Come see us at FOODSTOCK!

Two Brothers will be spooning out soup from our Musque De Provence Pumpkins...not from this Jack-o-Lanterm

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving we have so much to be thankful for.

Great Weather

Bountiful Harvest

Talented Cooks

Delicious Food

Healthy Food

Local Food

Our Food

Great Wine

Strong Hands

Stimulating Conversation

Friends like Family

Eat your heart out Terroni!

Pepperoncini from our Spanish Espellette Peppers. Hot and Spicy!

500 lbs of tomatoes

Busy Busy Busy...

We went for dinner at MARBEN  last week with an out of town guest and discovered we were on the menu! Thanks Chef Carl for doing such nice things with our tomatoes.

 The boys from http://2brothersfood.com/ dropped by the farm last week and hauled away 500lbs of tomatoes to preserve. The season is almost over and we are scrambling to harvest all we can to avoid the dearth of fresh, local and naturally grown this winter.

Lucus's shirt picking technique

Mixed Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

Mixed Big Fellas

Weighing in

Grant with 2brothers crew showing off what 500lbs looks like

Prairie Boy Grant gets interviewed by Good Food Revolution's Jamie Drummond

http://vimeo.com/29436417

Star Vegetables

A great year for Prairie Boy Zucchinis "fresh, tender, refreshing with a green earthy finish".             93 pts (LK, Veghead)

Interveg love. They will make a beautiful juice.

New pics

As the summer rolls forward, we just wanted to share a few pics from the last few weeks. It has been really busy and also alot of fun. We've made so many new friends this summer and are having such a great time talking about and eating great healthy food.
Special Shout Outs to:
   • Mark and Joyce from Sunrise Organics for their mentorship, wisdom and patience with us.
   • Len Senater from The Depanneur , our new neighbourhood food hotspot where we are a part of "interesting food things" happening.
• Everyone who has been a part of the experiment and experience we call Prairie Boy. You continually inspire and encourage us. 
Sincere Thanks,
Grant and Lainie

Grant bragging

Lainie's gigantic farming hat

Prairie Boy Food Terminal

Garlic Angel, Mark Grahlman

Kelli Grahlman, Son of Garlic Angel

Carrots, being carrots

Nosey Cherry Tomato

Siamese Cherry Tomatoes

Beautiful Sunflower

 

After the Storm

    Last weekend was quite the whirlwind, literally and figuratively. We spent the day on Saturday harvesting. As you may remember it was a very wet and at times nasty weekend. When the storm first hit on Saturday there were coolers and stuff flying in the wind! The water was coming off the eves trough so hard is could fill a 16-liter pail in about 20 seconds. With the exception of the most intense part of the storm we stayed out and harvested in the rain all day. Not ideal but it was that or no veggies at all for the market on Sunday.

    The 99 MRKT was a fun time. The rain kept a few people away but we had a lot of fun selling veggies and making new friends. It is an interesting mix of people and we will see how it develops with time. One of the people we met was Jacob of 2 brothers food. (http://2brothersfood.com) They do events catering, consulting, and soon are opening their own restaurant. He and some of his crew are coming up this weekend to check out the farm and help pick some veggies. We will be at 99 MRKT again on the 11^th of September. If you missed it last time we would love to see you this time around.

    Another development for us is the opening of the Depanneur! Len Senater’s long awaited café / grocer / event space / general foodies hangout. You should check it out at the corner of College and Rushholme Park Cres. Our veggies are there as well as St. John’s bakery and organic milk etc… I think this little spot will evolve to be a great hub for all of us who love good food and good people. (http://thedepanneur.ca/)

    Lainie is away this week to go see friends in Winnipeg and Minaki, so Ella and I are trying to get along without her here.  (We miss you). She will be back on Sunday which is good because you don’t want to see what happens if I don’t have her to help organize!    

    I am heading up to the farm tonight after work. It’s been a week of storms and heavy rain. Lots of water with some interspersed sunshine... I hope to find lots of veggies to pick and will undoubtedly find many weeds that need my attention. Eryk, a Barberian’s co-worker is coming up to help with the harvest. Fun, fresh air and farming. Wish you could all come for the weekend, but please RSVP, as there are only 3 guest beds so…

Letters to the Editor?

One of our main reasons for growing food is that we LOVE to cook and eat and yet, ironically,  it feels like we havn't had any time to cook or eat lately.  The lowest we've "sunk" recently was me spoon feeding take out roti to Grant as we drove back to the farm at 11pm. The opposite of "slow food". hehe

We've since promised each other to make more time to cook and eat together and with friends or at least leave the other some leftovers.

In contrast to us eating take out in the car, we have been receiving amazing and sometimes hilarious feedback, pics, texts and recipes from everyone. It is so inspiring to hear and see what everyone has been cooking up with the veg we grew. It's making me hungry just thinking about it. Here are some samples from the last few weeks. 

 Grilled Tomatillo Salsa

 "Thanks for the beets, lettuce and garlic fronds... sauteed the beet greens last night. SO delicious! Having the beets roasted on the BBQ tonight. The butter lettuce is yummy with simple oil and vinegar dressing. We are spoiled..." 

"daddy i met a real farmer"

"just picked up the beets. I left ten bucks under the green bucket at the bottom right of your back stairs"

"farmer lainie and her mister - wow. what an abundance of joy you dropped off at my house . thank you thank you thank you. good eatin xx"

 Lasagna using zucchini and eggplant instead of noodles

"Made an indulgent breakfast: squash blossom and pecorino-fresco frittata with garden herbs. Thank you Prairie Boy and MonforteDairy"

 "awesome basket"

 BBQ roasted beets and jalapenos

"i just unpacked the crate and it was like a treasure chest of goodies...i can't wait to start using and experimenting...it's truly a bounty of riches"

Mixed greens, green and yellow beans, anchovies, capers, roasted beets and bbq'd salmon kebobs

 Zucchini and Squash Blossoms with basil and peccorino Pizza

Thanks you everyone for sharing your enthusiasm and dinners with us. - Grant and Lainie xo

10 days in pictures

It's been a crazy 10 days filled with harvesting, cleaning, drying, growing, delivering, friends. visiting, dinners, sunburn, mosquito bites, laughter, tears, helping, sharing and some serious cases of weed back. Self diagnosis of sore back from weeding. Here is a peak into our last hard, rewarding, busy 10 days. -Lainie

 Free Farm newbies Lisa and Julian

 Julian in the neighbours' Soy at sunset

 Julian picking beans

 

friends coming for dinner

 

 sweaty farmer Grant

Grant, Jim and Olen harvesting garlic

 Jim and Olen Lesson 1: cleaning garlic and putting dirt in bucket

 First veg boxes/stockings for delivery

 Espelette Peppers from Spain

 Ripening

 Ah Houston, we have a Tomato problem

Squashes

 Big A** Heirloom Tomato

 Zucchini Blossoms-new and old

 Corns - something has been knocking down stalks

 Crookneck Squash

 Baby Watermelon

 Green Tomatillos

 Cylindra Beets

 Fennel

Rainbow Swiss Chard