sosnicki organics

Quick the pics : Ben adding some more onions to our rows, baby bok choy growing and our GARLIC PATCH doing wonderful! These pics taken today, one hour ago! Spring planting is in full swing! Most of our lettuce, asian greens and onions are in the ground. We are being careful regarding beets, carrots, peas and spinach as we have learned first hand that if we get carried away the weeds will carry us away!! Ben is adimate we don't jump the gun with some direct seeding, as after this nice rain shower we had, tiny weeds are emerging, SOO he will probably cultivate again to kill them off, THEN direct seed out more crops, weather will be warmer a bit later and crops will grow faster and keep ahead of the weeds a tad. Regardless, I have convinced him to plant early potatoes! We sprouted some early ones in the barn and if we plant shortly by the time they emerge the fear of frost will have passed by (I hate saying that out loud - you never know and coming from a farm family I hear the eld

Yesterday proved to be very beneficial. It 'woke me up' again, as hibernation is over and I have to re-train my body to fall asleep 9pm or before each Friday night and be up, truck loaded, animals fed and ready to head to market each Saturday by 5am. The first ' Earth Day Farmer's Market' was held just off Younge & Eglington and we had a great time! We don't really have alot to sell this time of year, but 'The Star' said it perfect by advertising "Ben Sosnicki's perogies" and once again we fed folks some old fashioned goodness!! I also took the time to create a project to share with everyone. If folks want to buy from farmers at farmer's markets they need to understand and learn about what is 'in season'. To help aid this quest, I created some unique planters using Ben's parents old wooden tomato trays. I took a sample of all our crops in the greenhouses and showed their progress up to this point in time and told folks

For the first and perhaps last time, we are offering some amazing compost for sale at our markets this spring! Because we practice a good rotation with our land, we do not need to ammend our soil this year , so we can share some. We may be spreading all of it next year, so get some while we can offer it! We grow all our own organic hay and oats which our horse eats, along with our carrots, cabbage and other veggy scraps during the year! It is 2+ years old, nicely rendered down into some black gold! We are mixing it with our neighbours organic cow manure (also 2+ years composted) which we get in return for letting them use our straw for bedding! An excellent trade! We run it through a shredder and it is drying up nicely for bagging. We simply reuse our soil bags and are charging $5 each. Each bag should cover 12 sq feet 2" thick and is suitable for vegetable and/or perennial/flowerbeds. Visit us at our spring markets to pick up a bag or order some by emailing jb.sosnicki

It sure has been great weather lately. The land is still wet, no plowing yet. Crops will be a bit late this year, by atleast a week. Ben and I ate supper and decided to go for a walk instead of heading back into the greenhouses yesterday. It was to check the garlic, but we ended up almost circling the entire farm. The sound of the frogs at the creek were pretty amazing and most of our flat lands are flooded. The dirt smells great. I feel energized. Had to share these spring pictures. Our garlic & Kaiseryn; the spelt field; the creek.

Very busy weekend. Chickens love this weather as much as we do, so they are laying lots now. We cleaned the old silver barn, the chicken coop, chicken pen and filled the 'duck swimming pool'. Happy birds let me tell you! Set potatoes to sprout, maintained seedlings in the greenhouses, shut down the furnaces and opened windows. Ahhhh, feels wonderful! Fields are drying a bit. Hard to say when Ben will plow. He's got the itch, so shortly, all depending on the 'rain' situation. That will enable some early spring field crops for market (such a spinach, radish, lettuce etc) we hope to cover to protect from frost. One of the big jobs around here come spring is grooming our horse. Holy Horse Hair!!! It's nice to have a windy day, use a good brush and go mad! She's itchy too, so she stands there falling asleep while you brush! My stepdaugher got her cranked this weekend. You get out the whip, crack it to get her attention and get her running. You basically 'c

Ben and I grabbed some hot coffee and took a walk out past the horse pasture this morning. Now that the snow has melted, it was time to check out our garlic patch! It's up and doing well. Perhaps a bit late this year, but no worries. A few years ago during my birthday on March 10th we visited my folks and my dad was proudly displaying his rows of 'green garlic' already showing nicely! Every year is different. We hope to build up a steady crop of the garlic within the next few years. It will sell fast, PLUS I will be keeping some back for seed. Greenhouses are 'popping'. It's still cold, but with the sun she rises to up over 90 degrees in there no prob. Things are happy. Ben watered his asian greens and onions today. Our field lettuce seedlings and broccoli look great, so I had to share a picture. Leeks, celery are all up now too. All our field tomatoes are transplanted and thriving. Peppers are coming along, basil is also up and enjoying the heat. Ben will head