digging deep. We were met by challenges both planned and unplanned. Some were so hard, it was impossible to write about them–not a great way to meet my goal of blogging twice a week. Continue reading “The Holistic Homestead?”