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Cropthorne Farm on Instagram
🍂🍁Thanksgiving is here🍁🍁 And we’ve got you covered @cropthornefarmstand this weekend! The farmstand is brimming with Sieglinde Potatoes, Watermelon Radish, Celeriac, Pie Pumpkin, Eucalyptus, Radicchio, Parsnips and so much more! (And at the West End and Kits Farmers Markets too!)
Well can’t say we get bored around here! By 8am I had broken the bar off the undercutter, which basically rendered it useless just as we were about to start sweet potatoes and still had a bed (or 2 😬) left off carrots. We should have been able to do it all today but with a new bar being most likely, at minimum three days and a big shipping cost away and the rain setting in tomorrow, it meant we really needed to find that bar! After running the cultivator through 300’, hoping to hear a ‘ting’ or have it come up to surface, we made the call for a metal detector. (Oh technology!) All the while, the guys were hand digging the sweet potatoes in HEAVY clay soil (🙈🙌🏼👊🏼) So after a trip to town and our new handy-dandy rental unit we were able to find the bar fully intact (🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 thank you shear bolts) So yeah got to say when I was lying in bed at 4:45 starting to plan out my day this morning, this was not in the books but I’ll tell ya that as soon as the rains come I’m calling up the parts dealer and getting a spare on hand!
The Good The Bad The Ugly At first glance it looks like it’s been a tough month here on the farm. Our fall broccoli is done-ski, too much rain has rotted the crowns. Bulk harvest is stalled. We are trying to chip away at beets and radishes while we wait for the fields to dry for carrots. It is a lot of checking the forecast, switching up the day’s plan based purely on, the ever so important ‘mud factor’. We’ve still got to get garlic in and hoping for some cover crop too. It doesn’t look great, but it is. Every season is different, that is the constant. The crew is killing it, spirits are high. We’ll get the garlic in, we always do, and if we don’t, then that’s ok, there’s more to life and happiness than a few veggies. 💛
Not the most ideal soil conditions but slowly getting spuds out of the ground. 2 rows down, 13 to go!
Wash’n’pack
New crop, who dis? Fioretto, sprouting cauli is looking mighty fierce coming out of the field today.
Farming has always been my first love but with any passion I’ve (finally!) learned you can’t do it all the time or it wears and I do not want to wake up one day and discover that farming has become ‘work’. I rarely mind the long hours and the attachment to the farm, I truly love being grounded in this place, on this little island. But for me to do the best I can that means stepping away once and a while and refresh. I know it’s not always easy to do but it’s always worth it. And as always big love to the field team and #mamacropthorne for making it so easy and stress free. Y’all be carful or all do it more often!
I don’t know what it is, their agility, their determination or their ability to think like a chicken but kids sure do make catching look easy when the chickens fly out of their pasture. @riverandseaflowers daughter is head chicken catcher around here and we’ll certainly miss her when she’s back in school in a few weeks, although it looks like she’s got an apprentice who she’s training up!
Friday Washpit Vibes
It’s world breastfeeding week and these days I’m all about that mama life. Anywhere, anytime, I’ll feed my baby. As I am hustling to set up our booth at the farmers market, nursing a baby while putting up price signs. As I am driving the tractor with the crew behind transplanting broccoli. As I’m on my lunch break, shooting one handed texts to chefs, with the other cradling a nursing babe. As I’m sitting in a meeting with a bunch of other farmers, trying to coyly feed what sounds like the noisiest dinosaur ever. As I’m sitting on a pallet in the barn, having just come in, all sticky, from the field to a hangry babe. The sweetest moments have been, in the middle of a busy day whether a long line at the market stall or just an endless hectic day here on the farm. It’s all dropped when a baby needs to eat. I melt into the moment, relax, reconnect and remember that this little human is a big reason all this hard work is worth it. Of course, not ever moment has been bliss. Sometimes it’s the frustration of being anchored to my babe, day in and day out or the mastitis, oh how could I forget the 5 times (!!) There is no doubt in my mind #fedisbest and I know it is not for all whether by choice or circumstance but I do feel super lucky and proud to bond and nourish and I know there’s a band of crafty farmers across this world doing just the same. 💙 #musesfromafarmingmama #worldbreastfeedingweek #normalizebreastfeeding
Isabelle, Jenna and Renee are in the West End today with a 🌈 of produce. 🏳️‍🌈 🥬🏳️‍🌈🥕🏳️‍🌈🍅🏳️‍🌈
Whenever a big project comes up on the farm, I lean on my dad. He’s usually not around on a daily basis but when a big project comes up he certainly is here to help. He’s an absolute perfectionist so we went over again (and again, and again) the dimensions for our lean-to build out this morning. Some times his endless rehashing makes my eyes roll but in the end I love that he’s got my back and the ol’ ‘measure twice, cut once’ rule rarely fails.
Hours & Info
4362 Tamboline Road
Delta BC V4K 3N2
Farmstand OPEN
Tues, Fri, Sat & Sun
10am-5pm
On the 'gram
🍂🍁Thanksgiving is here🍁🍁 And we’ve got you covered @cropthornefarmstand this weekend! The farmstand is brimming with Sieglinde Potatoes, Watermelon Radish, Celeriac, Pie Pumpkin, Eucalyptus, Radicchio, Parsnips and so much more! (And at the West End and Kits Farmers Markets too!)
Well can’t say we get bored around here! By 8am I had broken the bar off the undercutter, which basically rendered it useless just as we were about to start sweet potatoes and still had a bed (or 2 😬) left off carrots. We should have been able to do it all today but with a new bar being most likely, at minimum three days and a big shipping cost away and the rain setting in tomorrow, it meant we really needed to find that bar! After running the cultivator through 300’, hoping to hear a ‘ting’ or have it come up to surface, we made the call for a metal detector. (Oh technology!) All the while, the guys were hand digging the sweet potatoes in HEAVY clay soil (🙈🙌🏼👊🏼) So after a trip to town and our new handy-dandy rental unit we were able to find the bar fully intact (🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 thank you shear bolts) So yeah got to say when I was lying in bed at 4:45 starting to plan out my day this morning, this was not in the books but I’ll tell ya that as soon as the rains come I’m calling up the parts dealer and getting a spare on hand!
The Good The Bad The Ugly At first glance it looks like it’s been a tough month here on the farm. Our fall broccoli is done-ski, too much rain has rotted the crowns. Bulk harvest is stalled. We are trying to chip away at beets and radishes while we wait for the fields to dry for carrots. It is a lot of checking the forecast, switching up the day’s plan based purely on, the ever so important ‘mud factor’. We’ve still got to get garlic in and hoping for some cover crop too. It doesn’t look great, but it is. Every season is different, that is the constant. The crew is killing it, spirits are high. We’ll get the garlic in, we always do, and if we don’t, then that’s ok, there’s more to life and happiness than a few veggies. 💛
Not the most ideal soil conditions but slowly getting spuds out of the ground. 2 rows down, 13 to go!
Wash’n’pack
New crop, who dis? Fioretto, sprouting cauli is looking mighty fierce coming out of the field today.
Farming has always been my first love but with any passion I’ve (finally!) learned you can’t do it all the time or it wears and I do not want to wake up one day and discover that farming has become ‘work’. I rarely mind the long hours and the attachment to the farm, I truly love being grounded in this place, on this little island. But for me to do the best I can that means stepping away once and a while and refresh. I know it’s not always easy to do but it’s always worth it. And as always big love to the field team and #mamacropthorne for making it so easy and stress free. Y’all be carful or all do it more often!
I don’t know what it is, their agility, their determination or their ability to think like a chicken but kids sure do make catching look easy when the chickens fly out of their pasture. @riverandseaflowers daughter is head chicken catcher around here and we’ll certainly miss her when she’s back in school in a few weeks, although it looks like she’s got an apprentice who she’s training up!
Friday Washpit Vibes
It’s world breastfeeding week and these days I’m all about that mama life. Anywhere, anytime, I’ll feed my baby. As I am hustling to set up our booth at the farmers market, nursing a baby while putting up price signs. As I am driving the tractor with the crew behind transplanting broccoli. As I’m on my lunch break, shooting one handed texts to chefs, with the other cradling a nursing babe. As I’m sitting in a meeting with a bunch of other farmers, trying to coyly feed what sounds like the noisiest dinosaur ever. As I’m sitting on a pallet in the barn, having just come in, all sticky, from the field to a hangry babe. The sweetest moments have been, in the middle of a busy day whether a long line at the market stall or just an endless hectic day here on the farm. It’s all dropped when a baby needs to eat. I melt into the moment, relax, reconnect and remember that this little human is a big reason all this hard work is worth it. Of course, not ever moment has been bliss. Sometimes it’s the frustration of being anchored to my babe, day in and day out or the mastitis, oh how could I forget the 5 times (!!) There is no doubt in my mind #fedisbest and I know it is not for all whether by choice or circumstance but I do feel super lucky and proud to bond and nourish and I know there’s a band of crafty farmers across this world doing just the same. 💙 #musesfromafarmingmama #worldbreastfeedingweek #normalizebreastfeeding
Isabelle, Jenna and Renee are in the West End today with a 🌈 of produce. 🏳️‍🌈 🥬🏳️‍🌈🥕🏳️‍🌈🍅🏳️‍🌈
Whenever a big project comes up on the farm, I lean on my dad. He’s usually not around on a daily basis but when a big project comes up he certainly is here to help. He’s an absolute perfectionist so we went over again (and again, and again) the dimensions for our lean-to build out this morning. Some times his endless rehashing makes my eyes roll but in the end I love that he’s got my back and the ol’ ‘measure twice, cut once’ rule rarely fails.
All hands on deck for market set up! We are at the Kits and Ladner markets today with so much #westhamislandgrown organic produce. And open at the @cropthornefarmstand too!
Pretty solid transplant team today. #megaboss and I in the tractor and Miguel, Simon and Arturo rocking the transplanter. We got in lettuce and our last planting of fennel. The transplant gods certainly shone down as it went off perfectly! It’s high season on the farm, which means Saturdays are catchup days but it’s extra sweet when I get to spend time with this sprite.
Tomatoes are coming on strong this week!
@CropthorneFarm